4-Science Vocabulary

Description:	4th grade science vocabulary
Category:	Science
Created by:	feliciawilliams01 on 2009-09-06

Question	Answer
a special trait that helps an organism survive	ADAPTATION
the smallest unit of living matter	ANIMAL CELL
an adaptation by which an animal can hide by blending in with its surrounding	CAMOUFLAGE
a consumer that eats only animals	CARNIVORE
a green substance in plant cells that helps plants make food by trapping the Sun's energy	CHLOROPHYLL
to place things that share properties	CLASSIFY
to share information	COMMUNICATE
the living part of an ecosystem	COMMUNITY
point out similarities	COMPARE
communicate, make a model, or predict what is going to happen in a scientific experiment	HYPOTHESIS
to put or fit together	CONSTRUCT
any organism that eats the food producers make	CONSUMER
point out differences	CONTRAST
to make or design	CREATE
an organism that breaks down wastes and the remains of other organisms	DECOMPOSER
facts to support or help draw conclusions	DATA
a plan, form in the mind	DESIGN
the living and nonliving things in an environment and all their interactions	ECOSYSTEM
in danger of extinction	ENDANGERED
all the surrounding things, conditions, and influences affecting the growth of living things	ENVIRONMENT
to perform a test to support or disprove a hypothesis	EXPERIMENT
an organism no longer alive on Earth	EXTINCT
anything that shows what is true and what is not: facts, proof	EVIDENCE
the joining of a female cell and male cell to produce a fertilized egg	FERTILIZATION
the set of steps in which organisms get the food they need to survive	FOOD CHAIN
the sprouting of seed into a new plant	GERMINATION
the home of an organism	HABITAT
a consumer that eats only plants	HERBIVORE
a pattern of behavior that requires no thinking because it is programmed into an animal's brain	INSTINCT
examine closely	INVESTIGATE
to form an idea from facts or observations	INFER
a behavior that is inborn, not learned	INHERITED BEHAVIOR
a behavior that an organism doesn't begin life with	LEARNED BEHAVIOR
the food making part of the plant, responsible for performing photosynthesis	LEAVES
the stages of growth and change of an organism's life	LIFE CYCLE
a process of changes in form during an animal's development	METAMORPHOSIS
when one organism imitates the traits of another	MIMICRY
to use one or more of the senses to identify or learn about or event	OBSERVE
a consumer that eats both plants and animals	OMNIVORE
a living thing that carries out five basic life functions on its own	ORGANISM
a part of the air that is needed by most plants and animals to live	OXYGEN
a process in plants that uses energy from sunlight to make food from water and carbon dioxide	PHOTOSYNTHESIS
the smallest unit of living matter	PLANT CELL
the transfer of a flower's pollen from another pistil	POLLINATION
one type of organism living in an area	POPULATION
to state possible results of an event or experiment	PREDICT
steps or direction to follow in a scientific experiment	PROCEDURE
an organism, such as a plant, that makes food	PRODUCER
the making of offspring	REPRODUCTION
the using and releasing of energy in a cell	RESPIRATION
answers gathered from a scientific experiment	RESULTS
the part of the plant that absorbs water and nutrients from the soil, also anchors the plant in place	ROOTS
the part of the plant that acts as a highway, transporting water and nutrients from the roots to the leaves, also supports the flower	STEMS
a plant's release of excess water vapor through the stomata on the underside of its leaves	TRANSPIRATION
used to identify and separate things in an experiment that can be changed or controlled	VARIABLE