<p>Teaching taxonomic methods using hands-on activities is a challenging task. A wide range of digital tools is increasingly being used for classifying biological specimens. However, there is often little basic understanding of the methodologies underlying these techniques. One of the methods used in biosystematics is the ‘Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean’ (UPGMA) method that generally uses molecular data for generating a dendrogram (relationships shown as a tree) for a given set of organisms under study. A simple activity to demonstrate and enhance understanding of the principle behind this method is described here. The activities are presented in two parts. Part I includes a theoretical activity, and Part II includes the use of molluscan shell specimens for generating a dataset and constructing a relationship tree.</p>