ABSORPTIONTaking something in and not releasing it
ADAPTATION Body part or behavior that helps an animal meet its needs
AIRThe stuff we breathe but can not see, smell or taste
AIR MASSA huge body of air that has the same temperature and moisture
ALGAETiny plants that live in the water
AMPHIBIANAnimals that live in water when they are young, on land
when they grow old
AIR PRESSURE Weight of air
ANEMOMETER Instrument used to measure wind speed.
ANIMALLiving thing that must eat food, breathes oxygen and must have a male and female parent
ARTERIES Large vessels that take blood away from the heart.
ATMOSPHERE Layer of air that surrounds the earth.
AXIS Imaginary line that runs through the center of a planet as it spins
AXLERod or bar running between two wheels
BACTERIA One celled organisms important because of their chemical
activities. Needed for digestion and decomposition
BAROMETER Weather instrument used to measure the weight of air
BARRIER ISLANDThin island made of sand along a coast
BEAKERThin clear container used to measure how much space a liquid will
take up Measures volume
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BEHAVIORSomething an animal does
BIRDAnimal with feathers
BLOODFluid that flows through the body bringing oxygen to tissue and
removing carbon dioxide.
BOILING POINTTemperature at which a liquid will rapidly change to a gas forming bubbles.
BONES Hard material in the bodies of many animals
BOUYANCYHow well one type of material will float in a gas or liquid
BRAIN Organ of an animal that controls the nervous system.
CANYONA deep valley with steep sides
CAPACITYHow much space a liquid takes up using milliliters
CAPILLARIES Tiny blood vessels, which allow gases and nutrients to pass
from blood to cells.
CARBON DIOXIDE/OXYGEN CYCLE Gas molecules passing between
animals and plants
CARBON DIOXIDE Gas breathed out by animals but used by plants to
make food
CARNIVORE Animal that eats meat for energy
CELL Smallest body structure of all living things.
CHARACTERISTICSHow to describe the body parts or behaviors common to one group.
CHEMICAL CHANGE Changing one type of matter into another by
breaking or joining particles. Irreversible
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CHLOROPHYLL Green chemical in leaves that use the Sun’s energy to
make food
CIRCULATE Move around in a closed path.
CLASSIFICATION Grouping things by common characteristics
CLIMATE Average temperature and rainfall of an area over many years
COAL Fossil fuel formed from decayed swamp plants
COMMUNITY All living things in the same place at the same time
COMPETEAn organism will try to use a resource before some other
COMPETITION Contest among organisms for the limited resources of an
ecosystem
CONCLUSIONS Final thoughts on a subject based on observation and
reasoning
CONDENSATION Change water vapor or other gas into a liquid
CONDUCTOR Material that electricity (heat or sound) can pass through easily
CONSUMER Organism within a community that must eat another
organism to get nutrients and energy
CONSTELLATIONA group of stars that can be seen as a pattern
CONTINENTAL DRIFT Theory of how continents move
CONTOUR PLOWINGTurning dirt over while going around the side of a hill
to prevent erosion
CORE The melted nickel and iron at the center of the Earth.
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CRATER Large basin formed when a volcano falls in on itself or a meteor
crashes into a planet
CRUST Thin, outer layer of Earth
CYCLEPattern of events that keep repeating
DAYTIMETime of day when a place on Earth is facing the Sun
DECAYRotting or breaking down dead animals or plants.
DECOMPOSER Organism that breaks down dead organisms for food
DENSITY Property of matter that compares the mass of a certain volume
to the same volume of different matter.
DEPOSITION Process of dropping, or depositing, sediment in a new place.
DESERTA place that gets very little rain so that very few living things can
live there
DEVELOPMENTGrowing to maturity
DIGESTIONChange food into simplenutrients that can be used by cells
DISPLACEMENTCause something to move by taking its place
DISSOLVEParticles of one type of matter break apart from each
other and mix evenly with the particles of another type
EARTHQUAKEShaking of the ground caused when tectonic plates move
along a fault and suddenly release a large amount of energy
ECLIPSE Shadow created as one object passes between another object and
the source of light.
ECOSYSTEMOrganisms and environment of one place working together
to create habitats
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EGGS Cell in a female animal that grows into a new individual after
being fertilized.
ELECTRIC CIRCUITPath along which electric particles moves
ELECTRIC CURRENTElectric particles moving
ELECTROMAGNET Temporary magnet made by passing electricity a wire
wrapped a metal bar.
ENERGYAbility to do work or change matter
ENVIRONMENTAll of the things and processes that surround an organism
EROSIONPieces of rock and soil are moved by natural forces
EVAPORATION Changing liquid into a gas (Liquids evaporate at any
temporature, not just at their boiling points)
FALLTime of year when days are getting shorter and cooler
because the Earth is no longer tilted toward the Sun.
FAULTBreak in the Earth’s crust where the crust moves up, down or
slides past another piece of crust
FERTILIZATION Joining a male reproductive cell with a female reproductive
cell.
FERTILIZER Natural or chemical material that adds nutrients to soil.
FISHAnimal with bones that can breathe under water
FLOATStay on top of another liquid or gas
FLOWERPart of the plant that makes seeds to make new plants
.
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FOOD CHAIN A picture showing how living things get nutrients from other living things
FOOD WEBA diagram of various living things passing energy to each
other through a system of producers and consumers
FORCE Push or pull causing an object to stop, go or change direction
FORESTPlace where many trees grow
FOSSILS Remains or traces of life found in sedimentary rock.
FOSSIL FUELSFuel formed deep underground from the remains of
organisms that lived long ago (Oil, natural gas and coal)
FREEZING POINT Temperature at which a liquid freezes into a solid
equal to the melting point of the substance.
FRICTIONPull from a surface that makes it hard to slide things
FRONT Border between two bodies of air that have different temperatures
GASTiny invisible things that take the shape and fill up a container
because the pieces are always flying away from each other
GAS GIANTSJupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
GERMINATEWhen a new plant breaks out of its seed
GILLSPart of a fish’s body that lets it absorb oxygen underwater
GRAVITY Force that pulls objects in space toward each other
HABITAT The place where living things can find food, water and shelter
HAILIce that falls from the sky made as rain falls through a very cold air
mass
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HEART The muscle that pumps blood to all parts of the body
HERBIVOREAnimal that eats plants to get the energy it needs
HIBERNATEAnimals go into a deep sleeplike state for long periods
HUMIDITYMeasure of the amount of water in the air
HUMUSSoil made of material that was once part of a living thing
HYPOTHESISSomething that has not been proven but is thought to be true
(What we think the answer is.)
INEXHAUSTABLEResource that cannot be used up (Think about
weather or planet cycles)
INCLINED PLANE Flat surface that is higher at one end
INHERITED Trait passed from parent to child at fertilization
INNER PLANETSMercury, Venus, Earth and Mars
INSECTAnimal that has six legs and three body parts (head,thorax,abdomen)
INSTINCT Behavior that an organism inherits
INSULATORMaterial that does not allow electricity, heat or sound to
flow through
JOINTSPlace where bones meet and are attached by muscles
LAKEA body of water that is surrounded by land on all sides
LANDFORMThe shape of land in one area of the Earth’s surface
LEARNEDSomething an animal does because the animal was
either taught, observed or experienced the behavior
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LEVER Board or bar resting on turning point used to move things
LIFE CYCLE Living things grow up from baby to adult often going
through big changes in how it looks starting as a baby
and changing until it is ready to have babies of its own
LIGAMENTSOne of the connective tissues that hold the skeleton together.
LIQUID Wet thing that pours into the shape of its container because its tiny
pieces of slide past and around each other
LIVING THINGSomething that needs food and water to grow and has babies
LOAMType of topsoil with a lot of material from living things
LUNAR ECLIPSE Earth’s shadow crossing the Moon
LUNGSBody parts used by animals to breathe
MAGMA Molten rock below the Earth’s surface.
MAGNETIC FIELD Space all around a magnet where its force is observed.
MAGNETIC POLES End of a magnet.
MAGNETISM Force of attraction or repulsion between two poles of a
magnet.
MANTLERigid blocks of crust and upper mantle rocks that float on the
magma of Earth’s core.
MASS The amount or weight of an object measured in grams
MASS MOVEMENT Downhill movement of rock and soil because of gravity.
MATERIALSThings that are used to do an experiment
MATTER Everything that takes up space and has weight made of tiny pieces
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MECHANICAL ENERGYAmount of energy being used to move something
MELTChange from a solid to a liquid
MELTING POINT Temperature at which a solid melts into a liquid equal to the
freezing point of the substance.
METAMORPHOSIS Change in the shape or characteristics of an organism
during development
MINERALHard things found in nature that were never alive
MIXTURE Something that has two or more different types of matter
mixed together that can be taken apart reversible
MODELSomething that represents how a real thing may look or act
(Models may be smaller or larger than the real thing)
MOLECULEVery smallest particle of any substance
MOLTENSomething that is melted
MOON Smaller object that revolves around a planet
MODELSomething made to represent or explain how real things might look
or act
MOTIONMove somehow
MOUNTAINPlace on Earth’s surface that is much higher than the land
around it
MUSCLES Meat part of the body used for moving made of long cells
that contract and expand
NATURAL GAS The gas methane usually found with petroleum oil.
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NATURAL RESOURCE Any useful mineral or other material that people
take from the Earth
NERVES The organs that carry signals from the brain to the body and back
to the brain.
NICHE Role each population plays within a habitat.
NIGHTTime of day when a place on Earth is facing away from the Sun
NITROGEN CYCLE Pattern Nitrogen gas follows as it is used by
living things or stored in soil.
NONLIVING THINGThings that do not need food or water because they do
not grow and will not have babies
NONRENEWABLE Resource that is in limited supply and will one day be
used up completely.(Think about fossils and rock cycle)
NUTRIENTSThings that living things need in their body to grow
OCEANVery large body of salt water covering large parts of the Earth
OFFSPRING Young of a plant or animal.
OILGreasy liquid substance from plant, animal or mineral sources.
(petroleum)
OMNIVORE Animal that eats both plants and animals to get energy
ORBITPath of an object as it revolves/travels around a second object
ORGAN Tissues that work together to perform a specific function.
ORGANISMIndividual animal, plant or other living thing.
OUTER PLANETSJupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
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OXYGEN A gas in air that must be breathed or absorbed by animals
PANGEA Super-continent made up of all of the Earth’s land surface that
existed about 225 million years ago.
PARENT Animal or plant, which produces baby or seed.
PARTICLEVery small piece of some thing
PHASESDifferent shapes the moon appears to have when observed from Earth
.
PHOTOSYNTHESIS Process of plants to produce food using the sun’s light
for energy.
PHYSICAL CHANGESomehow changing matter and how it is observed
without making some new kind of matter
PHYSICAL PROPERTIESCharacteristics of matter that can be observed
and measured including the states of matter
PITCH The type of tone heard determined by the speed of the sound waves
PLANETA very large, round body of gas or rock that goes around a star
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
(Mnemonic: My Very Excited Mother Just Served Us Nachos)
PLATE Layer of rock beneath the Earth’s crust
PLATEAULarge flat area surrounded by land that is lower
POLLENMale reproductive cells found in the flower.
POPULATIONAll animals of the same species that live in the same area at
the same time
PRECIPITATIONWater that falls to Earth as rain, snow, sleet or hail
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PREDATOR Animal that hunts another for food
PREDICTION To say what will happen before it actually does.
PREY Animal that is hunted as food by another animal
PROCEDURESteps or actions that are done in an experiment
PROCESSSeries of events that happen in a pattern
PRODUCER Organism that is able to make its own food by absorbing
energy from the sun
PROPERTIESCharacteristics of some matter that describes how it looks or acts
PULLEYSimple machine with a wheel and rope or chain to pull objects
PUPA Enclosed shape of an insect while it is changing from a larva into
an adult.
RAIN FORESTPlace filled with trees where it rains all year round
RAIN GAUGE Weather instrument used to measure rain amount.
RECYCLE Make something new from something old
REDUCE Use less of a resource.
REFLECTIONLight energy that bounces off objects
REFRACTION Bending of light rays as they pass through a substance.
RENEWABLE Resource that can be replaced as it is used. (Think about
natural cycles that refresh or replenish the resources.)
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REPRODUCTION Produce another living thing of the same kind.
REPTILEAnimal with rough dry skin
RESULTS What was observed because of an experiment
REUSE Use an item again often for a different purpose.
REVERSIBLEAble to change back and forth
REVOLVE Move around an object
ROCK LAYERS Mineral that lays like blankets one on another rocks getting
older as it gets lower.
ROTATE Planet spins like a top
RULERSmall stick or paper used to measure length in centimeters
SCALES1. Thin hard pieces that cover the body of a fish or reptile