The concepts developed in this standard include the following:
· Living things are made of cells. Cells carry out all life processes. New cells come from existing cells. Cells are too small to be seen with the eye alone. Using a microscope many parts of a cell can be seen.
· Though plant and animal cells are similar, they are also different in shape and in some of their parts. Plant cells tend to be rectangular. Animal cells tend to be spherical and at times irregular.
· Organisms that share similar characteristics can be organized into groups in order to help understand similarities and differences.
· Living things can be categorized into kingdoms: monerans protists, fungi, plants, and animals.
· Plants can be categorized as vascular (which have special tissues to transport food and water such as trees and flowering plants) and nonvascular (which do not have tissues to transport food and water such as moss). Most plants are vascular.
· Animals can be categorized as vertebrates (with backbones) or invertebrates (without backbones).

In order to meet this standard, it is expected that students should be able to:
· draw, label, and describe the essential structures and functions of plant and animal cells. (For plants include the nucleus, cell wall, cell membrane, vacuole, chloroplasts, and cytoplasm. For animals include the nucleus, cell membrane, vacuole, and cytoplasm.)
· design an investigation to make observations of cells.
· compare and contrast plant and animal cells, and identify their major parts and functions.
· compare and contrast the distinguishing characteristics of the kingdoms of organisms.
· group organisms into categories using their characteristics: living things (kingdoms), plants (vascular and nonvascular plants), and animals (vertebrates or invertebrates). Name and describe two common examples of each group.