Standard #: SC.912.L.15.4


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Describe how and why organisms are hierarchically classified and based on evolutionary relationships.


General Information

Subject Area: Science
Grade: 912
Body of Knowledge: Life Science
Standard: Diversity and Evolution of Living Organisms -

A. The scientific theory of evolution is the fundamental concept underlying all of biology.

B. The scientific theory of evolution is supported by multiple forms of scientific evidence.

C. Organisms are classified based on their evolutionary history.

D. Natural selection is a primary mechanism leading to evolutionary change.

Date Adopted or Revised: 02/08
Content Complexity Rating: Level 3: Strategic Thinking & Complex Reasoning - More Information
Date of Last Rating: 05/08
Status: State Board Approved

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Related Access Points

Access Point Number Access Point Title
SC.912.L.15.In.2 Classify living organisms into their kingdoms.
SC.912.L.15.Su.2 Match organisms to the animal, plant, and fungus kingdoms.
SC.912.L.15.Pa.2 Sort common living things into plant and animal kingdoms.


Related Resources

Assessments

Name Description
Summative Assessment Evolution

This performance task will demonstrate students' understanding of natural selection at the end of a unit on the theory of evolution.

Evolution Performance Task

This resource will help students to understand the difference between a Venn diagram and a cladogram. After viewing this students are intended to create and analyze their own cladograms..

Lesson Plans

Name Description
Meet the Family: Investigating Primate Relationships

In this lesson students will see the different types of evidence scientists use to understand evolutionary relationships among organisms. They will first practice by using shared physical characteristics to predict relationships among members of the cat family and then use this approach to predict primate relationships. They will compare their predictions to evidence provided by analyzing amino acid sequences and build a phylogenetic tree based on these sequences. Finally, they will look at the tree in the context of time in order to see divergence times.

Bioluminescent Millipedes Spark Bright Ideas!

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text by scientist Paul Marek, who re-charted the millipede Motyxia Bistipida's evolutionary tree based on new information about its bioluminescence. This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Bird Brains - Evolutionary Relationships Students will compare the sequence of amino acids in a gene shared between humans and six other organisms and infer evolutionary relationships among the species.
A Strange Fish Indeed-The Discovery of a Living Fossil

Through a series of fictionalized diary entries, this case recounts the 1939 discovery by Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer (and identification by J.L.B. Smith) of a living coelacanth, a fish believed to be extinct for over 70 million years. Developed for use in a freshman biology course as an introduction to the nature and methods of scientific inquiry, the case could also be modified for use in a number of upper-level biology courses such as ichthyology, evolutionary biology, and conservation ecology.

Original Student Tutorials

Name Description
Diagramming Diversity 1

Learn how living organisms are classified according to their characteristics, which reflects their evolutionary history and relationships, as you complete this interactive tutorial.

Diagramming Diversity II

Learn to explain how a phylogenetic tree, or cladogram, is used to classify living organisms based on inherited similarities, and how it relates to other methods of hierarchical classification.

Project

Name Description
Dichotomous Keys and Cladograms Performance Task

Students will work in groups to select 5-10 organisms, create a dichotomous key that could identify them, and a cladogram to show their evolutionary relationships.

Teaching Ideas

Name Description
Butterfly Sort: Classification Methods

In this lesson, students will explore ways to classify organisms based on physical similarities by devising a system to classify moths and butterflies using characteristics shown on black and white pictures. In doing so, they will construct a tree using various traits that vary among the different butterfly species. They will then defend their organizational scheme based on observed traits.

Climbing The Tree of Life: Cladograms

This is an activity where students create cladograms given a beginning point (species) and end point (species) using the Tree of Life website.

Butterfly Sort

This is a teaching idea where students develop a classification scheme for butterflies and moths based on observable traits. Through the development and discussion of classification schemes, students begin to make inferences about evolutionary relationships.

This activity was used in the BIOSCOPES Diversity and Ecology Institute.

Text Resources

Name Description
Shedding Light on Millipede Evolution

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The author tells of his success in locating and reclassifying a species of millipedes known as Motyxia bistipita. Until his rediscovery these millipedes were not known to show bioluminescence. Once he discovered this trait he was then also able to trace their evolutionary lineage and determine the reasons for the development of this ability in bipista's relatives. This article also discusses bioluminescence in other species and its important medical applications.

A Living Fossil

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. In 1996, a team of scientists discovered a species of rodent in Laos that was new to science. In a recent study, DNA analysis places the rodent in a mammal family that was previously thought to have gone extinct over 10 million years ago. Therefore, the rodent is a "living fossil."

Extinct Relative Helps to Reclassify the World's Remaining Two Species of Monk Seal

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Scientists used DNA and morphological analysis to classify the extinct Caribbean monk seal. In doing so, they grouped it with the critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal into a new genus, Neomonachus. The also critically endangered Mediterranean monk seal remains in its own genus, Monachus.

Tutorials

Name Description
Taxonomy and the Tree of Life

This Khan Academy video discusses the science of taxonomy and where humans fit into the tree of life.

Species

This Khan Academy video explains the definition of species and provides examples of animals that belong to the same species.

Virtual Manipulative

Name Description
Mesquite - Phylogenetic Trees Students use software to create evolutionary trees by comparing and contrasting physical traits.

This activity demonstrates the complexity of creating evolutionary trees when multiple traits are being analyzed. The use of the software simplifies the analysis without compromising the learning objectives.

Student Resources

Original Student Tutorials

Name Description
Diagramming Diversity 1:

Learn how living organisms are classified according to their characteristics, which reflects their evolutionary history and relationships, as you complete this interactive tutorial.

Diagramming Diversity II:

Learn to explain how a phylogenetic tree, or cladogram, is used to classify living organisms based on inherited similarities, and how it relates to other methods of hierarchical classification.

Lesson Plan

Name Description
Meet the Family: Investigating Primate Relationships:

In this lesson students will see the different types of evidence scientists use to understand evolutionary relationships among organisms. They will first practice by using shared physical characteristics to predict relationships among members of the cat family and then use this approach to predict primate relationships. They will compare their predictions to evidence provided by analyzing amino acid sequences and build a phylogenetic tree based on these sequences. Finally, they will look at the tree in the context of time in order to see divergence times.

Tutorials

Name Description
Taxonomy and the Tree of Life:

This Khan Academy video discusses the science of taxonomy and where humans fit into the tree of life.

Species:

This Khan Academy video explains the definition of species and provides examples of animals that belong to the same species.



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