Second Level Science Project

Living Things

You can work on this project on your own or with your siblings or a friend. Record your findings in your jotter. This project goes alongside the John Muir task grid. Aim to complete the project over the next two weeks.

Task 1: Classification of Living Thing?

You will remember from Primary 4 that all living things have to meet seven criteria to be classed as a living thing. Test your memory, can you remember the mnemonic Mrs Gren and what each letter stands for? You can use the sheet below to jog your memory if you need to.

We are now going to learn how to classify plants and animals into smaller groups. Click here to learn more about the classification of plants. As you are watching take some notes and record your understanding in your jotter.

Now find out more about the classification of animals by learning about vertebrates and invertebrates. Click on the links to watch each film and again take notes and record your understanding in your jotter.

Task 2: Making Keys

As you can see from the previous task scientists use lots of different criteria to categorise plants and animals into smaller groups. To help everyone identify some of the millions of plants and animals there are keys are used. Keys ask ‘yes or no questions’ to help you identify the

living thing you are looking at. However, to help you understand how a key works other objects can be used.

In the key below liquorice allsorts have been used. Try making your own key. Pick a group of objects to identify, this could be a different type of sweetie, ice cream flavours, Pokeman characters, members of your family or anything else you can think of. Create your key using yes and no questions and set it out in your jotter. Ask a family member to test your key to see if it works.

Task 3: Using Keys

Go for a walk in one of our beautiful local parks or wild spaces. Take one of the sheets below and see if you can identify some of the flowers or trees you find. You could record your findings with some photographs or by drawing a selection of the plants you find in your jotter. Remember to please NOT pick the flowers you see – leave them for everyone to enjoy.

If you’d like to extend this task further, you could make a key of the flowers you’ve found and ask a family member to test it using one of the photographs you took or pictures you drew. You can also find more information about some of the wildflowers you might have seen here and the trees you might have identified here.

Looking for more? Glasgow Science Centre are running a #bigbiodiversityweek this week, there are videos and activities to do each day. Click here to learn more.