1. Classification of Organisms
Appropriate
for grades
(5-9)
Developed by:
Andrew Leech
Students should be able to:
* Understand why a classification system is important
* Understand that there are a variety of ways to classify
organisms
* Understand the origins of our modern classification system

2. What is an Organism? An organism is generally referred to any living
thing. More specifically any thing that has
“cells”. This includes the smallest of organisms,
the single celled bacteria, all the way to the
largest redwood tree or Blue Whale.

3. The Classification Game!!
Divide into groups of 3 or 4
In the following few slides, you will find
14 different organisms, each of them labeled
with a letter. In your groups, write down
two main classification (example red/green).
Then place the corresponding letters under
the correct classification.

4. For Example These organisms have been classified by their color. Red
Green

5. ARE
YOU
READY!

7. One Possible Solution
Animals
Plants
????

8. Did You Have Problems??
There were actually several different ways to go
about classifying these 14 organisms. You might
have done color, shape, size, number of legs… the
possibilities are endless. You might have encountered
one or two that really did not fit into either of your
two classifications, what should you do when this
happens? Make a new classification of course! And
this is what scientist have done as well through the
years.

9. Our modern classification system originated with
two main classifications, plants and animals. Over
the years, scientist came up with certain “plants”
that really did not act like plants, they couldn’t
make their own food. So the kingdom Fungi was
formed.

10. When microscopes were invented, scientist discovered
new single celled organisms. Some were animal-like,
some were plant like and some were both.
This lead to the creation of the Kingdom Protista.

11. As the microscope improved, scientist
discovered that many of the single celled
organisms were quite different. Some of them
had a nucleus and others did not. This lead
to the Kingdom Monera, the kingdom of the
most simplistic organisms.

12. Who first developed a system to classify organisms?
As early as 350 B.C., the Greek Philosopher
Aristotle created guidelines for grouping
living things. Aristotle grouped organisms
based on four characteristics: body parts,
life histories, activities, and character. There
were ten groups of animals, six of which
he called “blooded” and four “bloodless”.

13. Humans, birds and fish were considered to
be blooded, while insects and mollusks were
considered to be bloodless. Aristotle’s system
may seem crude by today’s standards, but for
his time, it was extremely imaginative.

14. Who Needs a Classification System?
When you go to the grocery store, how do
know how to find the milk?
When you go to the clothing store, how do
you know where to look for your favorite brand?
When you go to the movie store, how do you
find the movie you’re looking for?

15. When you want to learn about the mating
habits of the Blue Swallow Butterfly, where
do you find your information.
It is for this reason that a classification system
is necessary. It is a tool that allows scientist
to study similar organisms to learn more about
how certain organisms work and function.

16. For example; if you wanted to find information
on a new organism that you just discovered,
you could look at organisms with similar
traits and could come up with some good
ideas as to what it eats, mating habits, or
any other pertinent information you might
want to find.

17. Who developed the modern system?
Along with Aristotle’s version of the classification
system, there were several more, completely
different systems added throughout the years.
After a while, it became quite confusing for
many scientist when they did their research,
they did not know which system to look in.
This lead towards a universal system that
could be used world wide.

18. The Modern System The modern classification system was
developed by the Swedish scientist Carolus
Linnaeus in the mid 1700’s. As Linnaeus
created his method of classification, he
considered many things. Some characteristics
he used to classify organisms were outside
appearance, internal organs, and how body
systems worked. Modern scientists are still using
most of Linnaeus’s classification system.

19. Linnaeus used the Latin language
because that was the language that
was dominate around the world at
that time. This is why even today
organism’s scientific names are always
in Latin.

20. Along with the two major Kingdoms, Plant and Animal, Linnaeus came up
with several sub-classifications for those
kingdoms. They are: Kingdom, Phylum,
Class, Order Family, Genus, and Species.
What Kingdom are you in?
What phylum are you in? Why?

21. The Human Species Kingdom: Animalia (Animal in Latin) Phylum: Class:
Order:
Family:
Genus:
Species:
Animalia (Animal in Latin)
Chordata (Spinal Cord)
Mammalia (have mammary glands)
Primates (two mammary glands)
Hominoidea (bipedalism)
Homo
Sapien

22. When you refer to an organism scientifically, you always use the
genus and the specie names.
Therefore, the human species would
be referred to as:
Homo sapien

23. Conclusion The classification system for organisms
have been around for a long time. It has
endured several changes and is quite
complex. Without it modern biology could
not exist, much in the same way that
a grocery store would go out of business
if it did not have a classification system.