Cyber Field Trip Teaching Guide
Taxonomic Fun: Classifying the Life Around Us
Student activity available at
This interactive activity will be available for students beginning Tuesday, December 8, 1998.
National Science Education Standards
Concepts and Terms
Critical Thinking Questions
The Galapagos Islands are home to some of the most unusual organisms on Earth, many of which we hope to meet on our trip. To find order in the tremendous diversity of life on Earth, the science of taxonomy, or the ordered classification of organisms, was developed. In 1753, Carl von Linnaeus introduced a two-word naming system known as binomial nomenclature, which we continue to use today.
NATIONAL SCIENCE EDUCATION STANDARDS
|SCIENCE AS INQUIRY
|Ability to Make a Scientific Inquiry
||Structure and Function in Living Systems, Reproduction and Heredity, Diversity and Adaptation of Organisms
- To develop skill in using biological classification systems.
- To become familiar with binomial nomenclature.
CONCEPTS AND TERMS
Taxonomists searched for a way to group organisms that would distinguish one species from another and would reflect the relationships that exist between lifeforms. This search eventually led to the development of a systematic classification system known as the Five Kingdom System. In this system, organisms are grouped into one of five kingdoms and are then further subdivided into phylum, class, order, family, genus and, finally, species. Each of these groupings is more specific than the last. For example, a genus may encompass many species.
Binomial nomenclature allows us to assign a two-word name to each organism (e.g., humans are Homo sapiens).
- printouts of photographs below
- glue or tape
- 3 x 5 index cards
In this activity, you will be creating your own classification system.
- Print out a copy of the various organisms pictured below.
- Cut out each organism and tape or glue the picture to a 3 x 5 index card.
- Separate the organisms into two groups that are similar in some way.
- Identify the subdivisions with a category name and indicate the name on the bottom of each card.
- Now separate each group into two subdivisions of species that have more specific like characteristics.
- Continue to make subdivisions until each organism is in a category by itself.
CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS
- On what basis did you initially separate organisms?
- After the initial grouping, what characteristics did you use as distinguishing factors?
- Specify the kingdoms that were noted in your separations.
- In terms of shared characteristics, what happens as you make more subdivisions?
- What phyla were represented in your groupings?
- What classes were represented in your groupings?
In the More Galapagos Classroom Activities section, you will find an additional activity about Darwin's finches and Identifying Organisms with a Taxonomic Key.
Scientific American Frontiers
Fall 1990 to Spring 2000
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