1. Notes for the Presenter: Rationale
At high school education level, marine biology and associations with the sea are a lot less focused on, despite the area being one of the largest growing and providing a number of jobs, income and revenue. This resource has been designed to introduce key concepts in marine biology and classification, while also opening up the audience to potential opportunities to study at higher education and encouraging questions and enthusiasm for the topic.

2. Notes for the Presenter: How to use this resource
This PowerPoint has content to be delivered, which is then supplemented by interactive questions that after each click reveal answers allowing time for discussion and answers to be given. There are also activities at the end of each section to complement the material that is taught. There is a small worksheet and key to also be printed off and completed in class too. Supplementary support can also be found in the footnotes of each slide for extra information and explanations on the content and how to present certain slides. To round off this PowerPoint there is a short quiz to consolidate the information given.

3. Teacher’s Toolkit: Introduction to Marine Classification
Created by: Massimo Casali

4. Overview: Introduction What is classification?
How do we identify different animals?
Classification levels
What am I Activity
Invertebrates
Vertebrates
Classification Activity
Conclusion and Plenary Questions
Teacher Comments:

5. Introduction: What is classification?
Wide variety of marine organisms
“Marine” refers to everything in the sea and its associated habitats
Important to distinguish them based on characteristics
Categorized into different groups
Teacher Comments: Make sure to ask questions and wait before changing slides to reveal the correct answers. Encourage them to start thinking about basic characteristics like colour, shape, size, body parts.
What characteristics can we use to distinguish organisms?

6. Morphological (Size, Shape, Colour etc.)
Teacher Comments: Morphological comes from the Greek meaning “study of shape” and looks at the physical aspects. Identify the similar body forms in the whales and fish, but the difference in size and colour being the key distinguishing features.
Different sizes and colours are the key distinguishing features

7. Behavioural (Mating, Feeding etc.)
Male Fiddler crabs have large claws and fight over females, to distinguish species we need to identify their behaviour
Teacher Comments: These are 2 different species of fiddler crab that look similar having an enlarged claw, but can be distinguished by their mating behaviour.

8. What features can we identify on this organism?
Habitat and location
Colouration and Patterns
Dorsal Fin
(Size)
Teacher Notes: Encourage the audience to point out features like those demonstrated in the previous slides. Reveal each characteristic one by one in succession.
Feeding Behaviour
Gills (Number)

9. Classification Levels
Kingdom: Animal
Phylum: Vertebrate (Have a backbone)
Class: Mammal
Order: Primate
Family: Hominid (Great Ape)
Genus: Homo (Person)
Species: Sapiens (Wise) or Neanderthalensis (New)
Teacher Notes: This slide is to relate the information in easier terms using humans as an example. Walk them down each level of classification but identify the difference between us and Neanderthals at the end.
Related all the way down to Genus but not Species

10. Use a mnemonic! Try to think of one… K P C O F G S
Teacher Notes: Take a few minutes to get audience to think of an acronym that they can write down and remember for use in later tasks as well. Reveal the example answer later on if students couldn't think of their own.
Keep Pond Clean Or Froggy Gets Sick!