CLASSIFYING LIVING THINGS - putting them in order

Find a clean plastic holder to keep all this work together in your files.

Imagine how many species of tree there are on planet Earth? Approximately 23,000! How many
do you know the names of? Probably very, very few!

So, how can we find out the name of a tree which we do not know? All trees do have names. The
23,000 species of trees are all classified according to their characteristics - their similarities and
their differences. Trees have different leaves, flowers, structure, etc - those are the characteristics
which a tree scientist might use to classify the 23,000 different species.

A simple way to classify organisms is to use a CLASSIFICATION KEY (more correctly called a
DICHOTOMOUS KEY).Below is a simple classification key for invertebrate animals. Look at
how it works.
The classification key is formed by asking and answering paired questions. For instance, Does the
organism have legs? Yes or No? After a few questions are answered, it is possible to classify each
of the invertebrates. The key above is very visual; keys are usually written as a series of questions.

This is how a classification key might be developed in 3 stages:

1. Draw or capture or ...... the organisms you want to classify and give them names (or letters
in the example below)
2. Lay them out into a spider diagram, according to their differences and similarities
3. Turn the spider diagram into a key of questions

In the key above, there are 9 imaginary insects. These are sub-divided according to questions
about wings, tail spines, antennae, etc. Then the sub-divisions are turned into a sequence of
questions. There is not just one correct way to achieve a key; there may be different questions
which can just as satisfactorily divide up the organisms.
Now, here is your challenge! 16 aliens have arrived on Earth! And you are the first scientist to
encounter them. You are going to give them all names and then prepare a classification key so that
anyone who meets an alien could identify it (He? She?) by name.

Let's try to make a classification key for a group of 16 aliens.

You will need a pencil or pen, glue and scissors, and one sheet of A4 paper as well as a sheet
of A3 paper.

1. Start by cutting out the 16 aliens.

2. Then give them each a name. Use names starting with A, B, C, etc to P - they do not have
to be named in the order they are on the sheet. Write the names on the back of each alien.
3. Lay the 16 aliens out on the table in front of you.
4. Divide them all into just two groups of 8, according to something each of the two groups
has in common - for instance: hair or no hair.
5. Divide each of these two groups into two smaller groups of 4, again according to some
similarities or differences. (NB You do not have to use the same characteristics for
dividing each group of 8. For instance one group of 8 might be divided according to
whether the hair is curly or straight; the other group of 8 might be divided according to
whether they have curly or straight tails. Choose what is best.)
6. Continue this process until there are no more divisions possible.
7. Once you have arranged them, you should be able to draw a spider diagram like in the
example above for the 9 insects. Draw the spider diagram on an A4 sheet of paper and
include the characteristics you have used to split the groups.
8. Now lay the 16 aliens out on the big piece of A3 paper in the form of the spider diagram,
stick them down, write in the characteristics you have used to divide the groups and write
their names beside each alien.
9. Finally you should convert your spider diagram into a written key on another piece of
paper. That might be the hardest part of all this!

This seems to be quite much work and some of you will need plenty of time. Others, who
understand this procedure, will race through the whole process!

Then the homework is to go onto the Blog and look for the powerpoint about classification which
is on the Post for this week's work. Run through the powerpoint and, next week, we shall have a
short quiz about Classification.