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Classification & binomial names

  • /
  • SL Core /
  • Evolution: Activities for Learning/
  • Classification & binomial names

Students will learn how to classify organisms according to their taxonomic group, and how to understand the binomial nomenclature. These are a few introductory slides and then a card sorting activity linked to research about a selection of twelve animals which illustrate some of the main points of classification.

Lesson Description

Guiding Questions

What is the use of long incomprehensible scientific names?

Why do biologists want to group animals and plants together?

Activity 1 - Introduction to classification

Follow the slides in this presentation about classification and make brief notes about classification and binomial nomenclature.

Activity 2 - Classification activity

Carry out the activities on the classification activity worksheet​.

Complete the three arrangements of species to illustrate the different classification and make notes about the binomial nomenclature in the spaces provided on the sheet.

Activity 3 - Share the meaning of a biological name here.

Simply double-click the bamboo and type. Add a link or an image.

Teacher's notes

The object of this lesson is to introduce students to the system of scientific names, binomial nomenclature, and to explain the hierarchy of taxonomic groups.

Activity 1 is really just a simple introduction to the concept and many students will already have some notion of scientific names and some classification groups. To extend this session there are some excellent notes about the usefulness of classification and the conventions of nomenclature on Wikipedia. I wouldn't normally suggest Wikipedia as a reference source, but this page is well written and there are many links to examples of each name so even the brightest student could find a lot to read which is of interest.

Activity 2 is a group work task to organise twelve species according to their taxonomic groups at different levels. The cards do not contain the information required to organise the species, so student will need to research the taxonomic groups of each species and Wikipedia is once again an excellent research too, as each species has the full classification and links to pages describing the shared features of each group.

There is a space to record full classification details of two species and a table to make a note of some interesting latin and greek suffixes. It is hoped that this exercise will encourage students to research biological term meaning on other occasions by showing that there is some real meaning in these words.