Biology I

3rd Period

June 16, 2008

50 minutes

Objectives: --The student will define classification (6a.)  (DOK I)

--The student will classify an object by using information given in a dichotomous key to demonstrate the concept of classification through direct application.  (6a) (DOK II)

--The student with recall Linnaeus’s seven levels of classification (6a)  (DOK I)

Materials:  paper, writing utensils, markers, classification notes, mnemonic device worksheet, bag of jelly beans, Jelly Belly dichotomous key

Bell Work:  (3 minutes)

--Write a concise definition for the term “classification” in your notes.  (the process of arranging or organizing by category, based on the similarities and differences of the objects to be classified)

--Also, write down one way that you use classification for in your daily life.  (clothes—socks go in sock drawer, shirts go in closet….)

Set:  (3 minutes)

*Review:  Today we will start a new section of biology that covers classification of living organisms and natural selection.  Last week you learned the basics of biology so that you can be successful in the material we will learn for the rest of summer school.

*Think about going into a supermarket.  Ask the first student what they want to buy, and continue asking students where they might find the object, what types of objects would be around it.  Ask the students how they knew this information. 

We know this information because objects in the supermarket are classified.  Ask a student for their definition of classification, and relate it to the supermarket example.  It would be hard to find things in the supermarket without classification…if soup was next to socks, etc.  It is easier to find what you need when things are grouped together.  It’s the same with living organisms.  Identify that we classify objects based on similarities and differences.  What kinds of things do we classify?  How do we classify them?  Is there only one way to classify things?  

Ask a student for their example of what they classify in their life from their bell work and briefly discuss.  (closet, room, refrigerator…)

*Today we will examine classification in more detail, and we’ll do an activity to show ways to classify things.  Today you will get to show you can classify things by using jelly beans.  Then we’ll talk about one particular way that we/scientists classify things in biology because biologists need to classify all of the organisms to study them.

Procedure: 

*Implement the bell work and the set.  (6 minutes)

*We’re going to learn about something called a dichotomous key.  It is a tool that can be used to identify organisms based on yes or no questions dealing with their physical characteristics.  In biology, we can use dichotomous keys to organize organisms that have shared characteristics.  To use a dichotomous key, we make groups that can be answered with yes or no questions.  In this class, I could say, “yes, this group are girls, and this group are not girls”.  Or, ”this group has black hair, and this group does not have black hair.”  (Ask the students for suggestions).  We will use jelly beans to learn how to organize things with a dichotomous key.

TTW pass out the dichotomous key to the students and demonstrate how to complete the activity by working with the class to identify one jelly bean.  Give each student a Ziploc bag of 5 jelly beans.  Walk around the room and help the students classify their flavors, allowing them to taste the beans to check if they are right in their identification.  Ask students what they used to determine what flavor of bean they have (physical characteristics) and also lead students to realize that the questions at the top of the key are very general and they become more specific to narrow down which bean it is.

Wrap up the activity by saying that the flavor of every bean is like a different species of animal.  At the beginning, we didn’t know what flavor the jelly bean was, just like sometimes a biologist can find an animal that he doesn’t know what it is.  We used the dichotomous key to answer yes and no questions so that we could identify the flavor of the bean just like a biologist used a dichotomous key to identify an unknown species of animal.  We all just practiced a branch of biology called “taxonomy’, which names and groups organisms according to their characteristics.  Let the students know that we will revisit dichotomous keys next week after we learn about some different species.  (15 minutes) 

*TTW pass out the classification notes.

We talked about how important classification is in our lives, like we can categorize food into cereals, soups, etc.  But what categories do biologists put living organisms into?  Have students brainstorm ideas and write them on the board. 

TTW discuss the worksheet on classification, introducing Aristotle’s method of classification.  TTW point out that Aristotle’s method was not complete enough, as people discovered organisms that did not fit into his categories, and the names were not descriptive (like a jellyfish is not a fish at all…)  TTW introduce Linnaeus’s system of classification a more complete way to classify, and tell the students that all seven categories group organisms based on genetic relationships.  TTW explain that the higher up a category, the more animals in the group.  TTW write the example of People—Teacher—Biology Teacher—Ms.  on the board and explain that people is broad category, teachers are a type of people.  All teachers are people, but there are also other types of people.  The higher categories include all categories below them, and the lower categories belong completely to the next higher category.  TSW answer a question:  If a dog and an ape are in the same class, which is called Mammalia, what other taxa might they have in common?  (10 minutes)

TTW pass out the mnemonic device worksheet and markers and explain that it is important for the students to remember the seven taxa, or seven groups, that living organisms are classified within.  TTW explain that a mnemonic device is a special way to help remember something, and this kind uses a sentence that starts with the same letters.  TTW instruct each student to create their own mnemonic device, and to draw a picture to help the student remember it.  Collect the worksheets to hang in the room later. If the students do not finish, TTW assign to take home for homework.  (10-15 minutes)

Closure: 

*Today we wanted to be able to define classification, be able to show that we can use a classification system, and to be introduced to the classification system used for living organisms.  We used are dichotomous keys to show that we understand classification, which we are all familiar with in our daily lives, in a new way.  (2 minutes)

*Perform a short review quiz, instructing students that it will be used as a small grade.  Pass out the quiz sheet, allow students to complete the quiz, and collect the quiz. (5 minutes)

*In the next class, we will continue looking at the way that living organisms are classified by exploring in more detail how we classify specific organisms into Linneaus’s seven level classification system by looking at what types of organisms fit into each kingdom.

Assesment/Evaluation:

Objective 1--The student will define classification (6a.)  (DOK I)

    Informal:  The teacher will watch and listen as students (M) create a definition (C) during the bell work and set. 

    Formal:   On the closing quiz (M), the students will be asked to write a definition for classification (C), and the quiz grade will be recorded in the grade book (D).

Objective 2--The student will classify figures by using information given in a dichotomous key to demonstrate the concept of classification through direct application.  (6a) (DOK II)

Informal:  The teacher will observe students (M) follow a dichotomous key to completion (C) in identifying the species name of the “organism”.

Formal:   On the unit test (M), the students will be asked to correctly identify (C) a species using a dichotomous key, and the test grade will be recorded in the grade book (D).

Objective 3:--The student will recall Linnaeus’s seven levels of classification (6a) (DOK I)

    Informal:  The teacher will observe students (M) as they create their mnemonic devices to remember the seven levels.  (C)

    Formal:  On the closing quiz (M), the students will be asked to write the seven levels of classification (C), and the quiz grade will be recorded in the grade book (D).