Dichotomous keys with a touch of the peculiar just right for Halloween in secondary Science

I created two new dichotomous keys in October, one focuses on animals and humanoids with legends, myths, and cryptids. I also threw in some real genetic diseases which are thought to have been the precursor to Halloween ghouls such as vampires and werewolves. The name of this dichotomous key is Cryptozoology Dichotomous Key: Monsters, Spooks, and Ghouls.

The second dichotomous key I created focuses on the odd members of the Plant Kingdom. In this dichotomous key students will classify carnivorous, poisonous or curious plants. The students will use knowledge of planting zones and plant anatomy to complete this dichotomous key. It is called Carnivorous, Poisonous and Curious Botanicals. 

Even if you do not get to use these mind-boggling dichotomous Keys in class for October, there are plenty of other chances you can use these lessons, for your Taxonomy and classification unit, following a state of college board exam? They also make great end of the year activities. Be sure to check out my full collection of dichotomous keys!

*** These dichotomous keys can be printed out on paper, presented to the class as a whole class activity through PowerPoint or uploaded to a password protected classroom website where students can work with a partner, independently or in small groups. 

Advantages of Electronic Dichotomous Keys

I am ashamed to admit I spent a good portion of my teaching career looking for good dichotomous keys for my students. I asked veteran teachers who would always claim to have an abundance only to disappoint me with bad runoff copies that contained vocabulary neither my native or ELL students could understand. I scoured the internet looking for good dichotomous keys my students could easily understand while exposing them to new organisms. I never found what I wanted.

I finally decided to take matters into my own hands and create my own dichotomous keys. After deciding which organisms I wanted to cover I set off to write the key itself. It took a lot of time, but I was very happy with the results. The first dichotomous key I created covered both bacteria domains, the four kingdoms and had viruses thrown in. It was a great way for me to assess my students understanding of the unique characteristics of those groups and their ability to classify. I thought about how I would present the organisms,

I decided against photocopies due to details often being muddied. I do not work in the richest school district so making class sets of color copies is not feasible either. I decided on presenting the organisms in a power point. The students could log into Schoology and then use their laptops, tablet, or cell phones to access the images. I did print out the dichotomous keys and answer documents.

The power point presentation was a great success! I paired the students up and watched them look at the pictures, read little notes and go through the dichotomous key to identify the organisms and viruses. I could listen to the students debate, about what they thought the answers were and redirect them if they were too far off. I could see what needed to be reviewed and what content my class had mastered.

This led me to creating a second Electronic dichotomous key dedicated to the flora of the Chihuahua desert. I have run across keys with plants that live further north or more humid climates compared to our desert. Although I like to expose my students to environments and creatures outside of our area, it is also important that they learn about their immediate surroundings as well. The next dichotomous key was based on desert plants. I was shocked to see how surprised my students were to see how many flowers our desert has. I had a few students come to class after a weekend to tell me now they noticed that El Paso does have a lot of plants and they remembered the names.

You can purchase these lessons at the following links:

Classifying Organisms Dichotomous Key

Desert Plants Dichotomous Key

Quest PowerPoints

Last school year during professional developments one of the catchphrases was "academic language."  The administrators were concerned that we were not allowing enough opportunities for students to use their academic language through writing, reading, and speaking. We have all heard about moving towards student facilitated learning and instruction and before that, the buzzword was cooperative learning, essentially in the classroom, these are all similes.

I live in El Paso, Texas where many of my students are bilingual but not mastering either English or Spanish. We often have classes filled with ESOL and LEP students, especially in secondary classrooms. It is imperative that we have our students use the academic language more frequently not only for school but so they can communicate in English effectively.

I thought about the dilemma and came up with a few lessons which proved to be quite successful in my class. After covering major units such as genetics, animals, or plants I want to see where my students' understanding is before testing them. I created a PowerPoint presentation for my students to use. I call it a "Quest PowerPoint" because my students go through the PowerPoint at their own pace preferably with a partner, not a group. The pair of students look at the picture, read the description, and then need to answer a question. The students are given a worksheet for them to record their answers on.

 The students talk to each other while moving from slide to slide, they also have their composition notebooks handy for references. Something beautiful happened when I administered my first Quest PowerPoint over plants. My students talked to each other using academic language. Yes, it was often mixed with Spanish, but they remembered the scientific terms and used them. I make a point to use fascinating scenarios and mind-boggling examples in nature. It keeps the students' interest peaked and discussion flowing. It was nice to walk around the room seeing their faces fixed on the laptop screens and listen to them using the words, and even debating.

I chose to use a PowerPoint demonstration uploaded to the class webpage on Schoology, so the kids could see the colors of photographs and pictures. Photocopies do not offer the emotional impact and grab that a laptop screen can. I had the students write their answers on a worksheet to give their eyes moment pauses from the screen and to keep the kinetic aspect going. Following the first trial, I asked my classroom of ninth-graders how they liked the Quest PowerPoint. They LOVED it! The students were excited about it. I actually got to hear the voices of some of my quiet students who had just joined the American school system.  Since my initial Quest PowerPoint, I created more and the students did not get bored. They were excited. Not only did the Quest reinforce standards taught in class, but the questions were also filled with peculiar and unfamiliar scenarios.

I had students ask me if the events and paradigms were real or made up after discussing it among their peers. I filled the Quests with historical events in which biological systems were affected, little-known facts, and ecosystems far from our Chihuahua desert. The Quest PowerPoints were a great way to encourage academic language while exposing my classes to life outside of the El Paso area and have my students question and ponder the natural world a little more.

I currently have my Plant Quest PowerPoint, Cellular Hierarchy Quest PowerPoint and
  Symbiosis Quest PowerPoint online for purchase.

I also have a Classification of Organisms Dichotomous Key (This dichotomous key spans all the domains, kingdoms, and viruses), and a Desert Plant Dichotomous key online. The dichotomous key work similar to the quests. The students work with a printed dichotomous key and look at the pictures of the organisms in PowerPoint form. I also include a few notes or each organism to help the students. The answer is written on an answer sheet.

Animal Kingdom

I created an Animal Kingdom power point which covers the major animal phylums in the order in which they evolved along with how the anatomy developed into creating more complex organisms.   It begins with Porifera and ends with Chordates. After going over the general characteristics of the Animal Kingdom, the power point covers each Phylum's symmetry, embryonic tissue layers, body cavities, body structures (hydrostatic, exoskeleton, endoskeleton), body systems and level of development along with outstanding characteristics and pictures.

I also have an Animal Kingdom chart which can be filled out while you lecture over the animal kingdom or have the students fill out after the lecture. I like to fill it out with my students while I lecture. I make sure to stress certain features and after the first few phyla, I ask for classroom participation on what should be written into the chart.

A great follow up is turning the Animal Kingdom chart into a cladogram.

Teacher pay Teacher: 

Animal Kingdom Bundle: PowerPoint and Chart