Organizing Organisms: Taxonomy and the Roots of Modern Biology
Subject: Science, Social Studies
Grades: 9-12
Essential Question: How do ideas shape history?
Unit Question: How did early naturalists lay the foundation for modern biology?
Lesson Overview:
In this activity, students are introduced to the basic principles of taxonomy and
classification. In small groups, students research different schools of thought on
classification and discuss how each taxonomy system evolved into the next through
to the current version used today. In addition, students learn how the Linnaean
classification system influenced future scientific thinkers, in particular Charles
Darwin, and consider how Darwin’s model of common ancestry and evolution laid
the foundation of modern biology.
Learning Objectives:
Students will be able to:
• Articulate the importance of ideas to world history
• Develop simple criteria for classification of everyday objects
• Understand the structure of the Linnaean classification system
• Understand the influence of Linnaean taxonomy on the development of
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
• Investigate and describe the impact of Linnaean taxonomy on modern
biology
Academic Standards:
National Science Education Standards (Grades 9–12)
• Science and Technology. Content Standard E: Understandings about Science
and Technology
• History and Nature of Science Standards: Historical perspectives
• Life Science Standards: Biological evolution
World History Content Standards (Grades 5-12)
• Era 6: The Emergence of the First Global Age, 1450-1770:
o Standard 2D: The student understands how the Scientific Revolution
contributed to transformations in European society.
o Standard 6: Major global trends from 1450-1770
Time Frame:
This lesson requires two 45-minute sessions to complete.
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Communications, LLC.
Background for the Teacher:
Students often think of models as tangible objects, but some of the most important
models are mental ones. Consider the theory of evolution. While non-scientists
debate the concept, Darwin’s great idea revolutionized modern biology. American
geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky said, “Nothing in biology makes sense except in
light of evolution.”
Long before Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859, naturalists as far back
as the ancient Greeks searched for patterns in nature. Most early philosophers and
scientists believed in a Creator and thought the variety of life was an expression of a
Divine Plan. They believed that they would be closer to understanding the Divine
Plan if they were able to detect and describe patterns.
The advent of the Renaissance saw a burgeoning of scientific knowledge and
interest, partly due to the discovery of the New World. Naturalists wanted to
understand how the multitude of new plants and animals being discovered fit in
with existing schemes. Through the Renaissance period, naturalists developed
various ways of naming and grouping plants and animals. None of these were
satisfactory, however. Many required expert knowledge, and others were
inconsistent.
A breakthrough came in the 1750s with the work of Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus.
He provided a system that was universally applicable and easy to use. The Linnaean
system relied on a simple naming system that assigned each species two names: a
genus (pl. genera) and a species. Linnaeus also formalized a hierarchical
organization of species so that species were contained within genera, genera within
families, families within orders, and so on all the way up to kingdoms.
Aside from simplifying the naming and classification of species, the Linnaean
hierarchy provided a natural way to depict relatedness among very different groups
of plants and animals. Linnaeus grouped humans with monkeys and whales in the
class of mammals, a completely radical idea at the time. Yet, no one questions these
groupings today.
Darwin saw the implications of Linnaean taxonomy. He believed that related groups
must have shared ancestors. Go back far enough, he reasoned, and even widely
variable groups must have had the same ancestor. This reasoning led to the
branching model of species relationships, which scientists refer to as an
evolutionary tree. Darwin’s concept of natural selection and evolution formed the
basis for an unprecedented boom in biological research.
Today, we understand disease, biodiversity, physiology, ecology and genetics in
terms of evolutionary biology. It is not exaggerating to say that the work of Linnaeus
and his predecessors laid the foundation for modern biology.
Copyright © 2012 Discovery Education. All rights reserved. Discovery Education is a subsidiary of Discovery
Communications, LLC.
Vocabulary
Classification: The process of assigning objects into predetermined groups
according to specific criteria
Taxonomy: The process of and criteria for identifying objects, and their systematic
categorization into predetermined classes
Binomial: Use of two names to classify or identify an object
Ancestry: Lineage of organisms from preceding organisms to the present
Renaissance: The activity, spirit, or time of the great revival of art, literature, and
learning in Europe beginning in the 14th century and extending to the 17th century,
marking the transition from the medieval to the modern world
Classroom Activities:
Materials for teacher:
• A collection of rocks and minerals (need sufficient quantity for students to
classify them into several sub-groups)
Materials for each student:
• Copy of Organizing Organisms Practice Problem handout
• Access to computer with Internet connection
• Student Handout
Engage
1. Provide students with an introduction to taxonomy and nomenclature of
living things by having them first learn to classify rocks and minerals into
categories.
2. Divide students into small groups and give each group a collection of rocks
and minerals. Explain to students that they will have 5 minutes to divide the
rocks and minerals into categories based on similarities. They can create as
many categories and sub-categories as they feel are appropriate. The goal is
to divide the rocks and minerals until there is only one rock or mineral in
each sub-category. Explain that one volunteer from each group should be the
note-taker. This person’s job is to write down the names of the categories
and sub-categories and illustrate how they relate to each other.
3. Once the 5 minutes are up, have the note-taker from each group draw the
group’s classification system on the board. Discuss similarities and
differences among the classification systems that students developed.
4. On the board, draw or display a diagram of Linnaeus’ system of classification.
Explain that the categories Linnaeus used are kingdom (e.g., animals),
phylum (e.g., vertebrates), class (e.g., mammals), order (e.g., carnivores),
family (e.g., dog-like), genus (e.g., wolf), and species (e.g., gray wolf).
5. Explain that, much like the students, Linnaeus’ sought to develop a system of
taxonomy and classification that could be used to organize all living
Copyright © 2012 Discovery Education. All rights reserved. Discovery Education is a subsidiary of Discovery
Communications, LLC.
organisms.
6. Optional: Prior to moving on, this activity can be reinforced by asking
students to classify marbles, types of candy, shoes, or any other varied group
of objects.
Explore
1. Ask one or more volunteers to answer the question, “In general, how do we
classify objects?” Lead students to understand that we classify objects by
organizing them into groups based on similarities and differences.
2. Ask one or more volunteers to answer the question, “Why do we classify
objects?” Lead students to understand that a classification system makes it
easier to tell objects apart and to understand the relationships between them.
3. Explain to students that, through the rock/mineral activity, they created a
basic taxonomy of their group of objects. The process of classification assigns
an object to a category within the group.
4. Explain to students that the early Greeks looked for patterns in nature.
During the Renaissance, particularly with the discovery of the New World,
naturalists sought ways to organize the many new plants and animals that
were being discovered. There were many attempts to develop a system of
classification, but it was not until the 18th century that Swedish botanist Carl
Linnaeus developed a system that was universally applicable and easy to use.
5. Describe to students key changes to classification of plants and animals that
were introduced by Linnaeus. For example, he was the first to group whales
with mammals instead of fish, and to place humans in the same group as
monkeys.
6. Divide students into small groups and assign each group an era: either the
Ancient Greeks or the Renaissance. Have students research the history of
classification during their assigned era. Students should address the
following questions:
• What system of organization for living things existed at the time?
• What language and structure were used for naming organisms?
• Who established the classification system?
• What ideas shaped the classification system?
7. After they have answered these questions, ask the students to think about
the transitions in thought between each time period.
• How did the ideas need to evolve in order for the transition to occur?
• What other scientific or societal changes helped to facilitate the
change in scientific thought?
8. Organize students into new groups of four with two representatives from the
early Greeks and two from the Renaissance in each new group. Give students
time to share their findings and discuss similarities and differences.
9. Ask the class to report on their small group discussions. Write the
similarities and differences students uncovered on the board.
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Communications, LLC.
Explain
1. Have students work in their new small groups to research the classification
system used by modern biologists today. They should list the basic features
as well as the scientific rationale for the current structure.
2. Once they have closely examined the classification system that modern
biologists use today, students should consider and write responses to the
following questions:
• What are the main differences from the system that Linnaeus put
together during the Renaissance?
• What things are still the same as they were in the Linnaean system?
3. Invite students to share their findings and once again write the similarities
and differences on the board.
4. Have students return to their small groups and brainstorm an explanation
for how Darwin might have drawn support for his theory of evolution from
Linnaeus’s classification system. Ask students, “How does the relatedness of
organisms as explained by their classification support the theory of
evolution?” Students may use pens/pencils and paper or a web-based tool
such as Bubbl.us to organize their ideas.
5. Invite students to present their conclusions to the class. They may take on
the role of Charles Darwin sharing his thoughts on the relationship between
classification and evolution or role-play a discussion between Darwin and
Linnaeus – and other characters (early naturalists, journalists, etc.), as they
wish.
Extend
1. Reinforce that organizing information allows us to simplify, and thereby see
patterns and connections that may not be visible when looking at
unorganized data.
2. To reinforce this idea, organize students in small groups and have them use
the classification tool in the USDA’s Plants Database to explore how common
flowers are classified. Assign each group a different flower (e.g., rose,
carnation, daisy, iris, lily, daffodil). Once students have discovered how their
plants are classified, have them share their findings. Use the following
questions to guide discussion:
• What surprising relationships did students discover between their
flower and other flowers or plants?
• Did students assume their flower was related to another type of
flower only to discover that it wasn’t?
• Would students have been able to recognize these relationships
without a system like Linnaeus’?
3. Explain that organizing information about plants and animals led naturalists
to profound insights about relationships between different organisms. As an
example, remind students that Linnaeus realized that whales are mammals,
rather than fish.
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Communications, LLC.
4. Explain that Charles Darwin was inspired by the relatedness of seemingly
totally different animals to propose his theory of evolution. Darwin was
familiar with Linnaeus’ work, and may have developed the idea for the
“struggle for existence” from Linnaeus’ own expression “everyone’s war
against everyone.” Darwin realized that shared ancestry meant that all
organisms were related to a greater or lesser extent. As a result of Darwin’s
insight, scientists now use biological classification to define ancestral
relationships between organisms.
5. Explain that, today, evolution is the unifying theory of biology. Biologists are
constantly building evidence for evolution, while at the same time using
evolution for new insights into disease, genealogy, species diversity,
physiology and genetics.
6. Ask students to use Intel’s Seeing Reason Tool
(http://educate.intel.com/en/ThinkingTools/Seeingreason) to illustrate the
relationship between the development of early and current classification
systems and the theory of evolution.
7. Ask students to use Intel’s Seeing Reason Tool
(http://educate.intel.com/en/ThinkingTools/Seeingreason) to illustrate the
cause and effect relationships from early to current classification systems
and the development of the theory of evolution.
Evaluate
1. The graphic organizers students develop using the Seeing Reason Tool can be
used to evaluate their understanding of the impact of Linnaean taxonomy on
modern biology.
2. Have students write brief constructed responses to the following questions:
a) Why did the classification system designed by Linnaeus have such a
profound influence on scientific thinking at the time it was introduced?
b) How did the work done by Linnaeus during the Renaissance lay the
groundwork for Darwin and other naturalists to develop the theory of
evolution?
c) If you were a naturalist, what questions would you need to ask about an
animal you discovered in order to begin classifying it?
d) If you had to develop a classification system for a type of technology (e.g.,
cars, airplanes, phones), what would it look like and why?
Scoring key for #2
a) The classification system proposed by Linnaeus was simple and easy to
use, and was the first system to be universal in its use and application.
b) Linnaeus showed how different species were related in a new way. He
showed that organisms could be ordered in a hierarchical manner, and
this led later scientists, including Darwin, to recognize that these
relationships could best be explained by common ancestry.
Copyright © 2012 Discovery Education. All rights reserved. Discovery Education is a subsidiary of Discovery
Communications, LLC.
c) Answers will vary, but students should demonstrate that they understand
that they need to determine whether the animal is a vertebrate or an
invertebrate, how it reproduces, what it eats, and what it physically looks
like.
d) Answers will vary, but students should demonstrate that they understand
how to identify large categories as well as sub-categories designed to
group things according to like characteristics and illustrate relationships.
3. Have students complete the Organizing Organisms Practice Problem
handout.
Scoring key for #3
Common name
Dog rose
Annual bluegrass
Apple
Bald eagle
Human
White oak
Sugar maple
Lion
Latin name
Genus
Species
Rosa
canina
Poa
annua
Malus
domestica
Haliaeetus
leucocephalus
sapiens
Quercus
alba
Loxodonta
africana
Acer
Panthera
saccharum
leo
Meaning
Genus
Species
rose
dog
grass
annual
apple
of the house
eagle
white head
man
wise
oak
white
slanting
from Africa
tooth
maple
sweet
panther
lion
Self-assessment
Have students write a paragraph to explain their understanding of the importance
of ideas as inventions. In their responses, students should answer the following
questions:
1. In your opinion, which of the ideas had the greatest impact?
[Note: Students can use Intel’s Visual Ranking Tool
(http://educate.intel.com/en/ThinkingTools/VisualRanking) to complete
this activity.]
2. Why it is important to use models such as Linnaeus’ taxonomy?
3. What are some of the most important ideas and/or models that have been
developed in your lifetime?
Reflection Activities
Have students further explore the role of ideas in advancing science and technology
throughout history. If time allows, students can create a concept map to show how
different ideas are connected to each other and to the invention of objects. For
example, the idea of the World Wide Web would not have been possible without the
invention of computers. The invention of computers would not have been possible
without the idea of zero as a number.
Copyright © 2012 Discovery Education. All rights reserved. Discovery Education is a subsidiary of Discovery
Communications, LLC.
Web Resources
Renaissance Philosophy
http://www.iep.utm.edu/renaissa/
General Characteristics of the Renaissance
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/ren.html
Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778)
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/linnaeus.html
Nested Hierarchies, the Order of Nature: Carolus Linnaeus
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/history_05
Systema Naturae – an epoch-making book
http://www.linnaeus.uu.se/online/animal/1_1.html
Order from Chaos: Linnaeus Disposes
http://huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu/hibd/Exhibitions/OrderFromChaos/OFCPages/intro.shtml
What is in a Scientific Name?
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/animal_names/scientific_name.html
How to Write Latin Names of Species
http://abacus.bates.edu/~ganderso/biology/resources/writing/HTWlatin.html
Latin to English Dictionary
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/resolveform?redirect=true&lang=Latin
10 ideas that changed the course of history
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/jun/22/philosophy.plato
10 ideas that changed the world
http://articles.cnn.com/2008-1121/world/tenthings.changedtheworld_1_vaccines-magic-number-atombombs?_s=PM:WORLD
Copyright © 2012 Discovery Education. All rights reserved. Discovery Education is a subsidiary of Discovery
Communications, LLC.
Student Handout – Organizing Organisms
Taxonomy – the identification of objects and their categorization into
predetermined classes
Classification – the process of assigning objects into predetermined groups
according to specific criteria
Binomial – use of two names to classify or identify an object
Ancestry – lineage of organisms from preceding organisms to the present
Renaissance – the activity, spirit, or time of the great revival of art, literature, and
learning in Europe beginning in the 14th century and extending to the 17th century,
marking the transition from the medieval to the modern world
When it comes to invention, are ideas just as important as objects?
Think of a model. Did you imagine a fashion model, a model airplane or an
architectural model? We usually think of models as tangible objects. Yet, in some
cases, mental models can be just as important as physical ones. The idea that Earth
goes around the sun changed the way people saw themselves in relation to the
universe. The science of psychology emerged out of the idea that humans have a
subconscious, as a well as a conscious self. In biology, the idea of grouping plants
and animals into logical categories provided biologists a new way to look at the
natural world. This approach eventually led to the idea of evolution.
What is taxonomy?
Taxonomy is a systematic way of applying a set of criteria to similar objects to group
them in logical, repeatable ways. In science, it applies to the process of grouping
objects. Usually the word taxonomy is applied in biology, but scientists have
devised taxonomies for stars, computer languages, and psychological profiles.
Who was Carl Linnaeus?
Before the 1750s, naturalists had no agreed upon way to categorize and organize
the vast array of living organisms. Broad groups such as “plant” or “animal” had
been devised, but more closely related organisms such as types of horses or roses
were not organized according to consistent criteria. Carl Linnaeus changed that. In
the 1750s, he devised a system in which all species of organisms were given two
names, rather like your first name and last name. This allowed scientists to develop
taxonomy for organisms. For the first time, scientists in different parts of the world
could describe species according to a set of criteria that allowed them to be grouped
in specific categories.
How did taxonomy impact modern biology?
Taxonomy created an orderly scheme of organizing plants and animals. Naturalists
could now understand how different species are related. Darwin realized that
shared ancestry meant that all organisms were related to a greater or lesser extent.
This led to his theory of evolution, which is a unifying principle in biology.
Copyright © 2012 Discovery Education. All rights reserved. Discovery Education is a subsidiary of Discovery
Communications, LLC.
Organizing Organisms: Practice Problem
The table below has the common names of well-known plants and animals as well as
the Latin (scientific) names and meanings. Note that these Latin names are always
italicized, and that the Latin genus name is capitalized whereas the Latin species
name is lower case.
Table 1.
Review the following species their Latin names, common names and their meaning.
Latin name
Meaning
Common name
Genus
Species
Genus
Species
Wolf
Canis
lupus
dog
wolf
Tiger
Panthera
tigris
panther
tiger
Sparrow
Passer
domesticus
sparrow
of the
house
Daisy
Bellis
perennis
flower
perennial
Pig
Sus
scrofa
pig
digger
Sheep
Ovis
aries
sheep
ram
American crow
Corvus
brachyrhynchos crow
shortbilled
Gray squirrel
Sciurus
carolinensis
squirrel
from the
Carolinas
Table 2.
Complete the missing information in the table.
Common name
Dog rose
Annual bluegrass
Apple
Bald eagle
Human
White oak
Sugar maple
Lion
Latin name
Genus
Species
Rosa
canina
Poa
annua
Malus
domestica
Haliaeetus
leucocephalus
sapiens
Quercus
Loxodonta
africana
Acer
Panthera
saccharum
Genus
Meaning
Species
dog
grass
apple
eagle
man
oak
slanting
tooth
maple
panther
wise
white
from
Africa
lion
Copyright © 2012 Discovery Education. All rights reserved. Discovery Education is a subsidiary of Discovery
Communications, LLC.