This document provides an overview of GCSE Biology topic 1.1 on classification. It discusses: 1) How biologists classify organisms into taxonomic groups like species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, and the five kingdoms. 2) The main characteristics of the five kingdoms - Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protoctista, and Prokaryotae. 3) Why viruses are not classified into any of the five kingdoms and are regarded as non-living.

1. GCSE BIOLOGY B1 TOPIC 1
1.1 – CLASSIFICATION
STARTER: CAN YOU IDENTIFY THE TWO MAIN GROUPS OF ORGANISMS BELOW?

2. Learning Objectives:
1.1 Demonstrate an understanding of how biologists classify organisms
according to how closely they are related to one another including:
a) Species – groups of organisms that have many features in common,
b) Genus – contains several species with similar characteristics, c) Family –
comprising of several genera,
d) Order – comprising of several families, e) Class – comprising of several
orders, f) Phylum – comprising of several classes, g) The Five Kingdoms –
animalia, plantae, fungi, protoctista and prokaryotae
1.2 Describe the main characteristics of the five kingdoms including:
a) Animalia – multicellular, do not have cell walls, do not have chlorophyll,
feed heterotrophically, b) Plantae – multicellular, have cell walls, have
chlorophyll, feed autotrophically, c) Fungi – multicellular, have cell walls, do
not have chlorophyll, feed saprophytically, d) Protoctista – unicellular, have
a nucleus, e) Prokaryotae – unicellular, have no nucleus
1.3 Explain why scientists do not classify viruses in any of the five kingdoms
and regard them as non-living

3. Key terms
animalia
plantae
fungi
protoctista
prokaryotae
heterotroph
autotroph
saprophyte
Name the species!

5. The 5 kingdoms of organisms
Animalia – multicellular, do not have cell walls,
do not have chlorophyll, feed heterotrophically,
Plantae – multicellular, have cell walls, have
chlorophyll, feed autotrophically,
Fungi – multicellular, have cell walls, do not have
chlorophyll, feed saprophytically,
Protoctista – unicellular, have a nucleus,
Prokaryotae – unicellular, have no nucleus

8. Organism specimen identification
Use your own devices to find out the Kingdom,
genus and species of the samples around the
room.
Jot answers in back of book…….

9. Plenary
Jumbled sentences
Make up a sentence for each of these groups of three
words:
bacteria, virus, kingdom;
move, grow, respire;
plant, animal, respire;
plant, photosynthesis, respire;
food, photosynthesis, chloroplast.
Then work in pairs to come up with the best sentence you
can.