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Session 2. Classifying Living Things
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Japanese Maple leaves
image
courtesy Len Gittleman |
Learning
Goals
During this session, you will have an opportunity to
build understandings to help you:
- Distinguish between plants, animals, and other life forms based
on cell features
- Classify different life forms into broad biological groups
Video
Overview
Our
Earth hosts an astonishing diversity of life forms. We can
find plants, animals, and other types of organisms in almost every
habitat that
we encounter. In Session 1, characteristics shared by all life
forms were introduced as features that unify the living world. Session
2
focuses on how life’s diversity arises from variation on these
same unifying features. A closer look at cells, in particular,
introduces fundamental differences among life forms that have become
one basis
for biological classification.
View this video==> 
Video Outline
How do we answer the question: What is it? Just what
makes a plant a plant, or an animal an animal? Dr. Sally Shuler,
representing
Science and Technology for Children (STC),
highlights questions like these as she introduces us to activities
in the Organisms unit. Research
on children’s ideas is substantiated in the Science Studio where
second and third graders give us insight into their definitions
of plants and animals, as well as their awareness of other life forms.
Stephanie
Selznick’s first graders in Dorchester, Massachusetts
use Venn diagrams to determine how plants and animals are alike
and different. Their early ideas are based on observations of
class terrariums
and aquariums, where they’ve observed these life forms over time.
Dr.
Paul Williams returns to share what’s going on in Bottle
Biology – an ongoing Web site-based activity designed to apply
session topics and to serve as a K-6 resource as well. We hear
from Dr. Colleen Cavanaugh as she takes us to the deepest parts of
the ocean
to introduce us to her favorite group of living things – life
forms that aren’t classified as plants OR animals. Finally, we
see how a system for biological classification is used for classifying
living things into broad groups.
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