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Closed loop system: A group of related objects that have feedback and can modify themselves
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: Niche 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
Open loop system: A group of related objects that do not have feedback and cannot modify themselves
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, container 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 practice (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: Streamorder 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)
Subsystem: A group of related objects that make up a larger system (e.g., automobiles have electrical systems, fuel systems)
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
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: 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
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
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, and decomposer)
Waste stream: The flow of (waste) materials from generation, collection and separation to disposal
Watershed: The land are 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)