Assignment: classifying organisms exploration
submit a picture, scanned copy, or typed map of the structure of the organized taxonomy cards.
questions
1. what are some similarities among the organisms listed on the cards? what are some differences?
2. what is the taxonomy of each organism from largest to smallest grouping?
3. what phyla do you have in your chart?
4. what classes do you have in your chart?
5. what orders do you have in your chart?
6. what families do you have in your chart?
7. give four examples of how either some or all of the organisms in this activity are related to one another based on how they are classified.
8. why is it important to classify living things?

"1. it should be, it has been for about 20 years, and it's really not much different in the end than breeding animals to have particular traits. there are always concerns about genetically engineered animals/plants affecting the environment in unexpected negative ways, but i can't think of an example where the fears didn't turn out to be baseless.  

first, as you point out, it would be a great advance in pharmacology, to be able to tailor drugs and their doses to me. the pros involve better medical treatment. the cons involve privacy issues like insurance companies denying coverage to people with genetic risk factors. looking at dna markers wouldn't affect the frequency of genetic diseases, but it would allow detection of them earlier. and ok, actually i suppose that if people used this information to avoid having children with genetic diseases, some might decrease in frequency."

prothallium

explanation: