Chapter 2 Part 1:Living
Things
Part one of chapter 2 will consist of section 1 page 34-40 and section 2 page 42-49. I have broken up this chapter due to the large amount of information over living things and cells. In the first part of this chapter our major focus will be over what makes a living thing living, and how we classify these living things to make them easier to learn about and understand.
Section One - What is Life?
To begin section one, students will work with their partner to make an argument on whether the object they are given is living or non-living. They will present to the class the evidence they were able to collect to support their argument.
After our opening discussion, students will learn about the six characteristics that all living things share. As a class we will look at two scientists, Redi and Pasture, and the experiments they preformed to help explain where living things come from.
In the final part of section one students will identify what all living things need to survive.
Section Two - Classifying Organisms
In this section students will learn why biologists classify organisms. Students will learn about the binomial nomenclature naming system of Carolus Linnaeus. Students will then be introduced to the major levels of classification:
Domain
Kingdom
Phyla
Class
Order
Family
Genus
SpeciesIn the last part of section two students will identify characteristics used to classify organisms into a domain and kingdom.
Chapter Project - Leaf Classification Book
To help 7th graders apply the levels of classification to living things students will create a leaf classification booklet. We will take a field trip out to Scott County Park to collect those leaf rubbings. Once students have collected their rubbings they will classify each leaf by the seven levels of classification. Students will look at bark, branches, and leaf characteristics to find similarities to help them see similarities among our native Iowa trees.
