Wildlife Conservation Center Aquarium 10^th Grade:

How are Living Things Classified?

Grade Level: 10th

Learning Standard: S2, S4, S5, S6, S7, S8

Time Requirements: Approximately 90 minutes preparation time and 90 minutes class time

Topics Covered by this Lesson: taxonomy, genus, binomial nomenclature, species, Phylum, class, order, and family

Pre-Visit:

Purpose: To teach students the methods by which scientists use to organize the wide variety of organisms in the environment. TO explain to students the importance of classification in understanding the habitats of organisms, their environment and evolution. Also to explain to students the importance of classification in process of scientific communication and international research.

Objectives: Explain the function of classification systems, describe the naming system used in modern biology, explain how the theory of evolution has affected taxonomy, describe the types of evidence now used to determine relationships between groups of organisms.

Materials Required: a variety of glassware (used for comparison of function and structure), a family tree of major taxa, chart on classification of modern humans.

Student Learning Prerequisites: Students should have a basic knowledge of the simple aquatic invertebrates: sponges, hydras, jellyfish, corals, and sea anemones.

Visit: Students will visit the NY Aquarium. There they will be separated into groups of three or four students and be given a box containing a variety of simple aquatic invertebrates and asked to identify each type found in the box. Next, the students will be asked to group the animals simply on structural similarities. Example, do they resemble each other in any ways: form, color, location of organs(tentacles, mouth, etc…) The students will then visit the actual living organisms and describe there habitats, comparing how the organism functions and how their environments differ.

Post-Visit:

Assessment: Students should draw a Venn diagram illustrating the relationships between the different classification categories. They should also explain their criteria for categorizing the various organisms, writing a paragraph that explains the relationship between classification categories. A review of the actual classification system will be reviewed.

Homework: Give examples from every day situations where some sort of classification system makes life easier. Write an explanation of the rationale for the classification system. If the classification scheme was illustrated as a pyramid. What category would be at top? At the bottom? Why?

Possible Questions that may be brought up:

Why aren’t breeds of domestic dogs or cats considered a separate species?

The bobcat was once classified in the genus Felis along with the domestic cat, but it was changed to the genus lynx. What information could you infer from this change?