Ayesha Switzer

July, 16, 2009

Life Science  

MC 2 STEM H.S.

GROUP D

                                                   CLASSIFICATION

How do you classify things? What is classification? Why is it so important and do we need it? These are some things to look into and ask yourself because others might have asked you. Some people may not know what classifying is, and might just now learn what it is. There were two scientists that studied the way classification worked. They both had theories and they worked in different ways. Aristotle’s theory was how to divide organism into plants and animals and Linnaeus’s theory was how to classify plants and animals according to their similarities and form.

How do you classify things? You classify things by different groups, by putting thing where they belong like plants and different thing of that nature. A man named Aristotle who was a Greek professor, divided organism into plants and animals. He divided the animals in ways like blood and bloodless. The way he had of classifying and understanding the way to use classification. It made more people want to learn how to classify and understand the ways of the world and the species that live on it. His theory didn’t work because the way he grouped the animals and plants he based them on similarities instead of form. Like a bat and bird for example they had some similarities because they both could fly but their appearance was nothing alike.

Carolus Linnaeus was a man who was a Swedish scientist who classified plants and animals according to their similarities and form. He did this because he thought that it would be much easier for everyone and himself to understand the way of classification. There were two kingdoms. Kingdoms were divided into classes and they, in turn, into orders, which were divided into genera (singular: genus), which were divided into species (singular species). Below the rank of species he sometimes recognized taxa of a lower (unnamed) rank (for plants these are now called “varieties”). The problem with his is that he didn’t think about the consequence of the kingdoms. He didn’t think about if one of the kingdoms died or if something went wrong with one of them.

Why is classification so important? It’s important because it gives people the chance to better understand a concept and any other thing that they wanted to learn about maybe just know. It’s a form of living, for example when you go to the grocery store the milk is not in the same place as the apples or oranges. They are that way for a reason. Why? Because that’s not who their grouped with. Their grouped with their kind, the other fruits that grow like they grow, and that’s the way it should be. They are the same because they are both scientists who studied the classification of plants and animals. Their different because of the theory they had and how it didn’t work the same way. Aristotle classified things differently from Linnaeus and even though Aristotle’s theory didn’t work it was still a good idea he just went about it the right way.