
SILO F.2 (DRAFT) Foundation, Term 2: Classification Focus: Criteria Scope and sequence: Sorting, Criteria
Learning intention: Students compare features of living and non-living things to explore classification systems and devise new ones.
Overview: Although classification is not officially a science inquiry skill, it is strongly linked to observation and the science inquiry skill of processing and analysing data and information. The focus in this unit is on encouraging students to create their own classification systems as this constitutes higher order thinking.
NSW Syllabus	Australian Curriculum (version 9.0)
"A student compares features and characteristics of living and non-living things." (ST2-4LW-S)	"Students learn to compare characteristics of living and non-living things and examine the differences between the life cycles of plants and animals." (AC9S3U01)

Introduction to classification

'Attributes' and 'criteria' are words which are not commonly used in kindergarten, but these ideas can be readily understood if clear examples are given. Attributes help us describe things. For example, the feel of a toy could be soft or hard and the size could be big, medium or small. 'Criteria' is about sorting so we often look at this as 'selection criteria'. If children wanted to put their toys in groups, the selection criteria would help determine which group to put them in. For example, one pile could be for toys which don't get used anymore and another group could be for favourite toys.

How many groups could the following five shapes be grouped into?
Try sorting them into groups of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Creature creation activity

Joseph Camin invented 'Caminalcules' the early 1960s for the sole purpose of divising classification criteria. Discuss Caminalcules and the idea of inventing creatures for the sole purpose of divising classification criteria. Some Caminalcules are shown below:

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caminalcules#/media/File:Caminalcules.jpg)

Discuss the word 'criteria' and then link it to classification in terms of 'attributes'.

Fold a piece of A4 paper into 8 boxes.
Draw a new creature in each of the boxes where each creature is different but include some similarities.
Name or number the boxes.
Cut out the boxes.
Children can swap with a partner to group creatures devising their own classification criteria.

Below is an an example of how the eight cards have many similarities and differences. This can also be played as a game with the whole class where different criteria is given for each round. For example:

How many of your creatures (and therefore cards) have a round found?

In the example below the answer would be 3. The child with the highest number is the winner and then they start a new round. For example:

How many of your creatures have ears?

You might have noticed that "Wears a hat" is more related to fashion than to the intrinsic properties of the creature. Even so, this can provide a valuable opportunity to discuss intrinsic properties.

Formal introduction to classification

Taxonomy is the branch of science concerned with classification. This video (4:11) shows how classification works using a red fox as an example.

Classification systems continue to evolve so there is some debate about the number of categories. The following screenshot from the previous video is a reminder that there are generally considered to be eight categories involved in biological classification as follows:

The following saying was created to make it easier to remember the order of these eight categories.

An interactive resource is available from the UNE Discovery program (https://www.unediscoveryvoyager.org.au/latin-taxonomy-build-a-character/) where students can make adaptations to creatures and then use the Latin binomials to name the new creatures.