At the beginning of this unit, we were given a container that contained various screws, nails, washers, and other small bits of hardware that represented fossils. We then tried to decide how one bit evolved from another, and which hardware pieces were of the same species. On the next few project days, we gradually developed our cladogram, using what we were learning about reasons for evolution to figure out how each piece evolved. Then, we gave each species a species name, and a genus. Finally, we presented what our cladogram to the class. Our presentation can be seen below.
Note: our group decided that the fossils the hardware represented were teeth, instead of entire skeletons.
Concepts Used:
Cladogram: A cladogram is a diagram that shows how similar a series of things are, based on the traits they share. It does this by connecting them all to a single line, and as the line continues onward, more and more traits are added.
Organism Classifications: This is a system that allows biologists to group species together into a series of different categories. The categories are domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. At the top, a domain will have tens of thousands of different species, which all only have one or two traits in common. Near the bottom, a genus will only contain a few species, all of which are extremely closely related. An organism's scientific name is almost always two words. The first has its first letter capitalized, and is the genus the organism belongs to. The second is not capitalized, and is typically a trait the organism has that others in it's genus do not, though it could be anything. An organism's scientific name is also italicized.
Cladogram: A cladogram is a diagram that shows how similar a series of things are, based on the traits they share. It does this by connecting them all to a single line, and as the line continues onward, more and more traits are added.
Organism Classifications: This is a system that allows biologists to group species together into a series of different categories. The categories are domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. At the top, a domain will have tens of thousands of different species, which all only have one or two traits in common. Near the bottom, a genus will only contain a few species, all of which are extremely closely related. An organism's scientific name is almost always two words. The first has its first letter capitalized, and is the genus the organism belongs to. The second is not capitalized, and is typically a trait the organism has that others in it's genus do not, though it could be anything. An organism's scientific name is also italicized.
Reflection:
During this project, I was good at making people understand my logic. We had to arrange hardware based on how we thought it evolved, and I believe I was good at explaining why I thought things should be in a certain order to my team. I was also good at accepting other ideas. Everyone had a different way they thought things should be organized, and I was able to accept compromise, and not be too stubborn. There were things I did not do as well, however. One of those things was explaining exactly what I wanted to my team. When we were getting the pictures for the presentation, I had trouble getting my group to understand exactly what we needed. Another thing I was not good at was coming up with names for all the species. Every species needed it's own species name in Latin, and I was not inventive enough to figure them all out.
During this project, I was good at making people understand my logic. We had to arrange hardware based on how we thought it evolved, and I believe I was good at explaining why I thought things should be in a certain order to my team. I was also good at accepting other ideas. Everyone had a different way they thought things should be organized, and I was able to accept compromise, and not be too stubborn. There were things I did not do as well, however. One of those things was explaining exactly what I wanted to my team. When we were getting the pictures for the presentation, I had trouble getting my group to understand exactly what we needed. Another thing I was not good at was coming up with names for all the species. Every species needed it's own species name in Latin, and I was not inventive enough to figure them all out.