Classification of Living

Things
6th Grade Taxonomy

Begin

Kings play chess on fine

glass sets
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This software was

developed to be used by 6th
grade students in a
classroom setting to assist
teachers in the instruction
of taxonomy and the
classification of living
things.
The mnemonic device of
Kings Play Chess will be
used throughout the
program for subject matter
retention.

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Classification of Living Things

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Please Select Teacher or Student Module

Teacher

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Student

Classification of Living Things

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Welcome to the Teacher Module!

Lesson Plans

Weblinks

Teacher

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Printables

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Lesson Plans
Select from the available lesson
plans by clicking on the pdf file
icon:

Classification of Shoes
Potato

Teacher

Classification

Animal

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Chip Classification
of Doughnuts

Classification

Classification of Living Things

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Weblinks
The World Wide Web offers even more lesson plans and
activities. We have listed some here for you.

1) Classification tutorial
A Touch of Class Online Interactive Game
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/interactives/class.html

2) Aliens in your neighborhood!

Classification is Sweet Lesson
http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/nttidb/lessons/dn/classdn.html

Invasive Species and the National Parks

http://www.nps.gov/invspcurr/alienXIDactivities.htm

3)Introduction to the Principles of Taxonomy

http://anthro.palomar.edu/animal/

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Classification of Living Things

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Printables
Below you will find more resources for your lessons. These
printables can be used for in-class assignments or
homework to further reinforce the lessons. Click on the
pdf icon to open.

Classification Word Search

Classification Crossword Puzzle
Scientific Naming Worksheet

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Classification of Living Things

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Welcome to the Student Module!

In this area, you will have access to
interactive lessons to accompany
classroom discussions. At the end
of each lesson, you will have the
opportunity to complete a unit quiz
or activity before moving onto the
next area.
Student

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For help at any time, click on the

at the top of each screen. Use
the arrows to advance forward or
go back. If no arrows are shown,
click on the screen to continue the
action until the arrows appear.

Classification of Living Things

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1 UMnemonic Devices

2 USeven Levels of Classification

Student

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Mnemonic Devices
Many of you have used a mnemonic device
throughout school to help you remember
something. Some examples of mnemonic
devices you may have used: ROYGBIV (to
remember the colors of the rainbow), Every
Good Boy Does Fine (to remember the line notes
on music) and King Henry Drinks Chocolate Milk
(to remember the metric system).
Taxonomists have a mnemonic device, too. The
next section of this program will help you to find
a fun way to remember the classification
system.

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Mnemonic Devices
Now, lets play with the words and see if we can think of any
rhymes to help us remember each classification word.

Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species

King, kings, kids, any k words....

- play, Phillip, party
- chess, checkers, cooks, came
- on, over
- for, fine, fun
- glass, great
- spaghetti, sets
-

Can you think of anymore?

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Mnemonic Devices
Obviously, different people may come up with different
sentences or rhymes that help them. For today, lets go with:

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Kings

Play

Chess

On

Fine

Glass

Sets

K
I
N
G
D
O
M

P
H
Y
L
U
M

C
L
A
S
S

O
R
D
E
R

F
A
M
I
L
Y

G
E
N
U
S

S
P
E
C
I
E
S

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Mnemonic Devices Activity

Now it is time to see what you have learned. There is no
time limit. When you are finished, simply close the web
page to return to this program.

Start Activity

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7 Levels of Classification
Scientists classify
millions of species. If all
of the species were not
classified, it would be
next to impossible to
know much about
animals.

Classification helps
scientists (and us) to
know the similarities and
differences between
living things.

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7 Levels of Classification
Classification is defined as
the process of arranging
organisms into groups
based on similarities.
Taxonomy is the science of
naming and classifying
organisms.
Scientists use both genetic
(the DNA makeup of a living
thing) and physical evidence
(how it looks) to classifying
living things.

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KINGDOM
The highest category in classification is the kingdom. Each organism is
distinguished based on its cells and methods of nutrition. For this lesson,
lets look at the animal kingdom and use the polar bear as an example.

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Protists

Plants

Archaea

Animals

Bacteria

Fungi

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PHYLUM
After the kingdom, the phylum is determined. At this level, the organisms
are grouped based on their similarities in their basic body or organization.

The polar bears phylum would be Chordata, which means that

he is an animal with a rod like structure that develops into a
backbone.
These two do not
belong

Click on these two

to throw away.

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CLASS
Class
is directly
below the
phylum.
The class breaks
up the that
The
polar
bear belongs
to the
class Mammailia.
This means
phylum in
further.
animals
this group have a notochord (mammary gland) that
feed their young milk.
These four do not
Click on these four
belong
to throw away.

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ORDER
Order is directly below the class. Order continues to break the
In our example of the polar bear, the order would be Carnivora;
groups up by using their similarities.
animals that primarily eat flesh and possess special teeth for
sheering through the flesh.
These three do not
belong

Click on these three

to throw away.

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FAMILY
Family further breaks up the order groups by making the groups even smaller. The goal
of the classification system is to give each organism its own name and classification
The
polar bear has a family, too. His family is the Ursidae family.
tree.

This means that all of his family are carnivores with large skulls
and short tails.
The tiger does not
belong

Click on the tiger to

throw away.
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GENUS
The genus further breaks up the family into smaller groups.
The polar bear belongs to the genus Ursus. Ursus classifies all
the bears except those who eat mostly vegetation.
The panda does not belong

Click on the panda

to throw away.
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SPECIES
You have finally narrowed down your organism to no similarities with any other
animals. There is no other organism that shares all of the same characteristics. You
Your
organism species is the Martimus. The common name for
have named the organism.

the Ursus Martimus is the Polar Bear.

The grizzly bear does not

belong

Click on the grizzly

bear to throw away.
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7 Levels of Classification Quiz

Now it is time to test what you have learned. There is no
time limit. When you finish, simply close the web page to
return to this program.

Start Quiz

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Summary
Congratulations! You have completed the
program.
Top Three things you have now learned:
There are 7 levels of classification

There are 6 kingdoms of living

things

What a mnemonic device is and how

it can be used to help you
remember things.

Hope you had fun and learned something,

too!

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Please exit the program now by closing your

screen using the escape key (Esc) on your
keyboard. This key can usually be found in
the top left hand corner of your keyboard.
You may also use the back button
to
return to the summary screen or the return
button
to return to the home page of
the program.

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Glossary

Classification: the process of arranging

organisms into groups based on similarities.

Taxonomy: the science of naming and

classifying organisms.

Genus: a group of species that have similar

characteristics.

Dichotomous Key: a tool to identify

organisms.
Return
main
menu
here.

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Help Screen
To

advance screens, the user may click on the

navigational arrows at the bottom right hand corner of
the screen or anywhere on the screen.
Hidden

text will appear when the user clicks anywhere

on the screen.
Users

may replay or turn off the narration by clicking on

the speaker.
Go to the
Glossary
by clicking
the dictionary

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Return
to last
screen
here.