NCERT Solutions Curiosity Chapter 2 –12Section 2.1 Diversity in Plants and Animals Around Us — Activity 2.1: Let us explore and record

Book page 10 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.

Record your observations in Table 2.1 about the features of stems, leaves, flowers and anything interesting in various plants.

Answer

Dig out four or five plants' worth of observations from your own nature walk. Here is a completed Table 2.1 you can compare your entries with.

S. no.	Local name of plant	Stem	Leaves (shape / arrangement)	Flowers	Any other observations
1.	Common grass	Soft and thin	A single long narrow leaf grows alternately from different points on the stem	Very small, greenish, easily missed	Green leaves; veins run parallel
2.	Tulsi	Hard and thin	A pair of leaves in opposite directions; edges look like tiny teeth	Pinkish purple	Strong pleasant smell when a leaf is rubbed
3.	Hibiscus (gudhal)	Hard, thin, brown	Broad, pointed, one leaf at a node; net-like veins	Large, red, with a long central stalk	Branches start close to the ground — a shrub
4.	Neem	Hard and thick	Many small leaflets on a common stalk, in pairs	Small, white, in bunches	Leaves with a smooth surface; bitter taste
5.	Money plant	Weak and green	Heart-shaped, single leaf at each point	Usually none seen	Climbs a wall with the help of support

What to look for while filling it: three things decide most of the entries — is the stem soft or hard, thin or thick?, how are the leaves arranged — one at a point (alternate) or two facing each other (opposite)?, and what colour, size and smell has the flower? These are exactly the features you will use later to group plants.

Try This: Collect only fallen leaves and flowers and press them between newspaper sheets in a heavy book. In a week you will have a scrapbook of your own locality's plants.

Q2.

What similarities and differences did you find among the plants that you observed?

Answer

Similarities: every plant you observed had the same basic parts — roots, a stem, leaves, and most had flowers. All were fixed in one place, all were green in some part, and all made their own food.

Differences: the book itself lists the three main ones.

Stem — tall or short, hard or soft, thick or thin, brown or green. Compare the soft green stem of grass with the hard thick brown trunk of a neem.
Leaves — different shapes, sizes and colours, and a different arrangement on the stem: one leaf at a point in grass, a pair of opposite leaves in tulsi, many leaflets on one stalk in neem.
Flowers — varying in colour, shape and scent: pinkish-purple in tulsi, large red in gudhal, small white bunches in neem.

Why the differences matter: a difference that appears again and again in many plants can be used as a basis for grouping. "Hard stem or soft stem" separates trees and shrubs from herbs; "net-like veins or parallel veins" will later separate dicots from monocots. That is how a long messy list becomes a short, usable set of groups.

Q3.

Now, create a list of animals you observed during this walk or from your previous experiences. Record the places where they live, the food they eat and the way they move around in Table 2.2.

Answer

Here is Table 2.2 completed with common Indian animals. Use it to check your own entries.

Name of the animal	Place where they live	Food they eat	The way they move around	Any other observations
Crow	Tree	Insects, grains, leftover food	Fly and walk	Carrying a twig in its beak
Ant	Nest in soil and burrow	Leaves, seeds and insects	Walk / crawl	Have six legs; move in a line
Cow	Shed, grassy field	Grasses, leaves	Walk and run	Chews the cud; has hooves and horns
Squirrel	Tree, hole in a wall	Nuts, fruits, seeds	Run, climb, jump	Three stripes on its back; bushy tail
Fish	Pond, river	Water plants, small insects	Swim	Streamlined body and fins
Frog	Pond edge — water as well as land	Insects	Hop and swim	Moist skin; croaks loudly after rain

Check it yourself: add one animal that nobody else in your class has written — a house lizard, a snail after rain, a bulbul, a mongoose, a dragonfly. That single extra entry is your own contribution to the class list of local biodiversity.

Q4.

What are the similarities and differences among the animals that you have observed and recorded in Table 2.2?

Answer

Similarities: all of them eat food, breathe, move from place to place on their own, grow, respond to what happens around them and produce young ones. Moving about by themselves is the one big difference from plants.

Differences — the book groups them under three headings:

Basis	How they differ	Examples
Where they live	On land, on trees, in water, or both land and water	Cow on land, crow on trees, fish in water, frog in both
What they eat	Only plants, only animals, or both	Cow eats grass; frog eats insects; crow eats both
How they move	Walk, run, fly, crawl, swim, hop	Crow flies, ant crawls, fish swims, frog hops

Why it happens: the way an animal moves matches the place it lives in. A fish needs a streamlined body and fins to push through water; a cow needs legs and hooves to walk on hard ground; a crow needs wings to reach the branches where it nests. The body is built for the surroundings — an idea the chapter later calls adaptation.

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