LIFE SCIENCE VOCABULARY

Life Science

Lesson 1: Photosynthesis

Essential Vocabulary

1. organisms: living things
  1. chlorophyll: a green substance in plant leaves that captures energy from the sun
  2. carbon dioxide: a gas in the atmosphere that plants use during

the process of photosynthesis

  1. stomata: tiny holes in the leaves of a plant that allow gases to

enter or leave the plant

  1. photosynthesis: the process in which plants use energy from the

sun to make their own food

  1. producer: an organism that makes its own food

Lesson 2: Inherited Traits and Adaptive Characteristics

7. traits: characteristics of an organism
  1. inherited traits: characteristics passed down from parents to

offspring

  1. offspring: children
  1. adapt: change
  1. perish: die

12. adaptation: a change an organism undergoes in order to survive

  1. reproduce: to make offspring
  1. instinctivebehaviors: behaviors that are inherited
  1. learnedbehaviors: behaviors that are learned

Lesson 3: Habitats, Ecosystems, and Biomes

16. habitat: the specific environment where an organism lives
  1. species: a group of organisms that produce offspring like themselves
  1. population: all the organisms of the same species that live in the same area at the same time
  1. community: populations of different species that live in the same area at the same time
  1. ecosystem: all the populations of organisms and the nonliving things in an environment, and the interaction among them
  1. biome: one of the six major land areas of the world that is home to specific plant and animal populations and is defined by its climate

Lesson 4: Life Cycles

  1. life cycle: the stages of development of an organism as it grows into an adult
  1. reproduce: to make more of the same kind of organism as the

adult

  1. thrive: to grow in a strong and healthy way
  1. pollution: anything in the environment that can harm living

organisms or damage the natural resources there

Lesson 5: Unique Niche, Food Chains, and Food Webs

  1. unique niche: an organism’s role in an ecosystem based on how it

gets its food

  1. consumers: animals that eat other organisms
  1. herbivores: animals that eat only plants
  1. carnivores: animals that eat only other animals
  1. omnivores: animals that eat both plants and animals
  1. predators: animals that hunt other animals for food
  1. prey: animals that are hunted by predators
  1. decomposers: organisms that feed on dead plants and animals, as well as animal wastes
  1. food chain: the path of energy from the sun to a plant to an

animal to another animal

  1. food web: a group of overlapping food chains