Humans have been classifying organisms since before recorded history, cataloging flora and fauna for our own species’ benefit. Recognition of particular forms—the bark of a tree, shape of a leaf, or color of a mushroom cap—could reveal important insight as to the organism’s functions, such as providing food, fiber, or medicine. In the activity that follows, students will create lists of physical traits (forms) for objects, followed by lists of functions. Students will then look for similarities across objects and classify the objects based on shared forms and uses.
Details
Type Journal ArticlePub Date 3/1/2009Stock # sc09_046_07_56Volume 046Issue 07