The shape of the lesson
By the end of the lesson, learners can
- Kingdoms are told apart by their cells: Core: the features of the animal and plant kingdoms.
- The five groups of vertebrates: Vertebrates are animals with a backbone.
- The four groups of arthropods: Arthropods are invertebrates with jointed legs, a segmented body and a hard exoskeleton.
- Extended: ferns and flowering plants: Extended content.
- Plant v animal cells: cellulose cell wall and chloroplasts in plants only.
- Vertebrates: scales and gills (fish), moist skin (amphibians), dry scales (reptiles), feathers (birds), fur and milk (mammals).
- Arthropods: count pairs of legs, body parts and antennae: 3/3/1 insect, 4/2/0 arachnid, >4 pairs with 2 pairs of antennae crustacean, many segments myriapod.
- Extended: fungi have chitin walls; prokaryotes no nucleus; viruses only genetic material in a protein coat.
One picture every idea returns to
Animals and plants are both multicellular, but plant cells have cellulose cell walls and chloroplasts while animal cells have neither. Vertebrates are grouped by skin covering, breathing and reproduction: fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals. Arthropods have jointed legs, a segmented body and an exoskeleton, and are grouped by counting legs, body parts and antennae: insects, arachnids, crustaceans, myriapods. Extended: every organism is in one of five kingdoms (animal, plant, fungus, prokaryote, protoctist); flowering plants are monocotyledons or dicotyledons; a virus is only genetic material in a protein coat.
Forty-five minutes, phase by phase
| Time | Phase | What happens in the room | Grouping |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 to 5 min | Hook: predict | Open with the question in the title, Count the legs, check the skin, look inside the cell.. Animals and plants are placed in their kingdoms by their cells. Put the figure on the board: it is the one picture every idea in the lesson returns to. | Whole class, then pairs |
| 5 to 11 min | Teach and check: Kingdoms are told apart by their cells | Core: the features of the animal and plant kingdoms. Project tab 6 of the lab (Classification lab, five kingdoms) and let a student drive it while the class predicts. | Whole class, then pairs |
| 11 to 17 min | Teach and check: The five groups of vertebrates | Vertebrates are animals with a backbone. Project tab 4 of the lab (Classification lab, vertebrates) and let a student drive it while the class predicts. | Pairs |
| 17 to 23 min | Teach and check: The four groups of arthropods | Arthropods are invertebrates with jointed legs, a segmented body and a hard exoskeleton. Project tab 5 of the lab (Classification lab, arthropods) and let a student drive it while the class predicts. | Pairs |
| 23 to 30 min | Teach and check: Extended: ferns and flowering plants | Extended content. Project tab 7 of the lab (Classification lab, plant groups) and let a student drive it while the class predicts. | Quiz-Quiz-Trade |
| 30 to 36 min | Check | The four Stage 1 questions from the student lesson, answered on mini whiteboards or by show of fingers. Re-teach the one most get wrong. | Individual, then whole class |
| 36 to 43 min | Plenary | The exam-style questions from Stage 2, one at a time: thirty seconds alone, then a random call. The feedback lines in the key give the examiner's wording. | Individual, random call |
| 43 to 45 min | Exit and homework | Set the worksheet below (6 questions, 22 marks). Learners self-assess against the objectives before they leave. | Individual |
Protect the parts that carry the learning
The sequence carries about fifty minutes of material, so the lab is driven by one student while the class predicts rather than explored freely. Times are a guide.
Protected: the check at 30 minutes. It is the only individual read on whether the key idea landed, and it is not cut.
Cut first if the build overruns: the last check in Extended: ferns and flowering plants, never the check or the plenary.
In a 60 minute block: run worksheet questions 1 to 3 in class as a Rally Coach set and model both the hardest worked example and its check live.
Quiz-Quiz-Trade
Each student holds a card with a question on the front and the answer on the back. They pair up, quiz each other, coach if needed, trade cards and find a new partner. Three rounds covers the whole set.
The full structure, with its variations and the other twelve, is on the cooperative-learning page.
What to head off, and how
| Trap learners fall into | Teaching move that pre-empts it |
|---|---|
| Fungi are not plants. | A mushroom grows out of the ground, but fungal cell walls are made of chitin, not cellulose, and fungi have no chloroplasts, so they cannot photosynthesise. |
| Classify by features, not by habitat or lifestyle. | A whale and a dolphin live in the sea but breathe with lungs and feed their young on milk: mammals. A penguin cannot fly but has feathers: a bird. A bat flies, but it has fur and its wings are skin: a mammal. |
| Read whether a question gives legs or pairs of legs. | Eight legs is four pairs (arachnid); eight pairs would point to a myriapod or crustacean. A spider is not an insect: it has four pairs of legs, two body parts and no antennae. |
Features of organisms: worksheet
6 questions, 22 marks. Written in the style of the papers; no past paper question is reproduced.
State three features that are used to place an organism in the plant kingdom rather than the animal kingdom.
State two visible features of (a) birds and (b) mammals that are used to classify them.
Classify each arthropod into its group. P: 8 legs, 2 body parts, no antennae. Q: 6 legs, 3 body parts, 1 pair of antennae. R: about 60 segments with 2 pairs of legs on each, 1 pair of antennae. S: 10 legs, 2 pairs of antennae, hard shell containing calcium.
Dolphins live in the sea and have a streamlined body and fins. Explain why they are classified as mammals and not as fish.
Extended. (a) State two features of fungi that are different from plants. (b) State two features of viruses, and explain why viruses are not placed in any of the five kingdoms.
Extended. A student finds three plants. X has fronds with brown spots underneath and no flowers. Y has broad leaves with branching veins and flowers with five petals. Z has long narrow leaves with parallel veins and flowers with parts in threes. Identify the group of each plant, and state how Y and Z differ in their seeds.
Answer key and marking notes
- Cells have cellulose cell walls.
- Cells contain chloroplasts.
- They make their own food by photosynthesis (both kingdoms are multicellular, so this does not separate them).
- (a) Birds: feathers; a beak.
- (Also accept: front limbs are wings; eggs with hard shells.)
- (b) Mammals: fur or hair; external ears (pinnae).
- (Also accept: whiskers; mammary glands.)
- P: arachnid (4 pairs of legs, no antennae).
- Q: insect (3 pairs of legs, 3 body parts).
- R: myriapod (many segments, legs on each).
- S: crustacean (more than 4 pairs of legs, 2 pairs of antennae).
- Classification uses the features of the organism, not where it lives.
- Dolphins breathe air with lungs, not gills.
- They have mammary glands and feed their young on milk (and have a few hairs), which are mammal features.
- (a) Fungal cell walls are made of chitin, not cellulose; fungi have no chloroplasts and feed by secreting enzymes onto organic matter and absorbing the products.
- (b) A protein coat;
- genetic material (DNA or RNA).
- Viruses are not made of cells, so they cannot be placed in a kingdom of cellular organisms.
- X: fern (fronds, spores made in sori, no flowers).
- Y: dicotyledon (net veins, flower parts in fives).
- Z: monocotyledon (parallel veins, flower parts in threes).
- Seeds of Y have two cotyledons; seeds of Z have one.
8 multiple-choice questions on this lesson
From the topic question bank. Assign them in the app for a marked score in your gradebook, or run the topic as a class game.
Which feature is shared by members of both the animal kingdom and the plant kingdom?
- AThey are multicellular, with cells that have a nucleus
- BTheir cells contain chloroplasts for photosynthesis
- CTheir cells are surrounded by a cellulose cell wall
- DThey feed on organic substances made by other organisms
A sea turtle spends almost all of its life swimming in the sea. It has dry scales and lungs, and it lays eggs with soft, leathery shells on sandy beaches. Which group of vertebrates does it belong to?
- Areptiles
- Bamphibians
- Cfish
- Dbirds
Which feature is found in mammals but in no other group of vertebrates?
- Amammary glands that make milk for the young
- Blungs for breathing in air
- Ca backbone made of vertebrae
- Deggs that are fertilised inside the body
The drawing shows a wingless arthropod. Which group does it belong to?
- Ainsects
- Barachnids
- Ccrustaceans
- Dmyriapods
Which features place a frog in the amphibians rather than the reptiles?
- Amoist, smooth skin with no scales, and eggs without shells laid in water
- Blungs in the adult, and eggs that are laid rather than live young
- Cfour legs, and a skeleton with a backbone
- Ddry skin covered in scales, and eggs with leathery shells
An organism is single-celled. It has a cell wall, its DNA is a circular loop in the cytoplasm and it has no nucleus. Which kingdom is it in?
- Aprokaryote
- Bprotoctist
- Cfungus
- Dplant
Chlorella lives in ponds. It is a single cell with a nucleus, a cell wall and a chloroplast. Which kingdom is it placed in?
- Aprotoctist
- Bplant
- Cprokaryote
- Dfungus
Which combination of features describes a dicotyledon?
- Atwo cotyledons in the seed, broad leaves with a network of veins, flower parts in fours or fives
- Bone cotyledon in the seed, narrow leaves with parallel veins, flower parts in threes
- Ctwo cotyledons in the seed, narrow leaves with parallel veins, flower parts in threes
- Dno seeds, large divided fronds, spores made in sori under the leaves
Quiz key
Animals and plants are both multicellular, and their cells have a nucleus. Chloroplasts and cellulose cell walls are found in plant cells only, so they are used to separate the kingdoms, not to join them. Feeding on organic substances made by other organisms is an animal feature; plants make their own food by photosynthesis.
Dry scales, lungs and leathery-shelled eggs laid on land are reptile features. Amphibians have moist skin without scales and lay eggs without shells in water. Fish have wet scales and gills, and spending its life in water does not make the turtle a fish. Birds have feathers and lay eggs with hard shells.
Only mammals have mammary glands that make milk. Lungs are also found in adult amphibians, reptiles and birds; every vertebrate has a backbone; and birds and reptiles also have fertilisation inside the body, so none of these is unique to mammals.
Three body parts (head, thorax, abdomen), three pairs of legs on the thorax and one pair of antennae make it an insect; worker ants are wingless insects. Arachnids have four pairs of legs, two body parts and no antennae. Crustaceans have more than four pairs of legs and two pairs of antennae. Myriapods have many similar segments, each with legs.
Moist skin without scales and shell-less eggs laid in water are amphibian features that reptiles lack. Adult reptiles also have lungs and lay eggs, and reptiles such as lizards also have four legs and a backbone, so those features do not separate the groups. Dry scales and leathery-shelled eggs describe reptiles, not amphibians.
No nucleus, with circular DNA free in the cytoplasm, places it in the prokaryotes (bacteria). Protoctists are mostly single-celled too, but their cells have a nucleus. Some fungi, such as yeast, are single-celled with a cell wall, but they also have a nucleus. Plants have cell walls but are multicellular, with a nucleus in each cell.
A single cell with a nucleus places Chlorella in the protoctists; some protoctists are plant-like and have chloroplasts. Plants have chloroplasts but are multicellular. Prokaryotes are single-celled but have no nucleus. Fungi have no chloroplasts, so they cannot photosynthesise.
Dicotyledons have two cotyledons, broad leaves with a branching network of veins, and flower parts in fours or fives. One cotyledon, parallel veins and flower parts in threes describe a monocotyledon, and the third option mixes the two cotyledons of a dicot with monocot leaves and flowers. Fronds with spores in sori and no seeds describe a fern.
What to project
The student lesson embeds these tabs. Open them full screen on the projector; every slider has a drag handle on the stage.
Slides for this lesson
A projectable deck for every pack is on the way. Until then, present the student lesson full screen: its sections, figure and lab tabs follow the same order as the plan above.