Project Ideas

2
The tree of life (or technically–the
phylogenetic tree of life) represents
how life has evolved on planet Earth!
Some brilliant scientists not too long ago
decided they needed a way to talk about
the living things they saw.
They set out to organize and classify
life as we know it using a science called
taxonomy (or Taxonomic Classification).
The scientists made groups based off of
similar traits, then divided groups within
those groups, and more groups within
those groups! It is these groups that we
see in our tree. The closer two branches
are to each other, the more similar the
organisms, or living things, within them
are. Based on this tree, which
organisms do you think are most
similar?
Taxonomic Classification
In taxonomy, life is divided into 8 groups. They start off broad
and get more specific, until we arrive at a unique living thing,
called a species. New species are discovered all the time and
so the list is always being added to and improved upon. Some
day you could be one of the scientists who finds new species
or decides where they belong in the tree!
Chapter 1: What are mushrooms?
CLASSIFICATION GROUPS
1. Domain
5. Order
3. Phylum
7. Genus
2. Kingdom
6. Family
4. Class
8. Species
A great way to remember
the names of the groups
is using the phrase
“Dominating King Phillip
Came Over From Great
Spain.” Dominating =
Domain, King = Kingdom,
Phillip = Phylum, Came =
Class, Over = Order, From =
Family, Great = Genus, and
Spain = Species!
MEMORY TIP!
DOMAIN DOMAIN
KINGDOM KINGDOM
PHYLUM PHYLUM
CLASS CLASS
ORDER ORDER
FAMILY FAMILY
GENUS GENUS
SPECIES SPECIES
Bacteria
Archaea
Eucaryota
EucaryotaEucaryota
AnimaliaFungi
ChordataBasidiomycota
MammaliaAgaricomycetes
PrimatesAgricales
HominidaePleurotaceae
HomoPleurotus
SapiensOstreatus
Slime
Molds
Animals
Plants
Fungi
Chytridiomycota
Zygomycota
Glomeromycota
Ascomycota
Basidiomycota
TREE OF LIFE
Oyster
Mushrooms
Humans
Garden Toolkit and curriculum provided by Back to the Roots® . Visit backtotheroots.com/curriculum to download all unit materials and view source listings.