Alive, dead or never alive ks1 science

[Sofasurfer23]

KS1 science question. Something alive must meet 7 criteria (uses oxygen, reproduce etc)

Trees are alive while a garden fork has never been alive.

Where do wooden objects stand, having a domestic with DH. I said he’s over thinking it, a wooden table isn’t classed as dead as the tree has been smushed together, varnish added etc while he’s saying all wooden objects are classed as dead.

help???

It's dormant. So while it's not currently doing all the things in the list, it's still got the potential to start doing so again, to germinate. Over time it will degrade and be unable to get going again and be dead, there may not be a very precise cutoff.

There's more debate about whether viruses are alive or not!

So which of the 3 categories should it fall into? Not 'never alive', not 'dead', and not breathing so therefore not 'alive'?????

I am turning into my dad! This is just the sort of conversation we would have over supper.....

Isn't it obvious?
It's not dead, it's resting.

Pretty clearly the categories aren't all things every living individual of the species is doing all the time. For instance, I'm post-menopausal so don't even have the potential to reproduce any more but I'm still alive. No jokes about compensating for that by increased irritability please!

I think dried yeast is “mostly dead”

Does yeast excrete?

Yes, yeast excretes carbon dioxide and ethanol. It’s how bread rises and fermented drinks get all alcoholly.