Classifying and organising living things using images

Find different ways to classify living things

Lesson idea. This lesson outline asks students to sort images of living things into groups. They may do this on the computer using photo album software to organise the images, add labels or descriptions if appropriate. When that is done, students can think of other groups or categories to sort living things. The idea can also work as a lesson starter where you may want to use it to discuss points about classification in science.

Teaching approach. This lesson offers opportunities to explore ways to classify living things as well as characteristics which might be relevant, and how to address difficulties that may arise when trying to classify things in this way. The activity may be enhanced by the use of ICT⁽ⁱ⁾ software (e.g. Picasa) but could be carried out with paper-based resources.

This lesson presents a good opportunity for small group work^(ta) and some inquiry^(ta) into how we classify; and why some classification methods might be more useful, or more scientifically interesting than others. There is also a good opportunity to use different sorts of questioning^(ta); to encourage pupils to question each other; to engage in peer assessment^(ta) and to focus discussion^(ta) on the scientific method^(ta) using key vocabulary^(ta).

Resource details
Title	Classifying and organising living things using images
Topic	[[Topics/Living things|Living things]],  [[Topics/Using images|Using images]]
Teaching approach	[[Teaching Approaches/Assessment|Assessment]],  [[Teaching Approaches/Questioning|Questioning]],  [[Teaching Approaches/Language|Language]],  [[Teaching Approaches/Group work|Group work]],  [[Teaching Approaches/Inquiry|Inquiry]],  [[Teaching Approaches/Discussion|Discussion]],  [[Teaching Approaches/Scientific method|Scientific method]]
Learning Objectives	To have experience and develop confidence with the different ways in which living things can be classified into groups. To develop knowledge of and use characteristics of living things to classify them.
Format / structure	An activity outline and photo collection.
Subject	[[Resources/Science|Science]]
Age of students / grade	[[Resources/Primary|Primary]]
Additional Resources/material needed	Access to computers or tablet will allow pupils to organise the images supplied using photo organization/slideshow software (such as Picasa).
Related ORBIT Wiki Resources	Organising images for a narrative OER4Schools/Photo story For some lesson video clips, of a Zambian lesson on classifying vertebrates, see here.
Files and resources to view and download	An activity outline The activity outline includes links to photographs of living things in one zip file, see activity outline for more information. The activity outline also mentions a further task which is to label or annotate the astronomy images supplied. The images are also available individually (on this wiki), and you can preview the images here: preview for images of living things, preview for astronomy images