Biological sciences.

There are differences within and between groups of organisms; classification helps organise this diversity (VCSSU091)​

- grouping a variety of organisms on the basis of similarities and differences in particular features

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Key Outcomes:

At the end of this module, students will be able to

      -understand why classification is useful

      -communicate their ideas and collaborate

      -identify characteristics in different species

      -create a dichotomous key for any context

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Teacher input: 

Teachers will give students the warm up activity, prompting them to think about why it is important to recognise which snake bit you due to antivenom. 

 

They will then spend some time explaining dichotomous keys to students in which includes giving students a definition and then showing examples and working through the with students. Work through a powerpoint which separates animals based on a feature, hiding how the animals are classified, let students guess what separates them. 

 

Teacher will also write the dichotomous key on the board as students are sorting themselves out and identifying differences between one another. 

 

Teachers will hand out the sheet with 6 different owl species on it, in which they will then create a dichotomous key in an attempt to successfully classify the organisms. 

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Assessment for and of learning:

To assess whether or not students have learnt how to create and understand the role of a dichotomous key, they would have been able to successfully participate in creating a dichotomous key of the students in the room as well as then explaining how they were able to identify differences amongst them and other students. To assess of the learning, students can further be required to write a paragraph explaining why classifying and identifying organisms are important in science and the real world. 

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Teacher Resource:

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