Week 5

How can organisms be grouped together?

learning intention

to explain the benefits of classifying organisms into groups, including how it allows scientists to identify new species, determine evolutionary links, and predict characteristics of extinct or extant organisms

success criteria

Identify organisms and sort into a hierarchical system based on their key characteristics.
Identify the 8 main taxonomic ranks in the current scientific hierarchical system.
use the binomial system to name organisms according to their genus and their species.

Tasks

Knowledge & understanding

Classification diagram - hard copy
Amoeba Sisters Classification video recap on Google Classrooms.

Investigation Skills

Find-a-bug

Literacy & research

QUIZZ: Classifying organisms in the food chain

Knowledge and understanding

sorting organisms into groups (classification)

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Sorting animals into groups

Matter can be divided into the living and non-living. Living things are subdivided by most biologists into five broad groups called kingdoms - the plants (these manufacture their own food), animals, protists (multicellular and unicellular algae and protozoans), monera (bacteria and cyanobacteria) and fungi (the mushrooms and moulds.

Animals are subdivided into two main groups, the vertebrates, which have a backbone and the invertebrates, which dont.

Vertebrates are divided into five other groups, the birds, mammals, fish, reptiles and amphibians based on their structure and skin covering. Each of these groups is further subdivided again and again based on characteristics that become more and more specific.

The invertebrates are divided into eight main groups. These are the porifera (sponges), the cnidaria (jellyfish , corals and sea anemones), platyhelminths (flatworms like tapeworms, liver flukes and planarians, nematodes (roundworms), molluscs (snails oysters, mussels squid octopuses, clams) and annelids (segmented or ringed worms like earthworms, leeches and beach worms), the echinoderms (segmented animals like starfish, sea urchins and sea cucumbers) and the arthropods, the jointed limb animals.

The arthropods (and the other groups) are divided into the arachnids (spiders), crustaceans (crabs, prawns, lobsters), insects (beetles, butterflies, moths, grasshoppers), millipedes and centipedes. Each group is further subdivided based on characteristics that become more and more specific.

This system of classification where each group is subdivided on the basis of characteristics that become more and more specific is called a hierarchical system of classification.

Task 1: Complete the classification diagram

Watch the video then complete the Amoeba Sisters video recap on Google Classrooms

🍐Taxonomy

Literacy and Research

Background information:

Many of us get the heebie-jeebies about creepy crawlies. Maybe that’s because there are so many of them. In fact, as a group insects are the most populous animals on Earth: it is estimated that there are 200 million insects for every human on the planet!!!

Fear not, the earth is not in danger of being overrun by bugs. Instead they are actually vital to the healthy functioning of almost every aspect of our natural environment. They work as pollinators, as decomposers, they enrich and aerate the soil, and are a critical part of the food chain, serving as a source of food for all sorts of animals.

All bugs are defined as being 'invertebrates', meaning they have no spine. (Humans and other mammals have a spine and belong to the category 'vertebrates'.) Bugs that you may find in your garden could include:

- - - - Insects - Insects are defined as having a body made up of three parts; a head, an abdomen, and a thorax (the bit that lies between the abdomen and the head, in humans this would be the chest). They have two antennae, three pairs of legs and a hard exoskeleton. Some examples of insects are bees, ants, beetles, mosquitoes, crickets and butterflies.
      - Spiders - Spiders are arachnids, not insects. They are defined by having eight legs and don’t have antennae.
      - Worms - Worms tend to be tube shaped, slimy and live underground or under cover (such as rocks or logs).
      - Snails - Snails and slugs belong to the phylum Mollusca which they share with squids, cuttlefish and octopus.

Without bugs our world would be a very different place. Because insects pollinate so many of our foods and because they are a critical part of the food chain for so many of the animals that we eat, our choice of foods would be drastically cut. In addition, we would have a hard time moving around because of all the dead animals and plants lying around. Creepy crawlies may be creepy but without the world would be a sadder, smellier, quieter, blander and more boring place to be.

"If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos." - E. O. Wilson

Task 3: Find and classify a bug

Take a picture of it and tell me about your organism on the page below, using the image to the right to open the link to the dichotomous key to identify your bug. You can work in pairs or small groups

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