A few quick questions on what you should know about building a dichotomous key and why classification changes with new evidence. Taught in class; use this to check yourself.
Can you build a key that a stranger could use? And why do the groups in the textbook keep changing?
Two ideas your teacher covers in class. These questions check the basics: what makes a good key, and why classification changes.
Make your prediction first. Help opens once you've locked it in.
Would this make a good question in a key?
Could this lead scientists to change a classification?
A self-test on constructing dichotomous keys and on classification changing over time (AC9S7U01, nodes 4 and 5, both hinge nodes taught in class). About 12 minutes.
Open the teacher guide: answers, solutions, slides and a worksheet.
A Quick check: a few questions on what students should know for AC9S7U01 nodes 4 and 5, which you teach in class. It has no board, no clip and no new teaching, and it is optional, so it never holds up course completion. Set the width with ?width=minimum, typical (default) or wider.
Use it as a self-test after your teaching, a starter, or revision. Node 4 is best done with real specimens or cards; the questions only check the basics. For node 5 the reclassification examples are fungi nearer to animals than plants, protists as several lineages, and archaea as a separate domain.
Questions a stranger could answer the same way. When a student writes "is it big?", ask whether two people would agree.
Stretch: Make a key for the six students nearest you using only features you can see. Swap with a neighbour and mark where it fails.
Support: Give half-finished keys to complete, and a list of observable features to choose from.
Back in class: swap keys for peer testing; discuss the Wider lenses (First Nations classification, microscopes, biosecurity).