1. Why is it important to classify life?
Classification Scavenger Hunt
Acc Diversity of Life
Why is it important to classify life?

2. Maryland Science Content Standard
Students will be able to provide examples and explain that organisms sorted into groups share similarities in external structures as well as similarities in internal anatomical structures and processes which can be used to infer the degree of relatedness among organisms

3. Objectives Students will be able to list the levels of classification.
Students will be able to identify general distinctions among organisms that support classifying them into similar groups.
Title: Classification System
Date: 4/21/2017

4. Warm-up (Answer in comp. book)
Examine the picture to the right.
Organize the objects in the picture by grouping them into three different categories.
Write down the answers to the following questions:
In what three categories did you choose to group your pictures?
Explain why you chose those three categories.
What other things do we organize into groups or categories? Why do we categorize things?

5. Classifying Organisms Warm-up Discussion
How many different ways could you think of to group the objects?
What features did you use to group the objects?
What might be the purposes of these features?
Which grouping system was the most useful?

6. Classification What does it mean to classify something?
Why do scientists classify organisms?
How would you classify these organisms?
Which organisms do you think are most closely related? What does it mean to be more closely related?
-Birds -Share DNA, common ancestor, homologous structures 6

7. Classification Scavenger Hunt
Go to and click the Kid Zone logo. Click the link for Classification of Life to find the sites for this assignment.
Click here for the document

8. Conclusion:
Why is it important to classify life?