| A | B |
|---|
| Abiotic | A nonliving factor or element (e.g., light, water, heat, rock, energy, mineral). |
| Acid deposition | Precipitation with a pH less than 5.6 that forms in the atmosphere when certain pollutants mix with water vapor. |
| Allele | Any of a set of possible forms of a gene. |
| Biochemical conversion | The changing of organic matter into other chemical forms. |
| Biological diversity | The variety and complexity of species present and interacting in an ecosystem and the relative abundance of each. |
| Biomass conversion | The changing of organic matter that has been produced by photosynthesis into useful liquid, gas or fuel. |
| Biomedical technology | The application of health care theories to develop methods, products and tools to maintain or improve homeostasis. |
| Biomes | A community of living organisms of a single major ecological region. |
| Biotechnology | The ways that humans apply biological concepts to produce products and provide services. |
| Biotic | An environmental factor related to or produced by living organisms. |
| Carbon chemistry | The science of the composition, structure, properties and reactions of carbon based matter, especially of atomic and molecular systems; sometimes referred to as organic chemistry. |
| Closing the loop | A link in the circular chain of recycling events that promotes the use of products made with recycled materials. |
| Commodities | Economic goods or products before they are processed and/or given a brand name, such as a product of agriculture. |
| Composting | The process of mixing decaying leaves, manure and other nutritive matter to improve and fertilize soil. |
| Construction technology | The ways that humans build structures on sites. |
| Consumer | 1) Those organisms that obtain energy by feeding on other organisms and their remains. 2) A person buying goods or services for personal needs or to use in the production of other goods for resale. |
| Decomposer | An organism, often microscopic in size, that obtains nutrients by consuming dead organic matter, thereby making nutrients accessible to other organisms; examples of decomposers include fungi, scavengers, rodents and other animals. |
| Delineate | To trace the outline; to draw; to sketch; to depict or picture. |
| Desalinization | To remove salts and other chemicals from sea or saline water. |
| Dichotomous | Divided or dividing into two parts or classifications. |
| Ecosystem | A community of living organisms and their interrelated physical and chemical environment. |
| Electronic communication | System for the transmission of information using electronic technology (e.g., digital cameras, cellular telephones, Internet, television, fiber optics). |
| Embryology | The branch of biology dealing with the development of living things from fertilized egg to its developed state. |
| Endangered species | A species that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. |
| Engineering | The application of scientific, physical, mechanical and mathematical principles to design processes, products and structures that improve the quality of life. |
| Environment | The total of the surroundings (air, water, soil, vegetation, people, wildlife) influencing each living being’s existence, including physical, biological and all other factors; the surroundings of a plant or animals including other plants or animals, climate and location. |
| Enzyme | A protein that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without being changed by the reaction; an organic catalyst. |
| Equilibrium | The ability of an ecosystem to maintain stability among its biological resources (e.g., forest, fisheries, crops) so that there is a steady optimum yield. |
| Ergonomical | Of or relating to the design of equipment or devices to fit the human body’s control, position, movement and environment. |
| Evolution | A process of change that explains why what we see today is different from what existed in the past; it includes changes in the galaxies, stars, solar system, earth and life on earth. Biological evolution is a change in hereditary characteristics of groups of organisms over the course of generations. |
| Fact | Information that has been objectively verified. |
| Geologic hazard | A naturally occurring or man-made condition or phenomenon that presents a risk or is a potential danger to life and property (e.g., landslides, floods, earthquakes, ground subsidence, coastal and beach erosion, faulting, dam leakage and failure, mining disasters, pollution and waste disposal, sinkholes). |
| Geologic map | A representation of a region on which is recorded earth information (e.g., the distribution, nature and age relationships of rock units and the occurrences of structural features, mineral deposits and fossil localities). |
| Hazardous waste | A solid that, because of its quantity or concentration or its physical, chemical or infectious characteristics, may cause or pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported or disposed of, or otherwise managed. |
| Homeostasis | The tendency for a system to remain in a state of equilibrium by resisting change. |
| Hydrology | The scientific study of the properties, distribution and effects of water on the earth’s surface, in the soil and underlying rocks and in the atmosphere. |
| Hypothesis | An assertion subject to verification or proof as a premise from which a conclusion is drawn. |
| Incinerating | Burning to ashes; reducing to ashes. |
| Information technology | The technical means that humans create to store and transmit information. |
| Inquiry | A systematic process for using knowledge and skills to acquire and apply new knowledge. |
| Instructional technology | Any mechanical aid (including computer technology) used to assist in or enhance the process of teaching and learning. |
| Integrated pest management | A variety of pest control methods that include repairs, traps, bait, poison, etc. to eliminate pests. |
| Law | Summarizing statement of observed experimental facts that has been tested many times and is generally accepted as true. |
| Lentic | Relating to or living in still water. |
| Lotic | Relating to or living in actively moving water. |
| Manufacturing technology | The ways that humans produce goods and products. |
| Mitigation | The policy of constructing or creating man-made habitats, such as wetlands, to replace those lost to development. |
| Mitosis | The sequential differentiation and segregation of replicated chromosomes in a cell’s nucleus that precedes complete cell division. |
| Model | A description, analogy or a representation of something that helps us understand it better (e.g., a physical model, a conceptual model, a mathematical model). |
| Niche (ecological) | The role played by an organism in an ecosystem; its food preferences, requirements for shelter, special behaviors and the timing of its activities (e.g., nocturnal, diurnal), interaction with other organisms and its habitat. |
| Nonpoint source pollution | Contamination that originates from many locations that all discharge into a location (e.g., a lake, stream, land area). |
| Nonrenewable resources | Substances (e.g., oil, gas, coal, copper, gold) that, once used, cannot be replaced in this geological age. |
| Nova | A variable star that suddenly increases in brightness to several times its normal magnitude and returns to its original appearance in a few weeks to several months or years. |
| Patterns | Repeated processes that are exhibited in a wide variety of ways; identifiable recurrences of the element and/or the form. |
| Pest | A label applied to an organism when it is in competition with humans for some resource. |
| Physical technology | The ways that humans construct, manufacture and transport products. |
| Point source pollution | Pollutants discharged from a single identifiable location (e.g., pipes, ditches, channels, sewers, tunnels, containers of various types). |
| Radioactive isotope | An atom that gives off nuclear radiation and has the same number of protons (atomic number) as another atom but a different number of neutrons. |
| Recycling | Collecting and reprocessing a resource or product to make into new products. |
| Regulation | A rule or order issued by an executive authority or regulatory agency of a government and having the force of law. |
| Renewable | A naturally occurring raw material or form of energy that will be replenished through natural ecological cycles or sound management practices (e.g., the sun, wind, water, trees). |
| Risk management | A strategy developed to reduce or control the chance of harm or loss to one’s health or life; the process of identifying, evaluating, selecting and implementing actions to reduce risk to human health and to ecosystems. |
| Scale | Relates concepts and ideas to one another by some measurement (e.g., quantitative, numeral, abstract, ideological); provides a measure of size and/or incremental change. |
| Science | Search for understanding the natural world using inquiry and experimentation. |
| Shredder | Through chewing and/or grinding, microorganisms feed on non-woody coarse particulate matter, primarily leaves. |
| Stream order | Energy and nutrient flow that increases as water moves toward the oceans (e.g., the smallest stream (primary) that ends when rivers flow into oceans). |
| Succession | The series of changes that occur in an ecosystem with the passing of time. |
| Sustainability | The ability to keep in existence or maintain. A sustainable ecosystem is one that can be maintained. |
| System | A group of related objects that work together to achieve a desired result. |
| Closed Loop system | A group of related objects that have feedback and can modify themselves. |
| Open Loop system | A group of related objects that do not have feedback and cannot modify themselves. |
| Subsystem | A group of related objects that make up a larger system (e.g., automobiles have electrical systems, fuel systems). |
| Technological design process | Recognizing the problem, proposing a solution, implementing the solution, evaluating the solution and communicating the problem, design and solution. |
| Technology education | The application of tools, materials, processes and systems to solve problems and extend human capabilities. |
| Theory of evolution | A theory that the various types of animals and plants have their origin in other preexisting types and that the distinguishable differences are due to modification in successive generations. |
| Theory | Systematically organized knowledge applicable in a relatively wide variety of circumstances; especially, a system of assumptions, accepted principles and rules of procedure devised to analyze, predict or otherwise explain the nature or behavior of a specified set of phenomena. |
| Tool | Any device used to extend human capability including computer-based tools. |
| Topographic map | A representation of a region on a sufficient scale to show detail, selected man-made and natural features of a portion of the land surface including its relief and certain physical and cultural features; the portrayal of the position, relation, size, shape and elevation of the area. |
| Transportation systems | A group of related parts that function together to perform a major task in any form of transportation. |
| Transportation technology | The physical ways humans move materials, goods and people. |
| Trophic levels | The role of an organism in nutrient and energy flow within an ecosystem (e.g., herbivore, carnivore, decomposer). |
| Waste Stream | The flow of (waste) materials from generation, collection and separation to disposal. |
| Watershed | The land area from which surface runoff drains into a stream, channel, lake, reservoir or other body of water; also called a drainage basin. |
| Wetlands | Lands where water saturation is the dominant factor determining the nature of the soil development and the plant and animal communities (e.g., sloughs, estuaries, marshes). |
