Project: keying animals
make a list of at least 10 animals in your area or on one continent of the earth. if a wildlife reserve or a zoo is not easily accessible, you may use pictures to you with this activity. construct a dichotomous key for the animals on your list.
when creating a dichotomous key, there are some general rules to remember:
the group of items must have one common characteristic. for example, out of a group containing a hot air balloon, jet, parachute, and propeller plane, what is the common characteristic? they all have flight capability.
the number of steps in your key is the number of objects minus one. if you were to create a key for eight animals, you would subtract one, and have seven steps in your key.
try to use a two-word system to simplify your key. here are some examples: has fur or no fur; brown fur or black fur; has teeth or no teeth. sometimes it may be difficult to use two words, but try to make the description as short as possible. for example: has 2 legs or has 4 legs.
only use characteristics that are observable for your key.
here's an example:
sex male—2
sex female—5
height under 5 ft—jim
height over 5 ft—3
hair color blonde—eric
hair color brown—4
jeans worn—darin
shorts worn—mario
hair pony-tail style—kisha
hair down—6
hair color blonde—crystal
hair color brown—marlene
enter your key and answer the following questions in the box below:
did you use at least 10 different animals?
were you able to use a two-name system to set up your key?
what specific challenges, if any, did you encounter?