Ocean Ecology: Mnemonics for Taxonomic Levels

I had some challenges while studying the Coriolis effect, taxonomic levels and remember which building blocks were the building blocks of life. For the Coriolis effect, I re-read the section (I actually read the section on sea floor spreading more, but the Coriolis effect had more trouble staying in my brain). Primarily it was directional information that I wanted to remember for the Coriolis effect. I researched that in the northern hemisphere, the weather tends to move to the right, and in the southern hemisphere, it moves to the left. I broke it down to North=Right, South=Left. I broke it down to NR and SL, so I made up a little mnemonic memory device ‘No Raccoon Should Leave’ and I think that should be great for me to remember the basics. Once I know the directional travel, the rest of the information seems to picture itself a little easier for me.

For the Taxonomic levels, which I thought would be very important for me to have memorized, I made the list in order: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species. Which came out to DKPCOFGS and I came up with the memory device “Dancing Kangaroo puts cats on funny goat steeds). Which of course, entertained me, growing up with cats and goats. Knowing the order will be important for later classes not just this one.

I wanted to ensure that I understood the building blocks of life. Carbohydrates, protiens, lipids and nucleic acids are all the building blocks. CPLNa are the words that make up the list. I came up with the memory device “cows play like no animal.” This is more information that I really wanted to remember and keep in my brain, since it is important to have for my later studies and to ensure that I recognized the information in later classes.