Lesson Plan 35: Five
Clases of Vertebrates
First posted June 12, 2004 Last
updated June 12, 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 Classes of Vertebrates. This
can be one of the most fun, most enjoyable, and easiest
sessions to teach. The students already are knowledgeabe
about animal. The goal is to teach them more about important
characteristics of the five classes, and to present
the material in such a way that they will be able to
easily recall or reconstruct what they have learned.
The WebQuest interactive learning page is excellent
preparation for this session. We follow its example
closely.
(2) Be ready with examples from Cazadero, know where
to find some of them, and plan where you will stop for
discussions and drawing.
Session
(1) Start with walking around camp, observing various
types of living things, especially if you have already
done the Five Kingdoms of Life. Be sure to have them
look at members of each of the kingdoms.
* What kinds of animals are at Cazadero? Which Kingdom
are they in and why?
* Can you name any of them?
* Can you place them in any class of vertebrates?
(2) Find an area where they will be comfortable and
yet have access to some examples. Animals move around
a lot, so predicting where you will find examples may
be a challenge. Luckily, all the students already know
about a large number of animals already, to finding
examples is not key to their learning this session.
* Do these classification schemes make sense?
* Do they help you to better understand nature?
(3) Try classifing 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
Webquest
interactive page.
Back to the Lesson
Plan Homepage
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