NCERT Solutions Curiosity Chapter 2 –15Section 2.2 — Activity 2.3: Let us group
Book page 14 Updated on2026-09-05
Q1.
Group them on the basis of common features. Share and discuss the basis of grouping you have made with other groups in your class.
Answer
With the picture cards pooled, pick one feature at a time and sort every card by it. Here is how one group of six students did it.
Basis chosen
Group 1
Group 2
Plants — presence of flowers
Rose, sunflower, hibiscus, mustard
Fern, moss, pine, grass (flowers not seen)
Plants — hard or soft stem
Mango, neem, rose (hard)
Tomato, coriander, spinach (soft)
Animals — eating habits
Cow, goat, deer, grasshopper (plant eaters)
Lion, frog, kingfisher (animal eaters)
Animals — place they live
Fish, dolphin, whale (water)
Camel, dog, elephant (land)
What to do while sharing: state clearly which single feature you used, and show that every card in your set really has it. If even one card does not fit, the basis is not sharp enough and must be re-worded.
Why one feature at a time: if you use two features together — say "tall and flowering" — a tall plant without flowers has nowhere to go. A good basis must put every card in exactly one group.
Q2.
You will be surprised to see that the basis used by different groups may vary. What do you think are the reasons behind it?
Answer
The bases differ because a plant or animal has many features, and each group noticed a different one first.
Different features caught the eye. One group looked at the height of plants; another looked at the presence or absence of flowers; a third looked at hard/soft stem (see Fig. 2.2).
Different cards were collected. A group whose magazines had many water animals naturally chose "place they live" as the basis.
Different interests and experiences. A student from a farming family thinks first of "useful crop / not a crop"; a student who keeps a pet thinks of "tame / wild".
None of these is wrong. There is no single correct basis — only bases that are more or less useful for the question you are asking.
Why this is an important lesson: grouping is done by us, for our convenience. Scientists too choose the basis that answers their question — a doctor groups animals by whether they spread disease, a farmer by whether they harm the crop, a biologist by body structure. The chapter's own choices are height and stem for plants, and movement for animals.
Q3.
What is the importance of grouping?
Answer
Grouping makes it easier to understand and study plants and animals on the basis of their similarities and differences. In detail, it helps in four ways:
It reduces a huge number to a few handfuls. Instead of remembering thousands of plants one by one, you remember three groups — herbs, shrubs and trees — and where each plant fits.
It lets you predict. Once you know a plant is a monocot, you can say without digging that its roots are fibrous and its leaf veins parallel.
It makes finding and comparing easy. Related things sit together, so differences between groups stand out at once.
It helps in daily work. A farmer decides on the same treatment for a whole group of crops; a forest officer plans protection for a whole group of habitats.
The everyday proof: think of a chemist's shop with 5,000 medicines. Grouped by type, a strip is found in seconds; thrown into one heap, the same search could take an hour. Nothing about the medicines changed — only the arrangement did.
Did you know? You will learn more about the importance of grouping in our daily lives in the chapter Materials Around Us.