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  Nature Elective


Lesson Plan 34: Five Kingdoms
First posted June 11, 2004 Last updated June 11, 2004

( Grade Level 9-12)

Remember these points from the Lesson Plan Homepage:

(1) These lesson plans are not rigid requirements, but a starting point for the Nature Counselor's plan for teaching a particular day's experience.
(2) The activity should be fun and emphasize active learning on the student's part: ask a question, don't just state a fact.
(3) You should employ hands-on as much as possible.
(4) Plan each session to also allow time for making entries in the Nature Journal.

Prior to the session

(1) Review the section on the Five Kingdoms. Presenting this section well takes a bit of outside reading and good botanical knowledge.
(2) Be ready with examples from Cazadero, know where to find them, and plan where you will stop for discussions and drawing.

Session

(1) Start with walking around camp, observing various types of living things. Be sure to have them look at members of each of the kingdoms.

*What kinds of life are at Cazadero?
* Can you name any of them?
* Can you place them in any categories?

(2) Find an area where they will be comfortable and yet have access to some examples. Using the approach of the Five Kingdoms page (pretending you are a budding Lineaus, attempting to classify living things), start with some of the old approaches (group things by flying, movement or lack of it, etc).

* Do these classification schemes make sense?
* Do they help you to better understand nature?

(3) Try classifing things first into Plant and Animal. Discuss the obvious criteria (movement vs. roots), the try to find counter examples to this first, obvious attempt to separate plants and animals.

* Does this system really work?
* Would it better to do it on the basis of eating or producing food?
* Draw a plant and an animal, write down how they get food.

(4) Now try to bring in as many of the other kingdoms as you can. Mushrooms or fungus can be found in many places in camp, slime in the stream, bacteria are everywhere.

* Discuss the place these have in the classification.
* Draw some examples, place them on a tree of life diagram.

References

Five Kingdoms

 

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