Classification is to put different plants and animals into groups that can express which are alike and which are different. Carolus Linnaeus and Aristotle applied classification, but had different ideas. One of them classified two kingdoms of plants and animals, and the other classified 3 different groups to put animals in. Today we use classification to tell how people look, act sound, dress, and even talk. If classification wasn’t present, then everybody would think that everyone and everything around them is the same.

The person who classified plants and animals into the two kingdoms was Carolus Linnaeus. He was a Swedish sciencetist in the 18th century. Besides the two kingdoms, he designed groups from his two kingdoms. The kingdoms were divided into smaller groups called genera. After that genera got divided into smaller groups called species. Besides the two kingdoms, he designed a system for naming organisms called binomial nomenclature. Binomial means ‘two names’ and nomenclature means ‘system of naming’.

Aristotle was the first person to use classification. He was the one who classified the animals into 3 different groups. The three groups were made up of water, air and land animals. He had a great classification system, but the only problem was that there were animals that had characteristics that could not only be in the air, but could be on land or water as well. Aristotle also used a system to divide animals into blood or bloodless. He was a Greek philosopher in the 4th century B.C.

The way you can determine how to classify a leaf and the type of tree it came from is by the leaf’s blade, the petiole, the base, the vein, the apex, and the margin. Scientist like Chatton and Haekel later on in the century took Linnaeus’ and Aristotle’s ideas of classification and used some of their own. They had either changed it to different kingdoms/ groups or they added onto the work that they had already done. Aristotle’s 2 kingdom classification is used today, but instead of 2 kingdoms, we use 5 of them. It was great to know that everybody is not the same and can be put into different or the same groups as plants, humans, and animals.

Reflection

Unit: Just So Stories

Objective: Students will read Kipling’s Just So Stories and work to write and revise their own Just So Stories. They will identify a topic under the above capstone which will be a variation of Kipling’s Just So Stories. They will create and write their stories focusing on the use of dialogue. They will read their stories to a group of 1st and 2nd graders who will then draw pictures for the Just So Stories.

ODE Benchmarks Addressed: WRTP A, WRTP C-E, WRTA A

1. How do the Just So Stories relate to our Classification Capstone? Explain in detail.

The Just So Stories relate to our Classification Capstone by the students identifying a certain animal and making up their own classified story on how it got it stripes, spots, colors, etc. It showed what we learned from the Just So Stories and what we learned from our Classification unit.

2. What did you like and/or dislike about writing your own Just So Story? Explain in detail.

What I liked about writing our own Just So Story was that I was able to be creative and think of something that came from my head, based on what I read from Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Story. I also was able to use my knowledge of animals and how they have stripes, colors, or spots, and used that in my story. What I didn’t like about writing our own Just So Story was N/A.

3. What was your experience working with the elementary students? Give a detailed summary of your experience.

My experience working with the elementary students was that some of them liked to hear the stories that we wrote, and others didn’t even want to pay attention. Some of the students drew pictures based on what they heard about the animals, and others didn’t even try. Overall I think my experience with the students was good.

4. Would you work with elementary students in the future? Give 3 examples of how we can work with elementary students in all subject areas.

I don’t really know if I would work with the elementary students in the future, but three examples of how we could are.

1. Show a group of students our Lego robots and also show them how they work.

2. We could have a class and teach them how to learn a little bit of Chinese.

3. The last thing we could do is read to them again I guess.