Baggie Cladistics

A series of  nested plastic bags is used as a 3-dimensional Venn diagram to illustrate the hierarchical grouping of organisms based on their shared derived characters, thus forming the basis of a cladogram. Students will create a cladogram and 3-dimensional venn diagram to show ancestral relationships.

Lesson Variations

Blooms taxonomy level: 
Understanding

Helpful Hints

Materials:

  • Baggie Cladistic handout: side one has a series of union Venn Diagram regions (they look like a
  • bunch of boxes inside one another) [page 4 or 7].
  • side two has the questions and extra pics of the cards [page 5].
  • Eight different organism cards [page 3].
  • One organism name strip [there are three strips on page 6].
  • Clear plastic bags; seven sandwich-size will do.
  •  A piece of blank paper (unlined is nice, but lined filler paper is OK), scissors and tape/glue.

References

Contributors: