lesson
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Imagine you run a wildlife park with a dolphin, an eagle, a cow, a shark, an owl, and a sunflower. How would you organize them so visitors can easily explore?
Any living thing—whether it is an animal, a plant, or a mushroom—is called an organism.
To make sense of the living world, we sort organisms using a chosen rule or criterion (a test or trait you choose to sort things into groups).
What happens if we take our six living things and sort them by what they eat?
Sorting by Diet
An organism's diet is the type of food it eats to get energy and stay alive.
We can split our organisms into producers (make their own food from sunlight), herbivores (eat plants), and carnivores (eat other animals).
📊Interactive diagram
Notice how the eagle, shark, dolphin, and owl all end up in the exact same box because they all hunt other animals for food.
Does an eagle always have to stay in the same group as a shark? What happens if we sort them by where they live instead?
Sorting by Habitat
A habitat is the natural environment where an organism lives, finds food, and shelters.
When we switch our sorting rule from diet to habitat, our groups shuffle completely—even though we are using the exact same six organisms.