COMPETENCIES
2028.5.4 : Life Cycles
The graduate analyzes the life cycles of animals to determine the relationships within and between phyla.
Book: Integrated Studies of Zoology, Cleveland Hickman 19ed.
INTRODUCTION
In this task, you will write an essay that demonstrates your competency in zoology by describing the life cycles of chosen animal species from the phyla Cnidarians, Arthropods, and Chordates. You will investigate similarities and differences in how these animals grow, develop, and reproduce.
SCENARIO
You have just finished teaching your class about the characteristics of different animal phyla. One of your students remarks that there is a lot of diversity in the appearance of animals. After a moment of thought, the same student asks at what point during development these differences appear. To help your student understand how different characteristics arise in animals, you need to describe how differences in development during the life cycles contribute to how these animals grow, develop, and reproduce.
REQUIREMENTS
Your submission must be your original work. No more than a combined total of 30% of the submission and no more than a 10% match to any one individual source can be directly quoted or closely paraphrased from sources, even if cited correctly. The similarity report that is provided when you submit your task can be used as a guide.
You must use the rubric to direct the creation of your submission because it provides detailed criteria that will be used to evaluate your work. Each requirement below may be evaluated by more than one rubric aspect. The rubric aspect titles may contain hyperlinks to relevant portions of the course.
Tasks may not be submitted as cloud links, such as links to Google Docs, Google Slides, OneDrive, etc., unless specified in the task requirements. All other submissions must be file types that are uploaded and submitted as attachments (e.g., .docx, .pdf, .ppt).
A. Create a brief essay (suggested length of 2–3 pages) representing how you would explain how life cycles are used to classify animal species into phyla. You must do the following in your essay:
1. Provide three diagrams, one for each of three different species, that demonstrate the complete life cycles, from fertilization (or the asexual equivalent) to adult organism. Choose one species from each of the following phyla for your diagrams:
● Cnidarian
● Arthropod
● Chordate
a. Label the stages of the life cycle diagram for each species from part A1 from fertilization (or the asexual equivalent) to adult organism.
Note: Diagrams may be original or from a cited source. If taken from an outside source, proper in-text citations and references must be provided.
2. Describe the stages of development from fertilization (or the asexual equivalent) to adult organism for each of the sample species in part A1 (suggested length of one paragraph per species).
3. Discuss at least two commonalities among the life cycles of the sample species from part A1. Include all three phyla in your discussion.
Note: You can select commonalities among all three species or between any two of the species as long as all three phyla are discussed.
4. Discuss at least two differences among the life cycles of the sample species from part A1. Include all three phyla in your discussion.
Note: You can select differences among all three species or between any two of the species as long as all three species are discussed.
B. Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.
C. Demonstrate professional communication in the content and presentation of your submission.
