Look around your house or yard and think about all the different types of eukaryotes you live with/near every day. Chances are, you have never given much thought to the diversity you have around you. Pick a location (your house/dorm room, back yard, or a park or a lake) and then find at least twelve species of eukaryotes. (If you can’t find at least twelve species, pick a different location – it might be a nice time for a trip to Lake Alice, the Natural Area Teaching Lab (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., or a local park!) Your twelve species must include at least one fungus, three plants, three chordates, and three non-chordate animals.
- Include a picture of yourself in the location that you’re describing. This can be added directly into your document, or submitted as a separate file.
- List your twelve species (common names are okay), along with a general description of where you found them / what they were doing, organizing them into the categories below. For example, under Arthropods, I might put “Small brown spiders spinning cobwebs near my back door”.
Fungi
Plantae
Bryophytes (Note: Spanish Moss (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. is not actually a moss! If you include this species on your list, do some research to make sure you classify it correctly.)
Ferns
Angiosperms
Gymnosperms
Animalia
Arthropods
Molluscs
Annelids
Other invertebrates
Chordates
Fish
Amphibians
Birds
Non-avian reptiles
Mammals
Other chordates
Protists (Most people probably won’t have any of these, although I find dog vomit slime mold pretty regularly in some of the local parks.)
- Next, we’re asking you to create a dichotomous key to your twelve species. If you haven’t used a dichotomous key before, it’s a series of questions, typically each with only two options, that lead to different endpoints based on how you answer each one. You can format this as a list, or as a flowchart. Both options are illustrated below in a possible dichotomous key for identifying your Halloween candy.
- Is it chocolate?
Yes — go to 2
No — SKITTLES - Does an individual packet contain a single piece or multiple pieces?
Single — go to 3
Multiple — M&MS - Does it contain nougat?
No — go to 4
Yes — go to 5 - Does it contain peanuts?
No — HERSHEY’S
Yes — MR. GOODBAR - Does it contain caramel?
No — THREE MUSKETEERS
Yes — go to 6 - Does it contain peanuts?
No — MILKY WAY
Yes — SNICKERS
Halloween candy dichotomous key flowchart
For your dichotomous key for your twelve species, you should focus on traits that you’ve learned about in the materials for this module, and on traits that are likely to be generalizable to other related species. For example, if you observed a black and yellow butterfly, asking “Is it black and yellow?” as a high-level question is less useful than “does it have wings?” or “does it have six legs?”. (Of course, if you have two different species of butterfly on your list, then distinguishing them by color as your last question is fine.)
Dichotomous keys can be presented in text form OR as a flowchart; you do not need to do both. For ease of reading/grading, flowcharts should be typed (using the graphics functions in Word or PPT), not hand-drawn.
Do not plagiarize! Demonstrate your academic integrity – and practice higher-level thinking – by putting concepts into your own words. Please make sure your name is at the top of every document before you submit it! Documents without a name will receive reduced credit.
Submit your completed photo, species list, and dichotomous key via this page. Be sure that you submit the correct file(s), and once it’s submitted, please check that it’s visible.
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