Download Microorganisms

Microorganisms
•Are invisible to the naked eye, you
need a powerful microscope to see
them.
•Are everywhere around us, inside us,
on us, in our food, in our homes, in the
air we breathe and the water we wash
in.
•Are mostly useful, but some are
harmful
Characteristics of Microorganism
•They are very tiny living things.
•They cannot be seen with the naked eyes.
•They live in the air, water, soil, in or on the bodies
of plants and animals
Microorganisms come in various
shapes and forms
euglena
•It is similar to plants because it can prepare its own
food by photosynthesis
•It can move around from one place to another and
can eat food like animals.
Where can you find euglena?
bacteria
bacteria is everywhere
desmid
amoeba
Microbes exist in huge numbers
In one single teaspoon of
garden soil there are over
100,000 microbes.
In 1ltr of seawater,
there are over 1bn microbes.
Microbes – three types
 Bacteria
 Virus
strep bacteria
rotavirus
 Fungi
mould
What can bacteria do ?
We have learnt that bacteria do many good
things such as:
1.decompose waste
2. give texture and flavour to food.
3.They give off oxygen when they ‘eat’
4.Half of all the oxygen in the world, comes from
bacteria.
However, they can also cause illness.
Virus
Come in 1000s of different shapes and sizes.
They hang about waiting to meet a ‘host’ which they
then invade, hijacking the host’s cells.
Beware the air you breathe and door handles !
Algae are also Microbes
 Algae photosynthesise – taking their energy from the sun,
and producing oxygen in the process. Algae are thought to
produce over 50% of the oxygen in the world.