This lesson is called "Identification and Classification in the Field" and is from the unit Species and Classification Differences Between Species.

Hi there, my name's Mrs. McCready, and I'm here to guide you through today's lesson.

In our lesson today, we're going to have a look at using a classification key to identify and classify organisms within their natural habitat.

So this is a practical lesson.

I hope you're looking forward to it.

In our lesson today, we're going to cover a number of keywords, which are up on your screen now.

You may wish to pause the video and make a note of them and the definitions should you wish, but I will introduce them to you as we go throughout today's lesson.

So in our lesson today, we're going to have a look at how we classify organisms in their natural habitat.

Then we're gonna undertake some field work to do that, and then we're gonna have a look at our data and analyse it.

So you ready to go? I am.

Let's go.

So just to remind yourself, classification is a really important part of a biologist's work because classification allows us to group similar organisms together and distinguish between different organisms according to their differences in their physical features.

And we can classify organisms in increasing detail using kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species levels.

To help us classify organisms correctly, we can use a classification key, and this is really useful, especially if we're not very familiar with the organisms that we're classifying or if we are looking for fairly subtle differences between organisms. So a classification key asks a series of questions that you progress through in order to classify organisms. And by answering those questions in the right order correctly according to the features that we can see, we can correctly group an organism and identify it.

Which features of an organism do classification keys use to identify them? Is it their genetic material, is it how they have evolved, or is it their physical features? I'll give you five seconds to decide.

Okay, so what do you think? Well, if you've chosen their physical features, well done.

That's correct.

So what I'd like you to do now is to have a go at classifying the two birds in the pictures according to the classification key questions on screen.

So have a think about it.

Have a really good look at the physical features of those birds.

You may well know what they are, but what I want you to do is to rehearse using the classification key to identify them.

So start at the top, answer the questions, and follow the instructions.

Come back to me when you're ready.

Okay, let's see how we would've classified these birds.

So let's take the first one, the top one.

So does it have all black feathers? Yes, so we're gonna go to question two.

Does it have an orange beak? Yes, so therefore it is a male blackbird.

Did you get that one? What about the second bird, the second picture? So it doesn't have all black feathers and it doesn't have all brown feathers, but it does have mixed colour feathers.

So we're going to go to question four.

And question four asks, does it have a cap of blue feathers, a yellow breast with a dark stripe? Yes, it does, so therefore it is a blue tit.

So you can see that for each organism we start at the top and we'll follow the instructions and the answers according to the species that we're identifying.

And then when we start a new species, we go back to the first question again.

Right, now for some field work.

So we're going to use a classification key to identify organisms within their own habitat.

So we need to go out into their habitat using fieldwork techniques and collect data about these organisms in their natural habitat.

Now we're either going to have a look at identifying garden birds using a feeder, or we're going to have a look at identifying meadow plants in a school field.

So you need to choose which one is going to be most suitable for your environment.

Well, I'm sure your teacher will have done that for you.

Now, for either of these practicals, you will need some specialist equipment.

Firstly, you will need a classification key suitable for the organisms that you're going to try to identify.

You will need a clipboard so that you can write onto a firm surface when you're collecting your data.

And you'll need a pencil in order to collect your data to write it down.

If you are studying plants, you will also need a magnifying glass so that you can see them really easily and study some detail on them.

And you'll also need a quadrat, which is a metal frame grid which you can place on top of the plants.

Now, while you're completing field work, you must stay safe and it's really important that you protect the animals and plants that you're interacting with within their habitat, because after all, you are in their space.

So you need to look after them, treat them carefully, and with respect.

So how do you do that? Well, if you are studying birds, you firstly must stay quiet and out of the way so you don't scare them and you don't stop them from carrying out the work that they would normally be doing.

You need to make sure that you keep your hands and body away from them, that you don't try to touch them or go near them in any way.

And if you have been handling their food or their feeders, you must make sure that you wash your hands with warm water and soap once you've handled that, those feeders and the food.

If you are studying plants, then you will need to handle them carefully and try not to damage them.

I know we often mow grass and we pick daisies and things like that, but you are studying plants in their natural habitat, so you need to handle them carefully and try not to damage them in any way.

So that means that you shouldn't be picking them or pulling them up.

Leave them where they are.

And if there are flowers, then you need to try not to stand on them.

These are the reproductive parts of the plants.

This is really important part, allowing the plant to make new copies of itself.

So you need to leave the flowers intact.

Don't pick them and try not to stand on them if you can.

Also, good hygiene is to make sure that once you've finished handling plants, looking at them, and dealing with the habitat of the meadow, that you wash your hands afterwards as well.

Now, how are you gonna go about identifying birds? Well, follow this method.

Firstly, you will need to find a hide, like the examples on the pictures there.

It might not look quite exactly like that, but somewhere quiet where you can see the birds without them necessarily easily seeing you, and where you can use your identification key, you can observe them, you can have quiet conversations with the people that you're working with to make sure that you're identifying those birds correctly.

So somewhere which is quiet and hidden, out of the way, where you're not gonna disturb the birds, but where you can see them quite clearly.

And then for a period of about 10 minutes, have a look and watch the birds and try and identify the ones which you're visiting using the classification key that you are using.

Now when you're classifying and identifying the birds, you need to count the maximum number of birds that you see at one time.

So you can see on the bird feeder picture, there are one, two, three, four, five, six yellow hammers.

So six little yellow birds, and we can see all six of them together in one go.

Now they're gonna come and go and fly away and come back again.

But if you then see four, you haven't then seen 10, you have only still seen six because that's the maximum number of birds that you can see at one time.

And then if they fly away again, then come back again, you haven't seen another three, so you haven't seen 13 in total.

The maximum number of birds still remains six.

So that's what aiming for.

You are aiming to count the maximum number of that species of bird that you see at any one time.

And once you've counted those birds, you then need to record your observations in a table and I'll show you what that might look like in a moment.

Now, if you're identifying plants on the school field, for instance, you will firstly need to select an area of the field that you're going to analyse and you'll need to place the quadrat onto that space of grass.

Then you can see that the quadrat is divided into lots of smaller squares.

So you need to start in one corner and work systematically from square to square to square across the rows row by row by row, identifying the plants which are present within each of the little squares within the quadrat using the classification key that you've been given.

And for each square you need to record the observations.

So you can see that in the whole of the first row of this picture there are just grass, there's just grass present.

So you would put five tallies or five squares of grass.

The second row, the first four boxes also have just grass in them, but the last one has a different plant.

So you would put tally against the buttercup instead for that last square, but not for the grass, because, yes, there is grass in that square as well, but it's not half of the square or more, and therefore we would ignore it.

So work your way systematically.

Seek guidance from your teacher if you need to.

Record your observations in a table.

So let's see what those tables look like.

So if you're recording bird observations, then you'll need a column for the birds that you're identifying and a column to tally up the number of birds maximum that you see at any one time.

If you're making plant observations, then you'll need a column for the plants that you're observing, and then a tally column for the number of squares that that plant appears within the quadrat.

So make sure you've got a correct table, a suitable table for the observations that you're going to be making and classification key that is suitable for the species that you might well observe as well.

So as have a quick check of understanding, who do you think has the right idea about identifying organisms? Is it Lucas who says, "I think we need to observe carefully because some plants or birds look very similar to each other" Is it Alex who says, "I think we need to capture the birds so that we can examine them carefully with a magnifying glass." Or is it Sophia who says, "I think there's no point examining the grass field because it's all just grass." So who has the right idea? I'll give you five seconds to decide.

Well, I'm hoping that you've chosen Lucas, who has the right idea about identifying organisms. With Alex, you must not capture the birds at all.

If you are using a magnifying glass, you'll be using it to study the plants in the field.

And Sophia, well, yes, the grass field may well look like it's just grass, but I expect on closer inspection there'll be many other plants living amongst the grass as well.

So what I would like you to do now is to use the classification key to either identify garden birds visiting the feeder or identify meadow plants in the school field, whichever is most suitable.

And your teacher will guide you on that.

You need to follow the questions to identify the species of birds or plants in their habitat.

And you need to make sure that you stay safe, you follow the safety procedures, and you protect the habitats of the wildlife that you are interacting with.

So pause the video and come back to me when you're ready.

Okay, hopefully by now you've had a good chance to undertake your field work and gather your data.

So your data may well look like this for birds.

You should have collected data in a table based on your observations.

And my data shows that I saw seven sparrows, four blue tits, one robin, and three male blackbirds in the 10 minutes that I was observing my bird feeder.

Or if you were collecting plant data, then maybe it looks a bit more like this, where the majority of the plants observed were grass, and then a reasonable number in my data was plantain with fewer, so five, 10, 15, 18 buttercups, and seven dandelions.

So hopefully your data is nice and neatly recorded within your table based on the observations that you have made.

Okay, we're now gonna have a look at our data and analyse it for trends and information.

So we need to analyse and interpret our data before we can make use of it and make sense of it.

We need to convert the numerical data in our table into a graph because it's often very much easier to see trends in data, in a graph, in a visual representation than it is from raw data presented in a table.

So we're going to display our data in the form of a bar chart.

And the bar chart might either include our observations of birds or our observations of plants.

So to make a bar chart, we firstly need to plot the x-axis.

That's the horizontal axis, the one along the bottom.

So you need to assign a column for each of the species recorded, make sure that they're the same width, and then you need to add labels to each of those columns and also add a label to the axis.

So you can see on the example graph on the right of the screen, there are two species listed.

Both columns are the same width and the axis is labelled with organism observed.

Then you need to plot the y-axis.

So the y-axis is the vertical axis, the one on the left going up.

So you need to make that axis longer than the largest number to display, but only by a little bit.

So if you have seen a maximum of seven birds, for instance, then make the axis go up to 10 if your graph paper allows for it.

Then you need to plot the numbers on the scale so that they go up in even increments.

So you're leaving a big square, and then on the first big square it's maybe two, and then the next big square is four, and then the next big square is six, then eight, 10, 12, and so on, rather than just putting numbers as you've got them in the table on the axis on the scale.

So do that really carefully.

Make sure that they are going up in even increments.

Then, using the positions on the the x-axis and the number scale on the y-axis, draw the columns for the corresponding species to the correct height to represent the data, the number of birds or plants that you've observed.

Then you'll need to colour in or shade those columns so they're easy to see.

And also make sure that you add an axis label to the y-axis, something like number of organisms observed, something like that.

Then finally, you'll need to add a title to the graph.

So once we've represented our data in a graphical format in our bar chart, we can then analyse it and draw some conclusions from it.

And scientists do this with the data that they collect so that, for instance, when we're analysing organisms within their habitat, we might be able to measure the impact that human activities have had over time, maybe in terms of loss of habitat, or if it's a conservation programme, how successful it's been, whether it's seeing an increase in the number of species that we wanted to try and achieve.

So let's quickly check our understanding.

So which label will go on the x-axis? In this graph, which is about, grass plantain, buttercups, and dandelions, will it be plants observed, number of organisms observed, or the total number of different species observed? Which label is most suitable for the x-axis of this graph? Okay, what did you think? Well, if you've chosen plants observed, you've chosen the correct answer.

Well done.

So what I'd like you to do now is take the data that you have collected from your field work and draw a graph, a bar chart to represent that data.

Now, make sure that your graph has labelled axes, an appropriate scale, that the lines are drawn straight using a ruler and a pencil, please, and that you've added a title to your graph once you've finished.

Then once you've drawn your bar chart, write a conclusion.

Which bird or plant was most common and which one was least common? Which one did you see fewest of? So spend a reasonable amount of time on this.

Make sure that your graph is really neat and accurate and come back to me when you're ready.

Okay, hopefully you've drawn your graph now and you're ready to check it against mine.

So your graph should reflect the data that you have collected, so it's not gonna be the same as mine, but it should be similar to one of these examples, either the birds or the plants.

Remember the numbers will change and possibly the birds and the plants observed will be different as well.

But as long as it's representative of the data that you've collected and it's drawn accurately and neatly.

And then your conclusion should reflect your data as well, looking at most common and least common species.

So for instance, you might have said, we saw seven sparrows, which were the most common bird, and the robin was the least common bird as we only saw one.

Or if you were studying plants, as expected, grass was the most common plant on the school field, and dandelions were only present in seven of the quadrat squares.

This was the least common plant.

Something along those lines might well be your conclusion.

Now, well done for doing that, because studying animals and plants within their habitat is not an easy task at all, and it's a very patient task.

You really need to take your time.

So it's quite hard to do that.

And then analysing that data, presenting it graphically and looking at it and drawing conclusions from it is also quite a tricky thing to do as well.

So well done for taking your time over that and doing such a thorough job.

It's really important that we do a good job as scientists, but it can be really difficult and time-consuming to do, so well done.

So let's just summarise our lesson from today.

We've seen that we can use an identification key, which uses questions about the physical features of the organism to help us to classify and identify an organism.

And using fieldwork, we can collect data on species from their actual habitats.

We've also seen that when we're doing that fieldwork, we need to be safe and we need to handle the plants and animals that we're working with carefully, safely, and respectfully.

And then once we've collected that data, we then can present it into a graph, which makes it easier to interpret trends and draw conclusions from that data.

And scientists use that to monitor changes in habitats, changes in populations, to measure the impact of human activities.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed studying nature today.

Thank you very much for joining me in today's lesson and well done again.

I hope to see you soon.

Bye.