Introduction to Classification

Objectives
Students will be able to
- define taxonomy and know the hierarchy of classification
- identify and use a dichotomous key

State Standards (TEKS)

Vocabulary
Taxonomy, dichotomous key, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species, binomial
nomenclature

Engage
1. Display pictures of recently discovered/identified species. Students discuss amongst themselves:
what are these things? Have them share ideas with the class.
2. Tell the class: this lesson is about how scientists classify living things. They will be learning how we
are able to categorize new species like these and figure out what they are.

Explore
1. Instruct students to stand up. Their directions for the activity are to split into two groups based on
the characteristics of their shoes. Rules are:
a. Characteristics must be visible; for instance, shoe price would be a bad example.
b. Groups must be clearly defined; bright colors vs. dark colors might be a difficult category
because the definitions of bright and dark are slightly arbitrary.
c. Groups do not have to be the same size, bit they must be all-inclusive. For instance, Nikes
vs. Adidas would be a bad example because some shoes are not in either group. A good
way to make all-inclusive groups is to ask a yes/no question about the shoes, e.g. Are your
shoes Nikes? Yes would be one group, no would be another.
2. Students discuss amongst themselves how to sort the shoes. Listen to their ideas and offer guiding
suggestions as necessary. Write the groups on the board.
3. The two groups then split again in the same way. Repeat the process until groups are down to 3-4
students maximum. (Some groups may need to split more than others.) Continue to keep track of
how the students group themselves on the board.
4. Afterwards, have students be seated and show a few different shoes or pictures of shoes. Have
students figure out which group that these new shoes belong to using their existing categories.
Explain
1. Tell the class that they have just created and used a ​dichotomous key. ​Ask them to write in their
own words what they believe a dichotomous key is based on the activity they just completed.
Have a few students share their definitions. Official definition: a grouping tool scientists use to
classify organisms based on observations.
2. Show examples of dichotomous keys. Remind them that they have created one on the board to
identify shoes. Keys might be in a branching tree format or in a questionnaire format, and can
range from very broad to very specific in what they are identifying. Potential uses might include
identifying fossils, birds, edible plants, etc.
3. Have students practice using dichotomous keys with ​short worksheet​. Go over answers together.
4. Process of defining, classifying, and naming biological organisms is ​taxonomy. ​The basis for our
current system of taxonomy was created by Carolus Linnaeus, who gave us two big ideas: the
hierarchical classification system and binomial nomenclature.
5. Show the levels of classification, as well as a mnemonic device to remember the order. Possible
extension activity: have students come up with their own mnemonic device.
6. Show a table displaying how various organisms are classified; include chimpanzee and human. Ask
students what they notice about the classifications. Which ones are the same? Which are
different? Why? Students should reach the conclusion that more closely related organisms will
share more levels of classification.
7. Introduce ​binomial nomenclature.​ Break down the words: ​bi + nomos ​= “two” + “parts”, ​nomen +
clatura ​= “name” + “calling”. This is the system used to give organisms their scientific names.
8. Go over the rules for writing scientific names. Have students practice using the previously shown
table with the different organisms’ classifications.

Elaborate
1. Pass out ​sets of cards​ with various animals displayed on them. Students work together to sort the
animals in the same way they sorted the shoes during the Explore activity, splitting them into
smaller and smaller groups based on their characteristics. Students should keep track of their
categories and keep splitting up the animals until there are only one or two in each group.
2. Ask each group: what animal ended up most closely related to the lobster? What about with the
pigeon? Why were those the animals that ended up together?
3. Show the phylogenetic tree containing those animals. Results may be quite different from how
students categorized them. Discuss the differences.
4. Explain that using external traits isn’t always reliable; some things look similar but are completely
unrelated. As technology has progressed, scientists can use genetic evidence to determine
relationships between species.
5. Closer: show the pictures of the new species from the Engage section. Reveal their identities.

Evaluate
1. Use a dichotomous key to identify emojis.
2. List the levels of classification.
3. Determine which organisms are most closely related based on a table and write scientific names.