Handouts are available below

Big Idea

How do you have students practice developing models? Check out what I had my students complete recently – it’s my Video Game Cladogram Activity, which shows how different items are linked to each other. I use this activity to have students analyze, categorize, and create models from data. And, also to teach cladograms. But, even if you don’t teach evolution or cladograms with your students, you can still do this activity because all those skills I mentioned before – analyzing, categorizing, and creating models from data – are ones that all science students should be practicing.

Developing Models by Using Video Game Consoles

NOTE: Download Handouts below and follow along! Or, watch the video

First, a quick rundown of cladograms. A cladogram shows hypothetical evolutionary relationships between organisms and common ancestors. Consider these 4 animals we want to connect together in a hypothetical evolutionary tree: a shark, a bullfrog, a kangaroo, and humans. Here is a cladogram (refer to handouts below). Now, how do we get here? First, we make a table and come up with characteristics that group and divide animals. For example, for the shark, bullfrog, kangaroo, and human, which organisms have a vertebrae. Well, they all do, so we mark an X for each box. Next, which organisms have two pairs of limbs? Sharks don’t have two pairs of limbs, but the bullfrog, kangaroo, and human do – so we mark X’s for them. Next, which organisms have mammary glands? Not sharks or bullfrogs, but kangaroos and humans do. And so on and so forth – we come up with the characteristics that are important to us. It helps to think of simpler characteristics that a lot of animals share and more sophisticated ones that only a few share.

Next, we make a Venn diagram. The largest circle represents the most common characteristic – in this case, having a vertebrae – which all organisms have and are therefore found in this circle. Next, we draw a circle within this bigger circle with the next most common trait – in this case, having 2 pairs of limbs. So the animals in this circle will have a vertebrae and have 2 pairs of limbs – which is all animals except for the shark. And so on and so forth. Finally, we convert this Venn diagram into what looks like a tree with branches. We start with the most common characteristic – for example, vertebrae, which all organisms have. The next most common characteristic, two pairs of limbs, a shark does not have – thus, it branches off from the group. Everything after this point shares the characteristic of having 2 pairs of limbs. Then, the next characteristic and the next.

In my Video Game Cladogram Activity, I start by giving students 1 sheet of paper that has pictures of gaming consoles. Sometimes I give 2 or 3 sheets, if I want to make the activity more challenging. Just like the animal cladograms, I have students create a data table with characteristics that group and divide video game consoles – for example, students may look at whether the controllers are hard wired to the console or not, how many buttons are on the controller, if the console has a screen built in like the Gameboy. Then, students draw the venn diagram with circles within circles. And, finally, students cut out the consoles and glue the cut outs onto chart paper to make a cladogram. Students use markers to label and add text to their chart paper. The final result is this – and, no two are ever exactly alike – which means we can see what students are thinking without them striving and trying to copy the “right” answer.

Thanks for reading, and let’s talk science education again soon.

Resources

Handout(s): Ep52 Handouts – Video Game Consoles (Puzzle Pieces) – Cladograms

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