PreK-9th Vocabulary Outdoor Discovery Program Mountain Preserves
Eco-Explorers -Pre-K, Kinder, and First Grade 1. Habitat - The place or type of place where a plant or animal naturally or normally lives or grows.
2. Adaptation - A change or the process of change by which an organism or species becomes better suited to its environment.
3. Polar - The icy wastes of the continental ice caps and the frozen pack ice of the ocean.
4. Grassland - A grassy plain in tropical and subtropical regions, with few trees.
5. Senses - A faculty by which the body perceives an external stimulus; one of the faculties of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch.
6. Sight/ vision - The faculty or state of being able to see. 7. Touch - The faculty of perception through physical contact, especially with the fingers.
8. Hear - Perceive with the ear the sound made by (someone or something). 9. Taste - The sensation of flavor perceived in the mouth and throat on contact with a substance.
10.Smell - The faculty or power of perceiving odors or scents by means of the organs in the nose.
11.Life Cycle - The series of changes in the life of an organism, including reproduction.
12.Metamorphosis - The series of developmental stages some insects and amphibians go through to complete their life cycle.
13.Cocoon - A silky case spun by the larvae of many insects for protection in the pupal stage.
14.Tadpole - The tailed aquatic larva of an amphibian (frog, toad, newt, or salamander), breathing through gills and lacking legs until its later stages of development.
15.Insect - Any animal of the class Insecta, comprising small, air-breathing arthropods having the body divided into three parts (head, thorax, and abdomen), and having three pairs of legs and usually two pairs of wings.
16.Arthropods - Any invertebrate of the phylum Arthropoda, having a segmented body, jointed limbs, and usually a chitinous shell that undergoes moltings, including the insects, spiders and other arachnids, crustaceans,and myriapods.
17.Compound Eyes - An arthropod eye subdivided into many individual, light-receptive elements, each including a lens, a transmitting apparatus, and retinal cells.
18.Antenna - One of the jointed, movable, sensory appendages occurring in pairs on the heads of insects and most other arthropods.
19.Thorax - The middle section of the body of an insect, between the head and the abdomen, bearing the legs and wings.
20.Larva - The active immature form of an insect, especially one that differs greatly from the adult and forms the stage between egg and pupa, e.g., a caterpillar or grub.
New Nature Encounters- First and Second Grade 1. Talons – A claw, especially one belonging to a bird of prey. 2. Feathers – One of the soft and light parts of a bird that grows from the skin and covers the body. It also provides insulation and allows them to fly.
3. Fur – The soft thick hair that covers the bodies of certain animals (mammals) such as the bear, cat or fox.
4. Scales – One of the many small, hard, thin plates that cover fish, reptiles, and other animals.
5. Camouflage – The coloration or shape of animals that makes them hard to see against the background.
6. Wings – Limbs of a bird, bat, or insect used for flight. 7. Habitat - the natural environment of an organism; place that is natural for the life and growth of an organism.
8. Nest - a structure or place made or chosen by a bird for laying eggs and sheltering its young.
9. Wildlife - wild animals collectively; the native fauna (and sometimes flora) of a region.
10.Wild - (of an animal or plant) living or growing in the natural environment; not domesticated or cultivated.
11.Domesticated - (of an animal) tame and kept as a pet or on a farm. 12.Insect - a small arthropod animal that has six legs and generally one or two pairs of wings.
13.Arthropods - an invertebrate animal that has a hard exoskeleton, such as an insect, spider, or crustacean.
14.Compound Eyes - an eye consisting of an array of numerous small visual units, as found in insects and crustaceans.
15.Antennae - paired appendages used for sensing in arthropods. 16.Thorax - the middle section of the body of an insect, between the head and the abdomen, bearing the legs and wings.
17.Larva - the active immature form of an insect, especially one that differs greatly from the adult and forms the stage between egg and pupa, e.g. a caterpillar or grub.
18.Pollination - the transfer of pollen to a stigma, ovule, flower, or plant to allow fertilization.
19.Pollinator - something, such as an insect, that carries pollen from one plant or part of a plant to another.
20.Pollen - a fine powdery substance, typically yellow, consisting of microscopic grains discharged from the male part of a flower or from a male cone.
21.Nectar - a sugary fluid secreted by plants, especially within flowers to encourage pollination by insects and other animals.
Animal Discoveries and Nature Cycles - Third Grade Condensation – The changing of water from a vapor (gas or steam) into a 1. liquid. This occurs when water vapor in the atmosphere rises, cools, contracts, and turns into small water droplets, forming clouds.
Evaporation – The transformation of liquid water into a vapor (gas). 2. Examples are when boiling water turns into steam, or when the sun heats up water in a lake or puddle causing it to evaporate.
Infiltration/Percolation – When surface water (like a puddle) soaks down 3. into the soil.
Precipitation – When air becomes saturated, it will not be able to hold the 4. water. Vapor, rain, hail, sleet, and snow result from the condensation of water in clouds.
Transpiration – The passage of water vapor from the leaves of plants 5. (through stomata) in the atmosphere (air).
Water Cycle – The circulation of the earth’s water through all of its stages. 6. The cycle of water goes from the atmosphere to the Earth and back again through the following steps: evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, percolation, runoff, and accumulation.
Watershed – The land area that captures and directs rainwater and 7. snowmelt to a river, lake or ocean.
Wetland – An area of land with wet soil, which is rich in life. Marshes and 8. estuaries are examples of wetland habitats.
9. Habitat – The natural environment of an organism; place that is natural for the life and growth of an organism.
Camouflage – An adaptation that helps a plant or animal blend in with 10. their surroundings.
Echolocation – An adaptation that allows some animals to use sound to 11. locate objects. This is used by both bats and dolphins.
Olfactory Nerve – The sensory nerve for smell. 12. Cochlear Nerve - The sensory nerve for hearing. 13. 14.Glossopharyngeal Nerve - The sensory nerve responsible for taste. 15.Optic Nerve - The sensory nerve for vision. 16.Trigeminal Nerve - The sensory nerve for touch.
Herbivore – an animal that eats plants. They have flat teeth for grinding 17. the plants.
Carnivore – an animal that eats flesh. 18. Omnivore – eating both animal and plant foods. 19. Scavenger – an animal or other organism that feeds on dead organic matter. 20. Opportunistic Eater – eats whatever food is available, and is not very 21. picky.
Predator - any organism that exists by preying upon other organisms. 22. Prey - an animal hunted or seized for food, especially by a carnivorous 23. animal.
Diurnal – a creature that is active during the day. 24. Nocturnal – a creature that is active during the night. 25. Crepuscular – a creature that is active during twilight hours – dusk and 26. dawn.
27. Habitat - The natural environment of an organism; a place that is natural for the life and growth of an organism.
28. Adaptation – A change in behavior, structure, or habitat of a plant or animal that helps it survive.
29. Metamorphosis – A change from an immature stage to an adult stage, sometimes in one or more stages. Example: When a caterpillar becomes a butterfly.
30. Life Cycle – The series of changes an organism undergoes throughout its lifetime.
Native Ways and Ancient Evidence- Fourth and Sixth Grade 1. Serrano Indians - a Native American tribe of Southern California.
2. Yuhaviatam - the native language word the Serrano people used to describe themselves, meaning, “People of the Pines.”
3. Wiich - acorn porridge: The Serrano Indians would grind acorns into flour and cooked it into a type of porridge.
4. Kiich - dome-shaped shelter that was formed by plant debris, woven plant strands, and mud.
5. Mano - (Spanish for hand) is a ground stone tool used with a metatae to process or grind food by hand.
6. Metatae - A large stone with a depression or bowl, used for grinding. 7. Rock Cycle - There are three main types of rocks; sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic. Each of these rocks are formed by physical changes--such as melting, cooling, eroding, compacting, or deforming.
8. Igneous - Rock formed from lava or magma cooling. Granite is an example. 9. Metamorphic - Rock changed through heat and pressure. An example is marble, which used to be limestone.
10.Sedimentary - A compressed rock formed from fragments of many other rocks or material, initially deposited by water or air. Many of these rocks have visible layers; such as in the Grand Canyon.
11.Mineral - A solid formed by natural processes that has a crystalline structure — a unique arrangement of atoms — and a definable chemical composition.
12. Erosion – The gradual degradation or destruction of something due to natural causes such as wind or water, or human activities such as the removal of vegetation.
13. Weathering – The process of breaking down substances such as rock by such forces as water, ice, chemicals, growing plants, and changing temperatures.
14. Deposition – The process in which sediment from erosion and weathering is relocated by forces of nature and relocated to a new place.
15.Average- Average value in a set of numbers is the middle value, calculated by dividing the total of all the values by the number of values.
16.Suspended Particles- Small solid particles which remain in suspension in water due to the motion of the water. It is used as one indicator of water quality.
17. Roots – Grow downward into the ground and serve as an “anchor”. A conduit for the uptake of water and dissolved minerals from the soil.
18. Heartwood – The no longer living, oldest woody tissue in the center of a tree, which helps support the tree.
19. Xylem – Transports water and dissolved mineral nutrients upward from the roots to the shoots and leaves.
20. Cambium - One cell layer thick, actively dividing cells which generate new vascular tissue (phloem and xylem), heartwood and bark.
21. Phloem – Vascular tissue which carries sugars and other manufactured food from their source of production (usually leaves) to stems and roots that do not photosynthesize but require sugar for metabolic processes.
22. Bark - The protective outer layer of the plant (similar to our skin). Bark serves to insulate trunk, branches and roots from heat, cold, fire, insects, and other animals. Technically, bark is all tissue located outside of the cambium.
23.Snag - A tree that is dead, but still standing.
Nature Interactions and Inspiration - Fifth and Sixth Grade 1. Scientific method: is a method of research in which a problem is identified, relevant data is gathered, a hypothesis is formulated from this data and the hypotheses is empirically tested.
2. Food Chain – A community of organisms where one member consumes another in a sort of chain. Example: Caterpillar eats the plant, the frog eats the caterpillar, the snake eats the frog, and the owl eats the snake.
3. Energy Pyramid – The transfer of energy through various food chains. 4. Producer – Plant or organism that can change energy from the L.A.W.S. into food. 5. Consumer – Eats plants and/or animals. 6. Decomposers – An organism that breaks down organic matter through consumption. 7. Fungi – An organism that does not photosynthesize and that produces spores for reproduction.
8. Scavenger – Anything that feeds on leftovers from other animals or decaying matter.
9. Biotic- A living organism or factor that affects other living organisms. 10. Abiotic– Non-living (no life has existed, nor will it exist into the future) factors that affect living organisms.
11. L.A.W.S. of Nature – The four abiotic factors required for all life on Earth: Light, Air, Water, and Soil minerals. 12. Ph (“potential hydrogen”) Test – measures the concentration of hydrogen ions in a solution to determine its relative acid or base concentration.
13. Invertebrate – Animal without a backbone.
14. Vertebrate – Animal with a backbone.
15.Indicator Species - A species of animal such as an invertebrate that can be used to determine the quality of the environment.
16. Food Web – A series of organism interactions through predator and prey activities.
17. Algae – An organism closely resembling plants in the order of protista.
Seeds – A seed is a fertilized ovule containing a plant embryo. Given the appropriate 18. growth conditions, it will become a new plant.
Photosynthesis – The process through which plants use water and carbon dioxide to 19. create their food, grow and release excess oxygen into the air.
Germination – The process where a seed sprouts and then grows and develops into a 20. plant.
21.Seed Dispersal - The way that seeds move from place to place is called, “seed dispersal.” 1. Scattering and Rolling Dispersal 2. Mechanical Propulsion Dispersal 3. Water Dispersal 4. Wind Dispersal 5. Animal Dispersal
22. Endangered –Species is any type of plant or animal that is in danger of disappearing forever.
23. Extinct – If a species, or type of plant or animal dies out completely, it becomes extinct.
24. Ecology – Is the study of the relationships between living things and their surroundings, or environment.
25. Ecosystem – An ecosystem includes all of the living things (Biotic) in a given area, interacting with each other , and also with their non-living environments (Abiotic).
26. Preservation – The activity of protecting something from loss or danger. 27.Human Impact - The positive and negative ways in which humans interact with and transform the Earth. 28.Encroachment - To advance beyond proper, established, or usual limits.
Find Your Way through Orienteering - Sixth to Ninth Grade 1. Navigation – the art or science of plotting, ascertaining, or directing a course. 2. Compass – an instrument for determining directions, as by means of a freely rotating magnetized needle that indicates magnetic north.
3. Topographic Map – a map that includes the relief features or surface configuration of an area.
4. Altitude (elevation): – The vertical height of an object above sea level. 5. Contour – A line drawn on a map connecting points of the same height above sea level.
6. Declination – Degree difference between true north and magnetic north. 7. Inclination – Slope 8. Latitude – The angular distance in degrees north or south of the equator to a point on the Earth’s surface.
9. Longitude – The angular distance in degrees east or west of the prime meridian at Greenwich to a point on the earth’s surface.
10. Aquifer - An underground bed of saturated soil or rock that yields significant quantities of water that may be pumped to the surface for use by people, livestock or watering crops.
11. 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.
12. Potable - Safe to drink 13. Non-Potable - water that is not of drinking quality, but can still be used for other purposes
14. Waterborne disease - Any illness transmitted through ingesting of or contact with water contaminated by disease-causing organisms.
15. Pathogen - a bacterium, virus, or other microorganism that can cause disease.
16. Riparian Area - Land areas directly influenced by a body of water; usually have visible vegetation or other physical characteristics showing this water influence. Stream banks, lake borders and marshes are typical riparian areas.
17.Hydration – The process of providing an adequate amount of liquid to bodily tissues.
18.Insulation – A material covering that prevents or reduces the passage, transfer, or leakage of heat.
19.Altitude (elevation): – The vertical height of an object above sea level. 20.Necessity - Something that is required for a given task such as wilderness survival, often confused with items that are wanted but not necessary.