Year 7 (MYP 2) - Cookie Classification

We have been studying classification of organisms in Science this term, and to kick things off and get students creating their own keys we classified cookies!  This was actually a student idea that I liked, so we tried it out.

At the supermarket, I bought 9 different types of cookie, and then gave each group (of 3 or 4 students) one of each cookie.  Students then had to create a dichotomous key and a tabular key to identify the 9 cookies.  The students were not allowed to touch the cookies until they had finished their keys, but everyone managed it in our double period.

After this activity, the students were able to follow more complex keys made by others, and had an appreciation of the time and effort required to make these.

Here is the sample dichotomous key that I made and shared with the students as an exemplar after they had finished: