Third Quarter Science Vocabulary - Sixth Grade - Mr. Benton
Directions: click on a word to see its definition 3rd Q.Printable version
Current week's vocab is highlighted in blue. Return to 1st Qtr. vocab Return to 2nd Qtr. vocab
| 86. autotroph (producer) | 96. reproductive potential | 107. dominant, recessive |
| 87. heterotroph (consumer) | 97. limiting factor | 108. genotype, phenotype |
| 88. carbon dioxide | 98. carrying capacity | 109. allele |
| 89. matter | 99. calorie | 110. Punnett square |
| 90. energy | 100. feature | 111. homozygous / heterozygous |
| 91. trophic level | 101. trait | 112. genome |
| 92. food web | 102. variation | 113. heredity |
| 93. herbivore, omnivore, carnivore | 103. ratio | 114. partial dominance (incomplete dominance) |
| 94. detritivore | 104. DNA | 115. mitosis / meiosis |
| 95. 10% rule | 105. chromosome | 116. natural selection |
| 106. gene | 117. artificial selection (selective breeding) |
56. consumer - any organism that is not able to make its own food and must consume food from another source
57. producer - an organism that converts light energy into chemical energy (food). Plants are producers, as are green algae and blue-green bacteria
58. decomposer - organisms that obtain food by breaking down dead material into chemicals that can be recycled through the ecosystem
92. food web - a diagram showing the feeding relationships among organisms in an ecosystem; arrows show the flow of energy in the food web
93. herbivore, carnivore, omnivore - consumers in a food web: herbivores eat producers (plants). carnivores eat meat (other consumers), omnivores (like bears and humans) eat both plants and animals
89. matter - the substance that anything is made of; molecules and atoms, "building blocks"
86. autotroph (producer) - an autotroph is an organism which makes its own food (like a plant); an organism that converts light energy into chemical energy (food). Plants are producers, as are green algae and blue-green bacteria
87. heterotroph (consumer) a heterotroph is an organism that must eat other organisms for its energy needs; any organism that is not able to make its own food and must consume food from another source
88. carbon dioxide - a gas which makes up less than 4% of our atmosphere, but is necessary for photosynthesis; chemical symbol: CO2
90. energy - the ability to do work; comes in many forms - chemical energy, heat energy, electrical energy, etc.
91. trophic level: the position of an organism in an ecosystem related to its feeding habits; e.g.: producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, etc.
. carbohydrate - a sugar or starch; the source of energy in many foods; chemical formula contains carbon, hydrogen and oxygen
94. detritivore - an organism like a worm or beetle that eats dead material (detritus) but doesn't break the material down into its simplest form (and is therefore not referred to as a decomposer in our book)
95. 10% rule - only a small percentage (about 10%) of food is converted to biomass at each trophic level, therefore consumers must eat a lot to maintain their body mass and functions; each trophic level is approximately 1/10 the size of the next lower trophic level (forming an "energy pyramid")
96. reproductive potential - the number of offspring that an individual might possibly give birth to
97. limiting factor - any influence which reduces the reproductive capacity of a population
98. carrying capacity- the ability of an ecosystem to sustain (keep alive) a certain number of individuals
99. calorie - a measure of heat energy: one calorie equals the amount of heat energy needed to raise the temperature of one milliliter of water one degree Celsius
100. feature - a structure, characteristic or behavior of an organism, such as eye color, fur pattern, or timing of migration, which helps to identify the organism as a certain species
101. trait - the specific way a feature is expressed in an individual: for example, eye color is a feature; blue eyes are a trait
102. variation - the range of differences in a trait in any population; for example, there are variations in the color of walking sticks: brown, green-brown and green.
103. DNA - deoxyribonucleic acid; the complex chemical, of which chromosomes are made, that carries genetic information to the next generation
chromosome - a structure in a cell's nucleus that is made of DNA and which transfers hereditary information to the next generation (genes are found on chromosomes)
allele - a form of a gene, dominant or recessive, that is responsible for hereditary variation.
gene - a section of a chromosome that carries a chemical code for features of organisms
dominant, recessive - in genetics, dominant refers to a gene that is expressed or shows up whenever it is present and recessive is the form of the gene that is expressed only when no dominant gene is present
genotype, phenotype - genotype refers to the letters that represent the genes of a trait of an organism, for example: TT is the genotype for tall pea plants. Phenotype means the trait that is expressed, for example: 'tall' is a phenotype in pea plants
An organism’s particular combination of paired alleles is its genotype; the traits produced by those alleles result in the organism’s phenotype.
heterozygous gene, homozygous gene - heterozygous genes have two different alleles, one dominant and one recessive, for example: Tt, Aa, Ff; homozygous genes have two identical alleles, for example, both dominant or both recessive: TT, aa, FF, ff
genome - the complete set of genes of an organism. The human genome project has cataloged 30000 human genes.
heredity - the passing on of traits from one generation to the next
partial dominance - type of inherited characteristic in which a heterozygous gene results in a trait unlike the dominant trait or the recessive trait, for example the larkey fur pattern: Ff (heterozygous) results in solid patterned fur rather than striped (dominant) or spotted (recessive).
natural selection - process in nature that allows well-adapted organisms to survive and reproduce and reduces the probability that poorly-adapted organisms will survive
artificial selection, selective breeding - humans choosing to breed certain organisms for their beneficial characteristics
mitosis, meiosis - two types of cell division (reproduction). Mitosis occurs in all body cells and results in two complete duplicate cells; meiosis creates sex cells with only half of each chromosome pair
homologous pair - two "matching" chromosomes, one originally from the male parent, one originally from the female parent, which code for the same features but which may have differences (dominant or recessive)
ratio - a comparison of two numbers, for example, if there are 3 striped larkeys and 1 spotted larkey, the ratio is 3:1
Punnett square - a diagram which shows the possible offspring genotypes when two particular parents breed