Plants and animals are the same and different.

Organisms need food, water, and shelter to survive.

The behavior of individual organisms is influenced by internal cues (such as hunger) and external cues (such as changes in the environment).

Plants and animals have features that help them survive in different environments.

Stories sometimes give plants and animals properties they do not have.

All living organisms use metabolize food for energy, move, respire, use water, reproduce, respond to the environment (sensitivity), grow, excrete waste, require nutrition.

All living organisms have basic needs, (animals need air, water, food, and shelter; plants need air, water, nutrients, light, and shelter).

Organisms can survive only in environments in which their needs can be met

Living organisms can be sorted into groups in many ways by their common properties.

Properties used for grouping depends on the purpose of grouping.

Internal and external features are used to classify organisms.

A species includes all organisms that can mate with one another to produce sexually fertile offspring.

Living systems and ecosystems at all levels of organization demonstrate the complementary nature of structure and function.

Animals consume energy and plants use sunlight to make their food. Some organisms can not be easily classified as only a plant or animal

Humans and other organisms have senses that help them detect internal and external cues

Each plant and animal have different structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction (humans have distinct body structures for walking, holding, seeing, and talking)

Organisms are collections of cells. Cells continually divide to make more cells for growth and repair.

Important levels of organization for structure and function include cells, organs, tissues, organ systems, and organisms.

Similarities among organisms internal features infere a degree of relatedness among them.

The human organism has systems for digestion, respiration, reproduction, circulation, excretion, movement, control and coordination, and for protection from disease.

These systems interact with one another. Groups of specialized cells cooperate to form a tissue, such as a muscle. Different tissues are grouped together to form larger functional units, called organs.

Each type of cell, tissue, and organ has a distinct structure and set of functions that serve the organism as a whole.

All organisms are composed of cells, the fundamental unit of life.

Two-thirds of a cell is water.

Most organisms are single cells; other organisms, including humans, are multicellular.

Cells carry on the many functions needed to sustain life. They grow divide, thereby producing more cells.

Cells take in nutrients to provide energy for the work that cells do and to make the materials that a cell or an organism needs.

Specialized cells perform specialized functions in multicellular organisms.

Most microorganisms do not cause disease and many are beneficial.

Disease is a breakdown in structures or functions of an organism.

Some diseases are the result of intrinsic failures of the system. Others are the result of damage by infection of other organisms.