Rats! That took a lot of my time...

    This term I have a class called population. In this class and this particular action project we learned about classifying organisms. We learned some functions of animal's organs. We learned a lot about organisms as a whole. 

    We took an FE ( Field Experience)  to the Lincoln Park Zoo to study these organisms and their morphology. We have taken a look at how to really classify an animal and their taxonomic levels. This Action project our job was to create a 3D model or a species of our choosing. I have chosen a common brown rat (also known as brown rats). 

 Rat (Rattus Norvegicus)

This is a Rat. Its common habitat is in the plains although most people will commonly see it in cities and homes. It’s typical diet includes a variety of plants and sometimes meat. If they are not busy eating our leftovers from the trash they are eating, leaves, grain, seeds, stems, roots, nuts, and fruit. A pet rat does like eating pasta and chicken. 

Their behavior varies from rat to rat, each one has their own personality. Many animals also have their own personalities although rats are the closest one that reflects our human behavior. I chipped it’s ear to show some character.

These rats are mostly nocturnal although they become active around dusk. These rats dig burrows for homes and are excellent swimmers. A rat can swim for 3 days straight before dying of exhaustion. Rats swim as a natural instinct and are very good at it. This is a mammal and I cannot show that it is warm blooded so I am writing it here.

This is my taxonomic chart which shows how you can recognize this animal. 

Taxonomic Level	Key characteristics of group
Kingdom: Animalia	It has macaroni on it’s whiskers to show that it needs to find food and eat it. This shows it’s an animal.
Phylum :Chordata	It has a tail to show you it’s chordate because it has bones in its tail. This shows it's phylum is Chordata.
Class: Mammalia	It is warm blooded which shows it’s class
Order: Rodentia	It has a robust body with short limbs and a long tail. This shows that it’s order is Rodentia
Family: Muridae	a large family of small rodents which is why this model is small
Genus: Rattus	It has a body longer than 5 inches. It had ears and whiskers to show it’s genus.
Species: Rattus Norvegicus	Rats have a blunt snout and short ears. Commonly a brown coat with a lighter underbelly.

This is my reference photo to create the rat model

This is my rat model drawing. This is how I planned it out.

This is a lot to look at however this helped me plan out my materials and the whole structure of the rat.

This is my venn diagram

This is comparing a rat to a caracal and a husky. This is showing the similarities and the differences. I noticed that they are all warm blooded, they have 4 legs, they all have fur, and whiskers. They have the same kingdom, phylum, and class. They have a tail. All of them have some type of nails. Some differences are that the rat can only grow to 13-16 inches from head to tail. Rats have flexible ribs while the dog and the caracal don’t. There are some things that the caracal and husky have in common that rats don’t have.  Huskies and caracals can have grey eyes. Rats can only have ruby eyes or black eyes. Another thing that rats cannot have is pointed ears. All of their ears are round. Caracals and huskies can have pointed ears.

Moving on to SET THEORY

This is my set theory for Rattus Norvegicus.

(Rattus N stands for Rattus Norvegicus.)

Rattus N ∉ ReptilesՈAquatic

Rattus N ∉ primates

Rattus N ∈ mammals

Rattus N ∈ chordate 

Rattus N ∈ Animal

∉= not an element of

∈ = an element of

Rats are not an element of aquatic animals nor reptiles.

Rats are not an element of primates

Rats are an element of mammals

Rats are an element of chordates

Rats are an element of animals

This shows the set and elements of the rat

This action project has been my favorite of all time. Although I did take about 16 hours total building this rat I learned a lot. This relates back to our unit of being able to identify organisms and classifying them. I learned a lot for this action project. At the Lincoln Park Zoo I learned so much about chimpanzees. In this unit everything we learned relates to this action project. Learning about taxonomic levels and morphology really shows here.

resources:

81517079882bbb04ab3b2c1fb244f336.jpg (3008×2000) (roadkill.tw)