The "Nuts and Bolts" of Taxonomy and Classification

Students become familiar with the structure and use of dichotomus keys. They demonstrate a comprehension of the fundamental principles of taxonomy by classifying organisms from a local ecosystem. Students are introduced to the term...

Dive into the world of plankton. The 17th installment of a 23-part NOAA Enrichment in Marine sciences and Oceanography (NEMO) program introduces different types of plankton. Young scientists then use what they have learned to classify...

Students develop a classification scheme based on the structural features of organisms.  In this organism lesson students divide into teams and complete a fun activity. 

Discusses many aspects of taxonomy. Provides a lab activity where students are required to devise a classification scheme for nuts, bolts, and other hardware items.

Young scholars use the GLOBE Website to locate and study environmental data. They use the GLOBE Graphing Tool to display data. Students describe the role of solar energy in the annual fluctuations of soil moisture. They describe...

This page discusses how the cladistic level of classification includes information from molecular biology to establish evolutionary relationships. The page discusses how this information is used to do this.

Students view NASA images of galaxies and develop a galaxy classification scheme. They compare and contrast their classification scheme with that developed by Edwin Hubble. They recognize that galaxies are collections of billions of stars.

Students act as a taxonomist and, given a certain situation, classify existing organisms.

Students discuss how scientists classify organisms. In pairs, they analyze and label "specimens" of breakfast cereals in order to classify them into the correct group. They create a dichotomous key for several species of animals.

Learners explore different aspects of stem cells.  In this human biology lesson, students complete numerous activities including reading an article and discussing it, watching a video on stem cells reproducing over time, and...