The lesson plan "I Can Name that Thing" was written by Michigan teacher Sharon Rinehart. It's a great activity for middle and high school students. Before beginning the activity, give your students an overview of what taxonomy is and the nature of the activity. Divide your students into groups of two or three. Have a designated plot of land and divide it into 3foot by 3 foot or 6 foot by 6 foot plots for each group of students. Assign students to their plots and give them a data sheet to record pertinent information. The data sheet will have four columns from left to right: numbers, common name, new name and scientific name.
Have each group study the habitat within its plot and identify all the plants and animals that live within the designated plot of land. Have students record the common names of the organisms they discover. Remind them not to share information between groups. Upon finishing the observations, each group is to come up with new names for the organisms in their plot and record these on the data sheet. The teacher collects all the data sheets from each group at the end of the class period.
At the beginning of class on Day 2, return the data sheets to your students. Assign each group to write a short story using the new names they gave each organism in their plot. When the groups have completed their stories, they can be shared with one other group or with the whole class depending on how much time you have to spend on the activity. The other students will listen to the story and try to identify the organisms in the story. On Day 3, students can go back to the plot and see how their answers matched up to what actually exists in each plot. The scientific names should be recorded in the final column of the data sheets.
This activity can be used more than once throughout the school year. Different seasons or different locations will result in different observations by the students. Take a field trip to a river, lake or beach and repeat the observations there. Students can create concept maps. They can also create problems for each plot that another group must solve. There are many variations. Use your imagination and knowledge. Remember to link the importance of your students using taxonomy as their minds are absorbing it firsthand.