Chapter 2 Introduction

Materials:

• Signs of Life: Observing Organisms Worksheet
• Picture of living things (Anticipatory Set)
• Picture of different types of squash.

Objective:

• Students will be introduced to Chapter 2 in a way that helps them understand what they already know about Organizing Living things and what they want to know about organizing living things.
• Students will organize living things.
• Students will understand why organizing living things is important.

Alaska Standards:

• SCI A12: Students will understand that patterns of similarity and differences in the living world in order to understand the diversity of life and understand the theories that describe the importance of diversity for species and ecosystems.
• SCI B 1 Students will use the process of of science: classifying,
• SCI D4 Students will evaluate the scientific and social merits of solutions to everyday problems.

Anticipatory Set:

The students will be shown a picture of several types of living organisms. The students will then brainstorm to break the living organisms into two main groups. The sub groups will then be broken down again into smaller groups until each organism is in its own group.

Teacher Input: The teacher will go through P25 and explain to the students what they are going to be looking for in this chapter. The teacher will go through the three goals for learning on P 25

Teacher Modeling:

The teacher will go back to the anticipatory set and point out that plants and animals are two of the five groups, or kingdoms, that scientist break living organisms into. Students will be introduced to http://ask.com to find out the answer to the question, "What are the five kingdoms living organisms are divided into."

Check for Understanding:

Students will be shown a picture of several types of squash. Students will then be posed the questions:

• What characteristics would you use to distinguish among the different kinds of squash?
• Under what circumstances might it be vital to recognize certain kinds of squash?
• What conclusions can you make about the importance of identifying different types of vegetables and squash?

Guided Practice:

Students will discuss how scientists classify an organism. What language do they use? If a scientist published information about dog care internationally in several different languages what language would they use to scientifically describe the word dog. Dog is "perro" in Spanish, "chien" in French, "hansi" in Djarma.

Closure:

In order for scientists to better understand living things they must be able to organize them and naming is the way they do it. Can you organize the following school positions in a hierarchy from the person or group with the most authority to the least authority? students, school board, principal, teachers, superintendent, assistant principal."

Use the Word document and rearrange the positions as layers. How is this naming method helpful to someone who knows nothing about the American educational system?

Independent Practice:

Students will find out as much as they can about Carolus Linnaeus. Each student should come up with a list of 5 facts about Linnaeus. Students will then research to find out how scientists name an organism. (What are the two latin names are used to represent organisms?) Use word document

Duration:

30 minutes + 10-15 for Independent Practice (Could be longer if taken for homework).