Download How Do Scientists Organize Living Things?

How Do Scientists
Organize Living Things?
Imagine that you work in a bookstore.
It is your job to organize the books in the
store. You want customers to be able to
easily find the books they are looking for.
How would you organize the books?
You could organize the books by color.
You could put the red books in one group
and the blue books in another group.
You could organize the books by size.
You could put the thick books in one
How would you organize the books in a
group and the thin books in another
group. Or you could organize the books by bookstore?
type. You could group the fiction books together.
You could group the cooking books together and
the travel books together. Bookstores usually
group books of similar types together. This makes
it easy for people to locate the book they want.
Scientists organize living things in a
similar way. They put living things into
different groups based on their features.
Plants and animals are two such groups.
All members of the plant group have
features in common.
For example, plants cannot move
around, and they make their own food.
All members of the animal group have
other features in common. For example,
animals can move around, and they eat
food in their habitats.
All members of the plant group have features in
common. Trees belong to a smaller group
within the plant group.
Scientists can divide the plant and
animal groups into smaller groups. The
living things in these smaller groups also have
features in common. For example, trees are a
group of plants that share common features. All
trees have roots, stems, and leaves. Their stems
Discovery Education Science
Page 1 of 2
© Discovery Communications, LLC
How Do Scientists
Organize Living Things?
are usually woody. Reptiles are a smaller group
within the animal group. Reptiles share common
features. Their skin is covered in scales, and they
usually lay eggs on land.
Discovery Education Science
Page 2 of 2
© Discovery Communications, LLC