Briefing
What's an animal, a vertebrate, a mammal, a primate, and a hominid? The answer to all of these is you! Human beings belong to all these scientific categories and more. In this Mind Game, you'll sort out all kinds of critters into different categories, and you'll race against time to do it!
Activity
On your screen, you'll see a whole bunch of different plants and animals on green square tiles.
At the start of each round, you'll see the name of a category flash across the top of the screen. Your job is to click on everything that belongs in that category. There might be a whole lot of correct answers, or there might just be one or two. (Whenever you click on a tile, it will pop out and change from green to white.)
When you're finished, click on the "Go!" button on the bottom of the screen. Here's how you'll get your score for each round:
+ 10 points for every plant or animal you get right.
- 5 points for every plant or animal you miss.
- 5 points for anything you picked that doesn't belong in that category.
Debriefing
How did you do? What were the biggest categories you had to fill? What were the smallest? Did you find out anything about some of these animals or plants that you didn?t know before?
If you've got your Journal, go ahead and answer the questions in it now!
More Info
Here are some things you might not have known before playing the game:
An animal is anything that has more than one cell and can't make its own food. Most plants can make their own food from the sunlight. However, a few plants, like the Venus Flytrap, are carnivorous (they eat insects). But they still make their own food too.
Mammals are a group of animals that usually have hair or fur, and nurse their babies with their own milk. Humans are mammals. Whales are mammals (not fish!) even though they live in the ocean. The duck-billed platypus is a strange mammal that lays eggs but still nurses its babies.
Most birds can fly, but some can't, like ostriches and penguins. Ostriches can run fast, however, and penguins are excellent swimmers.
Many kinds of animals use poison or venom to attack prey or defend themselves from attackers, including some kinds of spiders, frogs, snakes, jellyfish, and eels. The platypus has a toxic bite that can poison its victim.
Spiders aren't insects. They belong to a different group of creatures called arachnids, which also includes mites, ticks, and scorpions. One difference is in the number of legs: insects have six, arachnids have eight.
Some animals have backbones; others, like insects, have hard outer shells that help them hold their shape. And others, like jellyfish, are just soft all over.
Many animals eat insects, including humans in many parts of the world.