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sampler
Using the Pokemon alphabet to teach
classification and phylogeny
Over the last decade, science teachers have experienced
many changes in the standards for science education.
The National Science Education Standards now include
three unifying concepts and processes: systems—order
and organization; evidence—models and explanation;
and evolution. In addition, the life science standards
include knowledge of the diversity of organisms (levels
5–8) and biological evolution (levels 9–12) (NRC 1996).
Biology topics that address these concepts
and processes include classification and
phylogeny.
Teaching middle school biology students the concepts associated with classification and phylogeny is a challenge.
Some of the ideas behind these concepts
may seem very abstract to a student. The
challenge for a teacher is to develop lessons and
activities that are both interesting and educationally sound. A recent science department meeting
at my middle school revealed a concern shared by
our science teachers. We find it difficult for our
students to understand concepts such as classification, dichotomy, and phylogeny. As a colleague
stated, “My students have such a problem
naming organisms using dichotomous keys.
They can’t grasp the full concept
and understanding that goes along
with classification. We need to
develop a better method for teaching our kids these tough concepts.”
Studies have shown that it is useful to
teach classification to students using pseudozoids (false animals), because it eliminates
any of the students’ bias due to prior
knowledge about the organism and
forces students to focus on observed
similarities and differences (Gendron
2000). In contrast, when students use familiar objects in creating dichotomous keys, they
are able to learn from their prior knowledge.
The activity described here teaches classification
and phylogeny using a set of pseudozoids, the Unown or
Alphabet Pokemon (see Figure 1). We chose Unown that
are inherently graphic in appearance to focus student
attention on the similarities and differences they observe
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between types, rather than on the unrealistic characteristics
of Unown as fictitious plants and animals.
Materials and methods
The Unown typeface used in this article was created by
Nintendo of America and can be found on the internet at
a variety of sites (see Resources). On installation into the
fonts folder of your computer’s operating system, this typeface will insert each Unown character as its corresponding letter is typed. If the Unown font is not
available, another way of conducting this
activity is to have students perform phylogenetic analysis on letters from archaic or
character-based alphabets (see Resources).
For example, archaic forms of letters historically used in the English alphabet, or letters from
other alphabets (for example, Cyrillic, Hebrew, or
Korean) could be used to focus student attention on
the similarities and differences they observe between
the forms of letters. This related approach could be
employed by middle school science teachers seeking to coordinate curricular content with social
studies or language teachers.
To start, each student is given a 20question pretest to measure their prior
knowledge about classification and
phylogeny (available online at www.
nsta.org). The test includes five matching items; five multiple-choice questions; use of a
taxonomic key to identify three species of native
North American cats; mapping five evolved traits
onto a vertebrate phylogeny; and providing a short
written answer to two questions. Afterward, students are assigned to groups of three with mixed
achievement levels. Student groups stay the same
over the six days of instruction on classification
and phylogeny.
On day two, classification is introduced.
Vocabulary terms (binomial nomenclature, Carolus
Linnaeus, classification, levels of classification, species
Rolfe Freidenberg Jr. ([email protected]) is
a middle school science teacher at Benjamin Franklin
Middle School in Kenmore, New York. Martin Kelly
([email protected]) is an instructor in the Division
of Math and Science at Genesee Community College
in Batavia, New York.
S C I E N C E
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diversity, and taxonomy) are presented. Student groups
Pokemon alphabet
FIGURE 1
are given a mixed bag of familiar objects (buttons, coins,
disks, paper clips, thumbtacks, tongue depressors, toothpicks, seeds, etc.) to sort and classify (Devore 1994). This
mixed group of objects is separated and classified based on
similarities and differences in shape, size, function, and
color. Homework is given to review day two topics.
On day three, Pokemon phylogeny classes begin with a
discussion of branching diagrams and dichotomous keys.
Student groups use a phylogeny to compare four mammals: platypus, brown bear, lion, and house cat. Groups
then make their own branching diagram for a kangaroo,
snake, frog, and rabbit. A dichotomous key for 10 common mammals is also introduced to the class. Students
are shown the correct way to read this dichotomous key
to identify an unknown organism. Student groups then
identify the longtail weasel and woodchuck using this
key. A phylogeny with humans, chimpanzees, lemurs,
and baboons is then assigned as homework. Individual
students are also asked to develop a dichotomous
key for alien life forms as homework (Allen and
The five groups of Unown used to teach
FIGURE 2
Berg 2000).
classification and phylogenetic analysis
On day four, classes begin working with the
Unown. Student groups are randomly assigned
Sets of
Unown “species”
one of the five Unown sets (see Figure 2). Each
Unown
Alphabet Letter
set is printed in a large font on one sheet of
paper. Using the assigned set of Unown, each
group completes a data table of traits shared by
1
the different “species” (see Figure 3). After this,
each student group then cuts and pastes their organisms onto an evolutionary branching diagram
from most physically simple to most physically
2
complex. A written statement is developed by
each group to explain why species are placed in
that pattern of descent.
On day five, student groups assign genus and
3
species names and develop a dichotomous key
to identify the different Unown species in their
assigned set.
Results
The average responses from students experiencing
this activity were very encouraging. After employing
this teaching method, students understood binomial
nomenclature, could classify organisms into groups
based on their similarities and differences, could use
a dichotomous key to identify an unknown organism,
understood an evolutionary tree, and learned the sev-
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FIGURE 3
The shared, derived traits for the five
different groups of Unown
Unknown Unown Group
Yes and No questions to distinguish the Pokemon
Does it have three arms?
Are all arms straight?
Are all arms the same length?
Are all arms equally spaced?
Is the tip of the arm the same width as the base?
Are all arms straight?
Are all arms the same length?
Are all arms equally spaced?
Does it have two arms off the central body?
If one arm is present, does it have only one projection?
If two arms are present, do they bend only one time?
Is the arm bent more than 90-degrees (obtuse)?
Does it have more than one arm off the central body?
Does it have more than two arms off the central body?
Are there any projections off the main arm?
Are all arms equally spaced?
Does the arm form a complete outer circle?
Does it have one arm?
Is the tip of the arm the same width as the base?
Are there any projections off the main arm?
Is there a “bridge” between the two arms?
Are there two or more long arms attached to the central
body?
en levels of taxonomy. In addition, working in groups helped
them to understand this unit. The test, given at the end of
the activity, supported our sense of student performance.
The average number of correct responses on the pretest was
8 out of 20. The average number of correct responses on the
posttest was 14 out of 20.
In summary, the practical benefit of Pokemon phylogeny is that it provides students a familiar context for
understanding concepts such as classification, dichotomy,
and phylogeny. In addition, when students have fun,
learning occurs more readily. Pokemon phylogeny is both
an interesting and educationally sound method to teach
these tough biological concepts.
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Resources
Unown font—www.wcconnection.net/fonts.php
Archaic typefaces by Dr. Luc Devroye—jeff.cs.mcgill.ca/~luc/
fonts.html
References
Allen, K.Z., and L.R. Berg. 2000. Cells, heredity, and classification.
Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
Devore, J. 1994. Dichotomous key. Payette, IN: Columbia Education
Center’s Summer Workshop. (ERIC Document Reproduction
no. AELP-SPS0002).
Gendron, R.P. 2000. The classification and evolution of
Caminalcules. The American Biology Teacher 62 (8): 570–76.
National Research Council (NRC). 1996. National science education
standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.