7D Variation and
Classification
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Contents
Spotting variation
Summary activities
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Spot the differences
What are the differences between these organisms?
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Spot the differences
There are lots of differences between these organisms.
For example:
some have leaves;
some lay eggs;
some eat plants.
These organisms are different because they are all from
different species.
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Spot the differences – same species
There are also differences between organisms of the
same species.
For example, these people are all from the same species
but how many differences between them can you spot?
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What is variation?
Even though people are all from the same species, there
are many ways in which they are different from each other.
Some of them are male, some are female, some are tall,
some are short.
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Spotting variation
Summary activities
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What causes variation?
Variation is caused by two factors:
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Environmental or inherited?
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Environmental or inherited?
Sometimes it is not easy to determine whether a feature is
inherited or environmental.
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What about other features?
Some features are caused by a mixture of inheritance
and the environment, for example, nose shape.
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Spotting variation
Summary activities
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Common features
There is a lot of variation between organisms, but some
organisms also have many features in common.
Compare a cow and a dolphin, you might think they do not
have many things in common but you will be surprised.
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Common features
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What is classification?
Cows and dolphins have several features in common.
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Classification – grouping organisms
Sort these organisms into four groups based on their
similarities.
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Classification – grouping organisms
One way that a scientist might have grouped these
organisms is to put them into the following four groups:
1. Plants
2. Birds
3. Mammals
4. Reptiles
These groups come from the scientific system for
classifying organisms.
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The classification system
The classification system begins with very big groups
that include a lot of organisms and then moves down
to smaller groups made up of fewer organisms.
living things
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The five kingdoms
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Which kingdom?
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Classifying animals
How can different types of animals be classified?
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Animal classification
The animal kingdom is divided into two groups:
animals
vertebrates invertebrates
Vertebrates are animals Invertebrates are animals
that have a backbone. that do not have a backbone.
They have a firm body They have soft inner bodies
because of the muscles which are held in shape by a
that connect to their flexible covering of outer cells
skeleton. or by a hard covering called
an exoskeleton.
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Animal classification
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Animal classification – activity
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Features of vertebrates
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Which type of vertebrate?
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Which classification group?
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The odd one out
In terms of classification, which of these organisms is the
odd one out and why?
perch flounder
sturgeon
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The odd one out
In terms of classification which of these organisms is the
odd one out and why?
duck robin
swan
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The odd one out
In terms of classification which of these organisms is the
odd one out and why?
caterpillar lice
ant horse fly
moth
scorpion
cicada
ladybird
silverfish cockroach
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Contents
Spotting variation
Summary activities
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Glossary
classification – Sorting living things into groups.
environmental variation – Differences between
organisms that are due to the environment.
inherited variation – Differences between organisms
that are due to their parents.
invertebrate – An animal without a backbone.
kingdom – The largest groups that living things are
sorted into.
species – A group of organisms that can reproduce with
each other to produce viable offspring.
variation – The differences between living things.
vertebrate – An animal with a backbone.
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Anagrams
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Multiple-choice quiz
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