7.4.4 Organization of Life: 6 Kingdoms

All life is made out of cells. But scientists needed an efficient way of grouping life forms into different groups.

The largest group is the kingdoms. There are six kingdoms of life: animalia, plantae, fungi, protista, archaebacteria, and eubacteria. There are four questions we normally ask to help differentiate the kingdoms.
1) Is it autotrophic or heterotrophic? (How does it get its glucose?)
2) Is it eukaryotic or prokaryotic? (Does it have a nucleus?)
3) Does it have a cell wall?
4) Is it unicellular or multicellular?

Check out these videos of the different life forms!

Kingdom Animalia: Chrysaora fuscescens
Kingdom Plantae: Dionaea muscipula
Kingdom Fungi: Lycoperdon pusillum
Kingdom Protista: Euglena pisciformis
Kingdom Archaebacteria: Extreme Life Forms
Kingdom Eubacteria: Escherichia coli

Fun microscope activity to learn about microbes.