Students will participate in a 5E lesson on classification. To ENGAGE, students will think about common vs scientific names and interpret relatedness between four species. To EXPLORE, students will watch a clip of their choice from Our Planet and document organisms' defining characteristics. Students create a hierarchy to predict the relatedness of the species. To then learn about classification systems, students will participate in the EXPLAIN activities. Three videos and guided notes are available for students to document their learning. An EVALUATIVE formative assignment Candy Cladogram Drag and Drop is available for students to practice their understanding of phylogenetics. Then, students will ELABORATE on their knowledge by researching the scientific names of the organisms they observed in the Our Planet clip (explore section). Students will evaluate the accuracy of their orginial hierarchy and explain how scientific developments have impacted classification. Additional cladograms are included for students to interpret.

This activity is designed to teach students how cladistics can be used as a tool to analyze evolutionary change and relationships among organisms. Sheets contained here should be copied and then modified as the instructor sees fit. Fasteners, rather than fossils, are used as the specimens. 

Students receive information about cladistics and apply this phylogenetic approach to two problems, collecting data, determining whether traits are ancestral or derived, and using this information to select the most parsimonious tree.