Classifying and organising living things using images

Find several different ways to classify living things

Lesson idea. A lesson activity outline where students sort images of living things into groups. They may do this using photo album software on the computer and furthermore, use a variety of headings to sort the living things under. A variation of this idea can make a lesson starter activity to raise discussion 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 some of the characteristics of living things and ways to classify and organise them.
Format / structure	An activity outline and sample photos.
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 as photos in one .zip file)
Useful information	Using photo organization/slideshow software (Picasa) students organise images that have been provided into various groups or categories. They may also add labels and/or descriptions where appropriate.
Related ORBIT Wiki Resources	Organising images for a narrative, OER4schools
Files and resources to view and download	The activity outline includes links to photographs of living things: Classifying and organising living things using images/activity The activity outline also mentions a further task which is to label or annotate astronomy images (included0