Lesson Plan Title: Vertebrate and Invertebrate Wiki Page
Concept/Topic to Teach: Classification of vertebrates, invertebrates,
endotherms, and ectotherms; Use of technology to present organized data
Standards Addressed:
 Science Education Standard 6) Classify animals as vertebrates or
invertebrates and as endotherms or ectotherms.
 Technology Education Standard 1) Use input and output devices of
technology systems.
 Technology Education Standard 9) Use technology tools to organize,
interpret, and display data.
Specific Objectives: The students will be able to classify animals into the
vertebrate or invertebrate and endotherm or ectotherm groups and create a
Wiki page to identify 6 animal’s classifications.
Required Materials:
 Book - A First Look at Animals with Backbones and A First Look at Animals
without Backbones by Joyce Hunt
o Located on classroom bookshelf at back of class
 Teacher computer
 PowerPoint slide show “Animal Classification”
o Saved on teacher’s desktop
 List of groups, list of Wiki page log-in and passwords
o Attached to this lesson plan
Anticipatory Set (Lead-In): There are many, many different types of animals in
the world! How many different types of animals do you think there are
in the world? There are actually millions of different animals. In fact,
there are so many different types of animals that it is necessary to have
some type of classification method in order to study animals. We are
going to learn how to classify animals as vertebrates or invertebrates
based on their characteristics. Next, we will learn how to classify
vertebrates as endotherms or ectotherms. Finally, I will break the class
up into groups and each group will pick 6 animals to classify and create a
Wiki page to reflect their classifications and other facts about each
animal.
Step-By-Step Procedures for Teaching the Lesson:
 Discuss classification.
o Classification is defined as the arrangement of animals (or plants) in
groups based on their observed similarities.
 Why do you think classification important?
 Classification makes things easier to find, identify, and
study.
 Discuss classification of vertebrate or invertebrate.
o One way to classify animals is to divide them into vertebrate or
invertebrate categories.
 Vertebrates are animals with an internal skeleton made of
bone.
 Another main characteristic of vertebrate is that they
have a brain.
o Vertebrates include all animals classified as a
mammal, reptile, bird, fish, or amphibian.
 Examples: Dog, cat, shark, monkey, and
turtle
 What are some other examples?
 Invertebrates are animals that do not have an internal skeleton
made of bone. Basically, they do not have a backbone.
 Two other characteristics that invertebrates possess:
they are multicellular and have no cell walls.
 Most of all the animal species are invertebrates.
Approximately 97% to be exact.
o Vertebrates include sponges, worms, mollusks,
and arthropods
 Examples: Worms, lobsters, and jelly
fish
o What are some examples of
arthropods?
 Read the following book as a class.
o A First Look at Animals with Backbones and A First Look at Animals
without Backbones by Joyce Hunt
 Review vertebrates sub-categories
o Mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians, and fish
 Review characteristics of each
 Discuss classification of endotherms and ectotherms.
o Each vertebrate can further be classified as endotherms or
ectotherms based on their body’s temperature
 Endotherms – an animal that generates heat to maintain its
body temperature
 Endotherms are warm-blooded. Their body
temperature is usually much warmer than the
temperature of the environment.
o Mammals and birds are endotherms
 Example: Seal, cow, birds
 Ectotherms - an animal who cannot regulate its own body
temperature, so its body temperature fluctuates according to
its surroundings
 Ectotherms are cold-blooded.
o Reptiles, amphibians, and fish are ectotherms
 Example: Sea Turtle, frog, snake
 Show slideshow of different animals.
o Slideshow is saved on desktop of teacher’s computer as “Animal
Classification?”
o Each slide has a picture of an animal and the teacher is to call on one
student for each slide to tell the class if that animal is a vertebrate or
invertebrate. If vertebrate, further classify the animal as endotherm
or ectotherm.
o
Guided Practice/Monitoring:
 Now that the students know the differences between
vertebrate/invertebrate and endotherm/ectotherm, I will divide the
class into five groups. (Class group division is listed on attached
page.)
 Each group is to pick 6 animals that live in Alabama and create a Wiki
page which contains the following:
o 2 pages
 1 page with 3 vertebrates
 1 page with 3 invertebrates
o For each animal, the wiki page should include the following:
 Animal’s name, habitat, physical characteristics, and diet
of the animal
 Picture of the animal
 Additional 5 fun facts about the animal
 For each vertebrate – include whether the animal is an
endotherm or ectotherm.
 The Wiki pages will be graded according to the following via the
attached rubric:
o Knowledge of material and creation of Wiki – Each student
should be able to answer questions regarding material and
procedures to add information to Wiki page.
o Layout/Creativity – Wiki pages should be creative with a layout
that is easy to follow.
o Content Accuracy – Wiki pages should have accurate
information and include all of the required information
o Cooperative work – Students should work as a team, share
ideas, respect, and support each other.
o Mechanics – Wiki pages should have no spelling or grammical
errors.
 We will work on this in class and the teacher will be available to
answer any questions. The students are familiar with the creation of
wiki pages. Wiki groups and passwords have already been created
and are attached to this lesson plan. Please distribute the groups’
login information after explanation of group project and division of
class into groups.
Closure (Reflect Anticipatory Set):
 Review classification definition.
o Why is classification important in regards to animals?
 Review vertebrates and invertebrates.
o What are the main differences of the two?
 Review the sub-categories of vertebrates and invertebrates.
o Discuss mammals, reptiles, amphibians, arthropods, and
echinoderms.
 Review endotherms and ectotherms
o What is the difference?
 We have just done the basic classifications of /invertebrates and
endotherm/ectotherms and the characteristics of each group in detail. .
Next, we will discuss the different animal kingdom classifications.
Assessment Based on Objectives: 
The students will be able to classify animals into the vertebrate or invertebrate
and endotherm or ectotherm groups and create a Wiki page to identify 6 animal’s
classifications with 75% accuracy.
Adaptations (For Students With Special Needs):
Justin Smith is a special needs student that has a mild physical disability. Justin
only has one hand so for the group project portion of this lesson, Justin will need
to use the FrogPad. The FrogPad is a one handed keyboard that allows all the
functions of a standard two-handed keyboard. The FrogPad is stored in the left
drawer of the classroom computer desk and can easily be connected to the
computer with a USB connection. Justin is familiar with the use of this keyboard.
Extensions (For Advanced Students):
 For the advanced students of each group, they are to add an additional
page to the Wiki space which includes the following:
o A list of 15 animals found outside of Alabama
o Complete all animal requirements from group Wiki page
o Include animal kingdom classification of each animal
 Upon completion of the additional page, they should present the page to
their group along with a clear explanation.
Possible Connections to Other Subjects: Since this lesson focuses on the
classification of animals, we could then turn our focus to language. We could
discuss the Latin word for each group, the pronunciation, and its meaning.
Furthermore, we could use those Latin words on this week’s spelling tests.
Reflection:
The students appeared to grasp the classification of vertebrae and invertebrates
and endotherm and ectotherms. Therefore, I feel as though my presentation was
successful. However, they had seemed to have forgotten some of the subcategories of these groups (i.e. mammmals, amphibians, etc.). Therefore, I should
have reviewed the material in greater detail prior to this lesson. In the future, I
will present these two lessons back to back. The students really enjoyed making
the Wiki pages. However, they completed them sooner than I expected. For the
next presentation of this lesson, I will require additional information to be
presented on the Wiki page, including classifications of the sub-categories since I
will have taught the concepts back to back. Overall, the students were very
creative and the subject matter was clearly retained.