Citizen Science Mini-Project: Learning the Structure of Scientific Names

Abstract

Names are what we use to identify different objects around us. Similarly, in the biological world, different organisms have different names. But, in biology, we use scientific names, which is similar in structure to the first name/last name nomenclature that we use in daily life. Specifically, microorganisms are named in Latin, and each name comes with a genus root and a species suffix. Put in another way, genus name like Escherichia is the family name, while species name such as coli is the first name. Thus, a name such as Escherichia coli would be interpreted as coli belonging to the family name, Escherichia. In this exercise, students will learn the structure of scientific name nomenclature, and be acquainted with the scientific names of a few model organisms important to biology.

Keywords: scientific name, model organism, genus, species, family name, first name