Teaching overview

Learning points

  • A species is a class of organism that can breed with others in the same class to produce fertile offspring.
  • We classify living things into similar groups so that scientists can study and understand them more easily.
  • A scientific name is made out of two Latin words and sorts the organism into a genus and a species.

Curriculum keywords

  • Classification
  • Animals
  • Culture

Read the story

On the 20th anniversary of the Harry Potter series, we look at species named after JK Rowling’s creations.

View the article

Share with students

Spark a discussion

  • What is a species?
  • Why do we classify living things?
  • What is the process for giving something a scientific name?

Twig Science: A Complete Pre-K–8 Program for the NGSS

Immersive Investigations with High-Quality Multimedia

  • Investigating, designing, building, and understanding phenomena
  • Hands-on, digital, video, and print investigations
  • Synchronous/asynchronous distance learning