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I just read the article on classifying birds in this new book published by NSTA press. It looks like a wonderful activity. I was very keen to use this in class soon, as we are doing taxonomy right now. But I am having trouble with the activity--I am unable to figure out how the authors decided which of these birds are the same species, I must be missing something. Has anyone else taken a look at this activity. This one activity from the book is free online. Basically I made a grid of which birds mate with which and then used that to determine which birds are the same species. But my answers do not jibe with the answer key provided in the article. I am probably overlooking something. This article just got sent to us in our Book Beat e mail from NSTA, but I am also enclosing it here.

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BookBeat201301GenerateAnArgument.pdf (1.66 Mb)

Hi Harriet, I just gave it a quick look-over, but I think one can determine number of species by mating patterns. Since species only mate with other members of the same species and since that information is provided, that would be one way to help determine how many species are represented in the 10 birds described. For example, it says that I will only mate with G. Then when you continue looking at the other characteristics it becomes apparent that I is the female and G is the male of the same species. I hope this helps. You are right! It looks like a great activity. Let us know how it goes. Carolyn

OK I think I see. I was not factoring in the male and female. I was only looking at the species information. Thanks!!

F and B are both females,so that helps to explain why those two particular birds can't mate with each other. So the fact that a bird species does NOT have a particular bird listed does not necessarily mean that those two CAN mate with each other. As was the case with the two females. There is a lot of deductive reasoning going on with this activity making it an excellent one for using critical thinking skills. Thanks for sharing this, Harriet! I am liking it a lot!

Thanks so much for replying. Now I am clearer on it I will try it. Happy

Harriet, Did you factor in the habitat and range? Some birds are too geographically separate to mate. Looks like a fun activity that will really get them thinking.

Thank you Adah and Pat. I will look at the articles and the resources you suggest. We did a lot with dichotomous keys this year but not so much having the kids explore the concept of species. I have run out of time for my taxonomy unit. Perhaps I can do the birds activity and some of your suggestions and tie it all in to evolution.......which is coming up. Happy

This would be a wonderful activity for us right now. I will look this over wihtin a day or two with my students. I was thinking along the lines of probabilities: would it be equally likely that two members of the same species would have an opportunity to mate or are there other factors like plummage, age, appearance of mate as a viable or desirable gene pool as in mate selectivity, or could one male be the alpha mating bird and have a harem. All these factors could affect the outcome and skew the numbers. I am assuming this is all within a similar season and geographic location (nesting locale). I am thinking also about fecundity and offspring viability as probable factors along with pesticides residues and calcium availability as potential culprits. Can't wait to try it out!