Objective Students will discover how taxonomy enables scientists and laypeople to organize groups of organisms. Students will also understand the difficulty of classification and why scientists expand and modify the classification system. Materials pencils paper list of categories for practicing classification skills Action 1. Discuss the Linnaean method of classification and the importance of describing and identifying organisms using standard scientific binominal nomenclature. Choose a category from the list below or make up your own.
Students create taxonomic classification systems of each category.
For example, if a student chooses the broad category of sports, that student can classify one sports figure. The broad category is analogous to the kingdom, and the sports figure is analogous to the genus and species. Students design a classification system to get from teh sport to the sports figure with as many subcategories as they can define. Deeper Depths Students create a mnemonic device to memorize the classification system. Use the same or another category and classify more items.