Part 4 More about classifying plants

Living things
Part 4
More about classifying plants
Contents – Part 4
Introduction – Part 4 ......................................................... 3
Lesson 16 – Plant features ............................................... 5
What makes up plants? ............................................................5
What did you achieve? ...........................................................12
Lesson 17 – History of plant classification ...................... 13
Classifying plants in ancient Greece ......................................13
What did you achieve? ...........................................................19
Lesson 18 – Plant groups ............................................... 21
What are the main plant groups? ...........................................21
A more detailed look at plant group features.........................24
Plant groups ............................................................................36
What's next?............................................................................37
What did you achieve? ...........................................................38
Lesson 19 – Living things database ............................... 39
Using a database ....................................................................40
Living things database ............................................................40
What did you achieve? ...........................................................45
Lesson 20 – Revision puzzles ........................................ 47
What did you achieve? ...........................................................54
Suggested answers – Part 4........................................... 55
Exercises – Part 4 .......................................................... 63
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Living things
Introduction – Part 4
In Part 4, you’ll be revising many things that you’ve covered so far.
You will be investigating the steps involved in classifying, this time
using plant classification as the example.
The chart below shows the steps involved in classifying – observing,
describing, looking for similarities and differences and grouping.
All these steps build to a classification system.
Observing
Describing
Looking for similarities and differences
Grouping
Classification system
Identifying patterns
and change
Identifying
unknown organisms
Naming organisms
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
As well, the chart shows the usefulness of building a system that can be
used to classify. A classification system can be used to identify patterns
and change, and to name and identify organisms.
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Lesson 16 – Plant features
There is a large number of very different types of plants.
They are much easier to study and identify when they are classified.
You use the same steps to classify plants that you used to classify
animals.
Do you remember those steps?
What makes up plants?
Structural features of plants are the parts that make up a plant. You will
be familiar with many of the common plant structures.
Parts of a plant
Many similar structures are found in plants. These include structures such
as roots, flowers, stems and leaves.
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Activity: What are plants made up of?
Label the roots, flower, stem and leaves on the plant drawn below.
A plant
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
Check your response by going to the suggested answers section.
The parts of a plant are called the structural features. Therefore, some
structural features of a plant are the leaves, roots, stems and flowers.
Now take a closer look at one of these structural features of plants –
the leaves.
Looking at leaves
Are all leaves alike? Is the leaf of a banana tree the same as the leaf of a
wheat plant? In some ways they are similar – leaves all have edges and
veins and are usually green. Leaves can also be quite different as you
can see in the drawings following.
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Living things
Five leaves from different plants
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
You can see that leaves can have a variety of shapes.
Here are some common vein patterns in leaves.
parallel
network
pinnate
palmate
Leaf veins\
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
The veins in the gum leaf are most like the network pattern.
What about the shapes of leaf edges?
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entire
emarginate
dentate
lobed
crenate
Leaf edges
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
Gum leaf
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
This gum leaf has network veins and an entire edge. This description
names the type of veins and the edge of the leaf. But what does this
description mean?
The edges of the gum leaf are most like the entire leaf edge. This is why
the gum leaf is described as having network veins and an entire edge.
Use the diagrams of ‘Leaf veins’ and ‘Leaf edges’ to help you identify the
patterns of veins and the shapes of the leaf edges in the next activity.
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Living things
Activity: Looking at leaves
Describe the veins and edges of each of the five leaves drawn below.
1
Geranium leaf
2
bougainvillea leaf
3
bottlebrush leaf
© State of New South Wales, Department of
Education and Training, 2004
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4
rose leaf
5
dandelion leaf
© State of New South Wales, Department of
Education and Training, 2004
Check your response by going to the suggested answers section.
The features of leaves that you have been looking at are distinctive.
Are leaves useful for classifying plants?
Try to decide if leaves are a useful feature for classifying plants. In the
picture below there are drawings of the leaves from a bottlebrush and a
tradescantia plant.
callistemon (bottlebrush)
tradescantia
Two plants to compare
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
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Compare them. What are their similarities? What have they got in
common?
Activity: Are leaves useful for classifying plants?
Describe the two leaves.
•
bottlebrush leaf
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
•
tradescantia leaf
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
This still doesn’t answer the question
of how plants are classified.
Both leaves have an entire edge and have prominent veins.
But from the drawing ‘Two plants to compare’, you can see that each
plant is quite different from the other! Tradescantia is a soft-stemmed
climbing plant whereas bottlebrushes are small woody trees.
And have you ever noticed that some gum trees have different shaped
leaves on the same plant! Some plants don’t even have leaves. This all
adds to the trouble with using leaves in classification.
How then are plants classified?
In this lesson, you had a look at the difficulties of using leaves as a
feature in classification. You can say that leaves are useful in describing
plants. But leaves are not useful if they are the main feature used to
classify plants.
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This still doesn’t answer the
question of how plants are
classified.
Now that you know that choosing a feature is not as easy as you might
have thought, you can learn from the work of botanists in the past.
From there, you will look at how modern botanists classify plants.
Do you remember what a
botanist is?
A botanist is a scientist who
investigates plants.
Usually at the end of a lesson, there is a summary for you.
This time, it is your turn.
Go to the exercises section and complete Exercise 4.1 – Plant features.
What did you achieve?
Tick what you can do.
list some structural features of plants
describe the leaves of different plants
decide if leaves are a useful feature in plant classification.
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Lesson 17 – History of plant
classification
You investigated one structural
feature of plants – the leaves.
You discovered that leaf shape and
characteristics are a feature useful
when you describe plants.
flower
leaf
However, leaves aren’t useful as
the main feature for classifying
plants.
In this lesson, you will be taking a
look at some features that have
been used in the past to classify
plants.
stem
root
© State of New South Wales, Department of
Education and Training, 2004
Classifying plants in ancient
Greece
Theophrastus lived after Aristotle in the 3rd century BCE. He, like
Aristotle, classified living things by careful observation of structural
features. The diagram below is a key for the classification system
devised by Theophrastus.
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plants
Is there a stem?
no
yes
Is there only one stem?
herb
no
yes
undershrub
Are the branches close to the ground?
no
tree
yes
shrub
Theophrastus’s plant classification key
Did you notice that this is a slightly different way to write a key? But it
is not difficult to read.
Once again, start at the top of the key at plants. Then you make careful
observations of your plant to answer the questions at each step.
Bougainvillea
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
For example, how would you classify bougainvillea? Is there a stem?
Yes. Is there only one stem? No. Therefore, bougainvillea is an
undershrub.
Practise using this type of key by classifying the plants in the following
picture ‘Five different plants’.
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Activity: Classifying plants in ancient Greece
Classify the rest of the plants in the following picture.
Plant
Plant group
dandelion
wheat
pine tree
gum tree
grass
sedge
dandelion
sedge
pine tree
grass
wheat
gum tree
Six different plants
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
Check your response by going to the suggested answers section.
Like Aristotle, Theophrastus was both a scientist and a philosopher.
He is considered the founder of the science of botany because of his
detailed study of plant structures and reproduction, and his ideas about
classification. Theophrastus' writings about botany were the basis of all
plant studies until the 17th century.
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What features were used to classify
plants?
What features did Theophrastus use to classify plants? Look again at the
key ‘Theophrastus’s plant classification key’ to help you decide.
plants
Is there a stem?
no
yes
Is there only one stem?
herb
no
yes
undershrub
Are the branches close to the ground?
no
yes
tree
shrub
Theophrastus’s plant classification key
Activity: What features were used to classify plants?
1
Write the features Theophrastus used to classify plants on the lines
below.
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
The features that Theophrastus used were the same as the choices you
made at each step in the key. That is:
•
stem or no stem
•
one or more stems
•
branches close to or well above the ground.
Theophrastus used stems to classify plants. Stems include trunks,
branches, twigs or sticks.
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2
Think about Theophrastus. In your own words, describe what this
Greek scholar contributed to biology.
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Check your response by going to the suggested answers section.
What about the other structural features of plants, are they useful for
classification?
Are stems useful for classifying plants?
Compare the three plants drawn below.
strawberry
dandelion
chives
Three plants
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
Use the key in ‘Theophrastus’s plant classification key’ to classify the
three plants.
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Activity: Are stems useful for classifying plants?
Complete the table following.
Plant
Plant group
chives
strawberry
dandelion
Check your response by going to the suggested answers section.
You will have realised that they all belong in the same group – herbs –
according to the system devised by Theophrastus. But just how similar are
these plants? Have another look at the drawings ‘Three plants’. Do you
agree that they don’t seem to be very alike at all?
Using stems as the only feature to classify
plants is not very useful.
What other features have been used to
classify plants?
The table below summarises the rest of the history of plant classification.
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Living things
Name
Period in history
Plant features used for classification
Theophrastus
371– 287 BCE
structural features
Albert the Great
1206–1280
flower shape and type of fruit
Andrea Cesalpina
1590–1603
seeds and fruits and general appearance
John Ray
1600s
leaves, flowers and fruit
J de Tournefort
1656–1708
flower structure
Carolus Linnaeus
1707–1778
flower structure
A short history of plant classification
Use the information in the table, ‘A short history of plant classification’, to
answer Exercise 4.2. You may wish to plan your answers on your own paper,
and then copy them into the answer pages.
Go to the exercises section and complete Exercise 4.2 – History of plant
classification.
Summary
•
Stems are not useful as the only feature in plant classification.
•
Plants have been classified in many different ways by many different
people.
In the next lesson, you will be looking at the plant features that botanists
now use when they are investigating plants – the modern classification of
plants.
What did you achieve?
Tick what you can do.
use a key to classify plants
decide if stems are a useful feature for classifying plants
describe some contributions to science made by people from
other cultures in the past.
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Living things
Lesson 18 – Plant groups
In this lesson on plant groups, you will be investigating a system of
classifying plants that is used today.
What are the main plant groups?
In this lesson, you'll learn about the five groups of plants in the modern
classification system.
They are:
•
algae
•
bryophytes
•
pteridophytes
•
gymnosperms
•
angiosperms.
What features are used in plant
classification?
What features are used to classify plants?
The key below shows you some of the main groups of plants.
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plants
Are there roots and stems?
no
yes
Are there leaves?
no
algae
yes
bryophytes
Are there seeds?
no
yes
pteridophytes
Are there flowers?
no
gymnosperms
yes
angiosperms
Plant group key
Activity: What features are used in plant classification?
Make a list of the features used to classify plants.
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Plants are classified using structural features including roots, stems, leaves,
seeds and flowers.
A quick look at each plant group
The table on the next page contains a drawing and description of an
example from each plant group.
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Activity: A quick look at each plant group
Use the key above to identify the group that matches each example.
Drawing
Description
Plant group
Lives in damp places,
often in water; simple
leaves but no roots,
stems or flowers
1 _________________
2 _________________
Lives in many
environments; leaves in
many shapes, roots to
absorb water and
minerals, seeds and
flowers for reproduction
Usually lives in damp,
shaded places; roots,
stems and leaves in
fronds but no flowers or
seeds
3 _________________
© State of New South Wales, Department
of Education and Training, 2004
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Usually lives in water,
either floating or
attached to the bottom;
does not have roots,
stems or leaves
4 _________________
5 _________________
Lives in many
environments; needleshaped leaves, extensive
roots and stems but no
flowers
© State of New South Wales, Department
of Education and Training, 2004
Check your response by going to the suggested answers section.
You have classified the major groups of plants now take a more detailed
look at the plant groups.
A more detailed look at plant
group features
In this section, you will read about each of the main plant groups.
Then, there is a summary for you to complete at the end of this section.
Algae
Have you ever been to the seaside? All around the rock pools and even
in the water there are plants. These plants are called seaweeds.
There are a large number of different seaweeds. Seaweeds are plants that
belong in the group, algae.
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Algae
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
Algae can be green, red or brown. Ulva is an example of a green algae.
It is sometimes called sea lettuce. Corallina is an example of a red
seaweed.
Look at the photograph and diagram of another type of algae in the
following pictures.
Hormosira sp
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
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Hormosira is an example of brown algae. This plant is sometimes called
Neptune’s necklace. It lives in rock pools on the seashore.
Here is a drawing of Hormosira. It gives a more detailed view of this
plant.
Diagram of Hormosira
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
So far, you know that algae live in seawater. There are other types of
algae that live in freshwater ponds, rivers or just very wet places.
What makes algae different from other plants? Algae are different
because of what they do not have, rather than what they do have.
Algae do not have roots, stems or leaves.
Activity: Algae
Think back. Why are algae classified as plants?
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Algae can make their own food. All the organisms that make their own food
are called plants.
However, algae are very simple. And there are animals that are very
similar to algae, except that they cannot make food. In the most recent
classification systems, algae and these animals that are similar to algae
are put into a kingdom of their own called the protists. Protistos is a
Greek word that means the very first. So protist is the kingdom for the
simplest organisms, including algae.
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Bryophytes
Have you ever been in a damp dark forest? Did you notice the green flat
plants covering the forest floor? Have you noticed a bright green plant
that looks and feels like velvet growing in a dark and damp corner of
your garden? If you have, then you‘ve seen some examples of the group
of plants called bryophytes. Mosses and liverworts are bryophytes.
Bryo- means moss in Greek and -phyte means plant, so bryophytes are
plants that are like mosses.
So far you have learned that bryophytes are small plants that grow in
damp places on land. But what are the other features of mosses and
liverworts?
Mosses
The 'carpet' in the background of the photograph ‘Mosses on the forest
floor’ below is a moss. Compare the photograph with the diagram
‘Moss plant’.
This will give you a better idea of some features of mosses.
spore capsule
simple leaves
attachment
© State of New South Wales, Department
of Education and Training, 2004
Mosses on the forest floor
Source:
© Jane West
The attachments on a moss are not roots. They do not absorb water and
minerals in the way that true roots do.
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Liverworts
Below is a photograph of some liverworts growing with some moss.
Source:
© Barbara Gurney
Liverworts are often found on the forest floor.
Compare the photograph and diagram of the Liverworts to get a better
idea of some features of liverworts.
spore capsule
simple flat leaves
Diagram of a liverwort
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
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Did you notice tiny structures sticking out of the mosses and liverworts
in the photographs and drawings? These structures are spore capsules.
They contain tiny spores for reproduction.
Activity: Liverworts
Now answer these questions.
1
Do liverworts have roots? _________________________________
2
Do liverworts have flowers? _______________________________
3
Why are liverworts called bryophytes?
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Check your response by going to the suggested answers section.
Pteridophytes (ferns)
Do you have any indoor plants? Many plants sold as house plants are
ferns. Common ferns include tree ferns, maidenhair ferns, fishbone ferns
and bracken.
Pteridophyte comes from two Greek words. Pteris means a fern and phyte means a plant.
Activity: Pteridophytes (ferns)
What is a pteridophyte?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
A pteridophyte is a plant that is like a fern.
The leaves of pteridophytes often have a lacy appearance. This can be
seen in plants like the maidenhair fern. Fern leaves are called fronds.
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Fern
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
And have you ever noticed the back of fern fronds? If you look closely,
you may see some little brown spots. These are spores. Ferns reproduce
by spores.
Look at the following photograph and find the spores. Then look back at
the photograph above. Can you identify spores in the photograph?
Spores on the back of a fern leaf
Source:
30
© Jane West
Living things
The following diagram also shows some other features of pteridophytes.
frond (fern leaf)
spores for reproduction
stems joining roots and leaves
roots absorb water and minerals
A fishbone fern
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
Pteridophytes, or ferns, are found in many different locations or
environments. They need to be in places where there is a fair amount of
moisture so you will not find them in a desert! They have roots to absorb
water but they need moisture so that spores can move around for
reproduction.
Pteridophytes, or ferns, can be a pest in some areas. Ferns such as
bracken are sometimes called weeds. If you’ve ever had to dig out ferns
where they are a problem, then you will have noticed that the stems are
underground. One exception to this is the tree fern that is a very tall fern.
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Tree fern
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
Gymnosperms
Have you ever noticed the features of a traditional real Christmas tree?
If you have, then you already know a lot about the group of plants called
gymnosperms. Gymnosperms include cycads, fir trees, pine trees,
cypress, spruce, ginkgo and redwoods.
In Greek, gymnosperm means “a plant with naked seeds". This is
because the seeds of a gymnosperm are not inside a fruit. Instead, a
gymnosperm has its seeds inside cones. When the cones open, the seeds
fall out.
You can see some of the main features of a gymnosperm in the following
drawing. It is a drawing of the most familiar gymnosperm – a pine tree.
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Living things
needle-like leaves
cone containing
seeds for reproduction
stems
root system underground
A pine tree
A pine cone
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
Did you notice the leaves? They are like needles. As well, the other
most obvious feature is the cones.
Can you identify the leaves and cones in the photograph below?
A pine branch
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
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Angiosperms (flowering plants)
The last plant group we'll look at is the one that you are probably most
familiar with – angiosperms, or flowering plants. What is the most
obvious feature of a flowering plant? The flowers, of course!
But, there are some flowering plants that don’t have obvious flowers.
See if you can pick the angiosperms (flowering plants).
yes
•
Is wheat a flowering plant?
•
Is a tomato a flowering plant?
•
Is a coconut palm a flowering plant?
•
Is grass a flowering plant?
•
Is a gum tree a flowering plant?
•
Is a peach tree a flowering plant?
•
Is an apple tree a flowering plant?
•
Is a lettuce plant a flowering plant?
•
Is barley a flowering plant?
•
Is a banana palm a flowering plant?
no
They are all angiosperms, or flowering plants! It may have been harder
than you thought to identify flowering plants. It would have been easier
for you if you knew that flowering plants produce fruits and seeds. So if
the flowers weren’t obvious, then the fruits or the seeds may have been.
The drawings below show you some of the different types of fruit
produced by flowering plants.
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Living things
blackberry
plum
pea
acorn
Fruits of some angiosperms
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
The following drawings show you some of the different types of seeds
produced by flowering plants.
dandelion
sycamore
broad bean
Seeds of some angiosperms
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
Angiosperms can look very different from each other because there are
many shapes and arrangements of leaves and stems. Even the roots on
angiosperms can have different forms and patterns. But angiosperms
have one main similarity.
In Greek, angio- means container and sperm means seed. Use this
information to carry out the activity below.
Activity: Angiosperms
What do you think angiosperm means?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
An angiosperm is a plant with its seeds inside a container, or fruit.
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Plant groups
You have read a lot of information about the different plant groups.
Now it’s time to summarise what you have learned so far.
Activity: What have you learned about plant groups?
Complete the following using information from this lesson.
Plant group
Features
Examples
algae
•
no roots, stems and leaves
Hormosira
•
live in _______________
_______________
•
have leaves but ________ roots
bryophytes
or ________.
pteridophytes
gymnosperms
36
_______________
•
___________ plants
•
live in __________ places
•
reproduce by ___________
•
have leaves
_______________
•
underground _______________
_______________
•
reproduce by _______________
•
roots, stems and leaves
_______________
•
produce seeds in
_______________
_______________
_______________
Living things
angiosperm
•
•
have ______________
_______________
_______________ and
_______________
_______________
_______________
Flowers produce
_______________
______________ that are
protected inside _____________
Check your response by going to the suggested answers section.
You can now use this information to carry out the exercise below.
Go to the exercises section and complete Exercise: 4.3 – Plant groups.
What's next?
Have you enjoyed learning about plants and using keys? Would you like
to try to draw your own key? Remember, a key uses the structural
features of living things to enable you to classify them into smaller and
smaller groups.
Here's an activity you can try. You might even like to do it as your
student research project.
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Activity: A plant search
Go on an excursion to a garden or native bush area.
Observe at least five different plants than construct a key that could be
used to identify them.
You should show your key to someone else to try in your garden or bush
area. How successful were they? Do you need to change your key?
Write a few sentences to describe how the key was used.
You might like to include drawings or pressed, dried plant cuttings with
your key and report for your teacher.
If you are overseas, then do not
send plants to Australia. They may
have diseases that plants in
Australia do not have.
What did you achieve?
Tick what you can do.
use a key to classify plants into the main plant groups
compare photographs with drawings of plants
complete a table summarising the features of the five main plant
groups.
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Living things
Lesson 19 – Living things
database
To carry out this lesson you will need access to a computer and the
Living things database. Your teachers should have supplied this database
on a CD. There are different files depending on whether you are using a
Mac or a PC.
The overall picture
In the unit, you have classified living things into many different groups.
Here is a map to help you get an overall look at how everything fits
together. This map (or key) shows you how scientists classify living
things.
non-living
plants
all things
algae
bryophytes
pteridophytes
gymnosperms
angiosperms
living
vertebrates
fish
amphibians
reptiles
birds
mammals
animals
invertebrates
cnidaria
worms
echinodermata
molluscs
arthropods
crustaceans
insects
arachnids
Overall view of classification
It is a useful tool to use a database to classify a group of organisms.
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Using a database
A database is a way of organising information. The most useful feature
of a database is the ability to search for information using different
criteria. For example, if you had a database made up of all your favourite
songs and you entered information on the following topics (fields):
Name of song, name of album, band and year,
You could search for the songs of a particular band and then search for
all the songs on their latest album. The database will search the files
using the two fields and quickly give you the names of the song you are
interested in.
Some terms that you will need to know when using a database are:
Field
Store, calculate, and display the data you have entered
into a record. Field values can be text, numbers, dates
times, pictures, sounds, movies
Record
When you enter data into the database you add a new
record
List view
All records visible
Form view
Only one record visible
Living things database
The Living things database gives you the opportunity to use different
criteria to group organisms. The picture following is a form view of a
record in the Living things database.
The individual fields in this database are: Name, Phylum, Class,
Description, Picture.
40
Living things
Activity: Living things database
See if you can find the individual fields in the diagram.
Check your response by going to the suggested answers section.
There are also four buttons on the right hand side. Each of these buttons
has been given a function. They are:
Find gives you a blank record. Type into the
Description field the type of organism you are
searching for eg. carnivore, mammal.
This button gives you all of the records present, in
this case there are 41 records.
This button allows you to make your own record.
This allows you to sort so that the records appear in
a particular order, such as based on Phylum.
Use a computer to access the Living things database.
If you do not have access to a computer, you will not be able to do this
lesson
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41
Opening the database
Open the database on the CD supplied. Choose either the Mac version or
PC version folder. And click on the Start here file. This will open the
database. Now save the file to your desktop by going to File and then
Save a copy. This will allow you to make changes to the database and
create new records.
On the left-hand side of the window there is a ‘card file’ showing the
number of records, e.g. Records: 41. Click on the ‘pages’ to go through
the records one by one.
In the bottom right-hand corner the record number appears. Dragging the
bar will take though through the records quickly.
Have a look at the database by flipping through the records on the
left-hand side. You can flip forwards by clicking the bottom part of the
icon and backwards by clicking the top page.
In this database there are 41 records.
Searching in the database
Now carry out a search by pushing the Find button and entering the term
mammal into the Description field.
Find a mammal.
Then push the find button on the left hand side.
42
Living things
The results of a search for finding mammals.
You can see from the left-hand side of this screen that there are seven
mammals found in the database. Flip through these now and look at the
mammals.
Making a new record
You can make a new record card by pushing the New button.
The new record card.
Now type in the fields the following information
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43
Name
Earthworm
phylum
Annelida
class
Oligochaeta
description
animal
consumer, omnivore, decomposer, invertebrate,
segmented worm
You have been given some pictures to use in a file called Pictures on the
CD Living things. To insert a picture of the earthworm go to the top
menu in the database and select Insert and then picture from the
drop-down menu.
Then browse to the Pictures folder on the CD and choose the file
earthworm.jpg.
Congratulations, you have just made a new record!
Now you will have an opportunity to make your own records and use the
database.
Preparing for Exercise 4.4
In this exercise you will need to have the database Living things open at
the same time you answer the questions.
Go to the exercises section and complete Exercise 4.4 – Using a
database.
44
Living things
What did you achieve?
Tick what you can do.
access a database
search fields in a database
create a new record in a database.
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45
46
Living things
Lesson 20 – Revision puzzles
In this, the last lesson of the unit, you are going to do some more
revision. This time, you are going to use what you have learned to do
some puzzles as well as to revise your previous skills.
Individual differences
When you classified living things, you divided them into smaller groups.
The members of the small groups are a lot more similar to each other
than they are to other living things.
bullfrog
snail
snail
jellyfish
jellyfish
human
ant
tree frog
lizard
tree frog
bullfrog
ant
lizard
human
bullfrog
tree frog
human
lizard
Grouping animals
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
For example, animals include snails, ants, bullfrogs, tree frogs, jellyfish,
lizards and humans. These can be divided into two groups.
Group 1
includes snails, ants and jellyfish.
Group 2
contains bullfrogs, tree frogs, lizards and humans.
Group 2 can be divided into three groups. One group contains the tree
frog and the bullfrog because a bullfrog and a tree frog are alike. They
are not very similar to a human or to a lizard.
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47
As the groups get smaller, the members of each group are becoming
more similar.
Within each group, the members have differences as well. If you think
about humans, you'll realise that even though people are all human,
people differ a lot. With careful observations, it is possible to describe
these differences.
The next exercise gives you an opportunity to practice observing and
describing.
Go to the exercises section and complete Exercise: 4.5 – Revision
puzzles.
Classifying animals
The two major groups you have studied in this unit are vertebrates and
invertebrates.
What is the difference between a vertebrate and an invertebrate? You
will find the answer hidden in the puzzle below. The puzzle is a find-aword.
Activity: Classifying animals
Circle each animal name in the puzzle. There are twenty animal names
in the puzzle.
48
lizard
whale
goldfish
squid
barnacle
emu
elephant
parrot
snail
bee
crocodile
tiger
jellyfish
butterfly
cockroach
turkey
human
sea urchin
wasp
scallop
Living things
V
E
R
T
E
S
N
A
I
L
B
R
A
T
E
A
N
I
M
A
L
S
L
I
Z
A
R
D
H
A
V
J
E
H
C
A
O
R
K
C
O
C
A
N
I
N
P
E
T
E
R
N
E
A
S
Q
U
I
D
L
S
G
A
L
K
E
L
G
E
T
O
N
A
N
D
E
O
T
R
L
Y
N
I
H
C
R
U
A
E
S
A
L
B
N
R
Y
L
T
A
C
K
B
O
N
E
I
D
I
N
A
O
F
F
V
E
R
T
E
B
R
A
F
T
D
E
H
T
I
R
S
P
D
O
N
O
W I
T
V
O
E
P
R
S
E
T
O
E
B
R
H
S
A
T
B
C
E
E
S
H
T
A
L
R
E
A
H
C
L
U
E
O
A
L
S
S
T
I
L
F
L
I
U
E
M
D
E
R
A
E
S
F
U
I
A
E
S
H
M
E
A
M
P
C
H
I
B
I
B
A
C
N
S
R
A
E
P
T
Y
E
K
R
U
T
I
P
S
A
W L
N
B
A
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N
A
C
L
E
E
S
B
I
R
D
A
N
D
M
A
M
M
A
L
S
S
Now write the unused letters in order across each line.
They will spell out a hidden message. You will need to add your own
punctuation (capital letters, full stops and commas).
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
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Check your response by going to the suggested answers section.
Of the twenty animals that you found in the puzzle, ten of them are
vertebrates and the other ten are invertebrates.
Activity: Vertebrate or invertebrate?
Break this list up into groups of invertebrates and vertebrates.
lizard
whale
goldfish
squid
barnacle
emu
elephant
parrot
snail
bee
crocodile
tiger
jellyfish
butterfly
cockroach
turkey
human
sea urchin
wasp
scallop
List the vertebrates and the invertebrates in the table below.
Vertebrates
50
Invertebrates
Living things
Check your response by going to the suggested answers section.
Classifying plants
You have learned that plants are living things able to make their own
food. You have also learned about the five main plant groups.
The puzzle below contains six important words from your study of
plants. It is your job to make up the clues for this puzzle. Your clues
should be a scientific description of each term.
Activity: Classifying plants
Write the clues for this puzzle on the lines below.
1 down
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
1 across
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
2 across
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
3 across
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
4 across
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
5 across
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
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1
P
T
E
R
I
D
O
P
H
Y
T
E
S
P
E
R
M
S
G
I
O
S
P
P
H
Y
R
M
S
T
E
S
H
2
B
R
Y
O
T
O
3
G
Y
M
N
O
S
Y
4
A
N
E
T
H
5
A
L
G
A
E
S
I
S
Check your response by going to the suggested answers section.
Understanding the history of science
Throughout this unit, you have been thinking about historical examples
related to the study of living things. These examples have come from a
range of different cultures.
52
Living things
Activity: Understanding the history of science
Revise this aspect of your learning by answering the following questions.
1
Describe a scientific idea that another culture has contributed to the
study of living things.
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
2
Describe a non-scientific idea that another culture has developed to
describe their observations of some living things.
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
3
Describe a scientific idea that has changed as new observations have
been made or as new ideas about living things have developed.
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Check your response by going to the suggested answers section.
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53
What did you achieve?
Tick what you can do.
identify and describe differences of organisms
recall that plants make their own food
recall definitions for the five main plant groups
identify examples of animal groups
identify historical examples of how scientific knowledge has
changed people's understanding of living things.
You have now completed the unit on Living things.
54
Living things
Suggested answers – Part 4
Check your responses against these suggested answers.
What are plants made up of?
flower
leaf
stem
root
A plant
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
Looking at leaves
Part 4
1
A geranium leaf has palmate veins and a crenate edge.
2
A bougainvillea leaf is entire with pinnate veins.
3
A bottlebrush leaf is entire with parallel veins.
4
A rose leaf has network veins and a dentate edge.
5
A dandelion leaf is lobed with network veins.
More about classifying plants
55
Classifying plants in ancient Greece
Plant
Plant group
dandelion
herb
wheat
undershrub
pine tree
tree
gum tree
tree
sedge
herb
grass
herb
What features were used to classify plants?
Theophrastus began the scientific study of plants. His ideas and records were
used in the development of ideas about how plants should be classified, about
plant structures and about how plants reproduce.
Are stems useful for classifying plants?
Plant
Plant group
chives
herb
strawberry
herb
dandelion
herb
A quick look at each plant group
1
bryophyte
2
angiosperm
3
pteridophyte
4
algae
5
gymnosperm
Note:
56
alga is one plant; algae is more than one plant of that kind.
Living things
Liverworts
1
No, liverworts don’t have roots
2
No, liverworts don’t have flowers.
3
Liverworts are called bryophytes because they are similar to mosses. They
do not have stems or roots but they do have simple leaves.
What have you learned about plant groups?
Plant group
Features
Examples
algae
•
no roots, stems and leaves
•
live in water
Hormosira (Neptune’s
necklace), corallina, ulva
(sea lettuce)
•
have leaves but no roots or stems
moss, liverwort
•
small plants
•
live in moist places
•
reproduce by spores
•
have leaves
•
underground stems
•
reproduce by spores
•
roots, stems and leaves
•
produce seeds in cones
•
have roots, stems and leaves
•
flowers produce seeds which are
protected inside fruit.
bryophytes
pteridophytes
gymnosperms
angiosperm
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treefern, bracken,
fishbone fern, maidenhair
fern
cycad, fir tree, pine tree,
cypress, spruce, ginkgo,
redwood
wheat, tomato, coconut
palm, grass, gum tree,
peach tree, apple tree,
lettuce, barley, banana
palm, blackberry, plum,
pea, dandelion,
oak (makes acorns),
sycamore, broadbean
57
Living things database
58
Living things
Classifying animals
The hidden message is:
Vertebrate animals have an internal skeleton and a backbone. Invertebrates do
not. Vertebrates are classified as fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.
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59
Activity: Vertebrate or invertebrate.
Vertebrates
Invertebrates
lizard
squid
whale
barnacle
goldfish
snail
emu
bee
elephant
jellyfish
parrot
butterfly
crocodile
cockroach
tiger
sea urchin
turkey
wasp
human
scallop
Classifying plants
1 down
The process that plants use to make their own food
1 across
Plants with leaves and underground stems that reproduce by spores
2 across
Plants with leaves but no roots that reproduce by spores
3 across
Plants with roots, stems and leaves that produce seeds in cones
4 across
Plants with roots, stems and leaves that reproduce with flowers
5 across
Simple plants without roots, stems or leaves
Understanding the history of science
1
60
There are many possible answers throughout the unit. You could describe:
•
the general understanding from most cultures of the difference
between living and non-living, and between plant and animal
•
how the Aboriginal understanding of land helps us understand the
meaning of environment (Part 1)
•
contributions of the ancient Chinese, van Helmont, Priestley, IngenHousz, Senebier (Part 2)
•
the development of the microscope (Part 2)
•
contributions of Aristotle and Saint Albertus Magnus (Part 3)
•
contributions of Aristotle, Theophrastus, Albert the Great, Cesalpina,
Ray, de Tournefort and Linnaeus (Part 4).
Living things
2
You could describe:
•
3
Part 4
the Aboriginal ideas of living and non-living or of the appearance of
the moon (Part 1)
You could describe:
•
the changing understanding of photosynthesis (Part 2)
•
the changing features used for classification (Part 3 and Part 4).
More about classifying plants
61
62
Living things
Exercises – Part 4
Exercises 4.1 to 4.5
Name
____________________________
Teacher ____________________________
Exercise 4.1: Plant features
Write a summary of the lesson that looks at the features of plants.
Summary
1
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
2
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
3
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
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Exercise 4.2: History of plant classification
Use the information in the table, ‘A short history of plant classification’,
to answer the following questions.
1
What features have been used in the past to classify plants?
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
2
Which feature has been used the most in plant classification?
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
3
Which feature has been used most recently to classify plants?
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
4
What contribution have these people made to science?
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
64
Living things
Exercise 4.3: Plant groups
plants
Are there roots and stems?
no
yes
Are there seeds?
Are there leaves?
no
no
yes
bryophytes
algae
yes
pteridophytes
Are there flowers?
no
gymnosperms
1
yes
angiosperms
Use the key to identify the group to which each of the plants below
belongs. Write the group on the line beside the photograph.
a
callistemon (bottlebrush)
b
pine tree
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education
and Training, 2004
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65
c
fern
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education
and Training, 2004.
2
Did you find it difficult to classify any of the plants in Question 1?
a
Which one(s)?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
b
Why? (What extra information did you need to make
a decision?)
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
66
Living things
Exercise 4.4: Using a database
Below is a screen shot of a new record in the Living things database.
1
Create that record in your copy of the database and then print a copy
of it for your teacher.
2
Use the database to find the following groups of animals.
a
Name two members of the phylum Cnidaria.
___________________________________________________
b
List the producers in the database.
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
c
List the carnivores in the database.
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
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67
Exercise 4.5: Revision puzzles
To help you practise observing and describing, two spiders are drawn in the
picture following.
Female small black house spiders and female Sydney funnel-web spiders
look very similar, but it is important that you can tell the difference in an
emergency! The Sydney funnel-web spider is highly venomous while the
small black house spider is not lethal (deadly).
List as many differences between the female small black house spider and
the female Sydney funnel-web spider as you can.
Remember, these observations could save your life!
Sydney funnel-web spider (female)
Small black house spider (female)
represents
represents
12 mm
4 mm
cephalothorax
abdomen
spinnerets
Spot the difference
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2004
Use sentences to write about the differences.
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
68
Living things