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Word Wall Vocabulary
Accelerant: something that makes a fire develop faster
Acute (angle):
less than 90° (what a cute little angle!)
Adjacent: next to
Adjacent angles:
A B
angles that are next to each other
Aerobatics: rolls, loops, and other stunts performed in an airplane or glider
Aerodynamic: fast (with very little drag)
Aerodynamics: the study of how objects move through the air
Angle: corner; a figure formed by two lines or rays; the measurement of that corner
Association: something linked mentally
Asymmetric: without symmetry
Axis: an imaginary line/mirror (axis of symmetry), a line used an a reference (coordinate axes)
“Biological” Fruit: what a biologist would consider fruit (the part of the plant that has seeds).
Tomatoes, zucchini, and cucumbers are considered to be fruit to biologists, even though they
are considered vegetables to cooks.
Categorize: put into groups
Centimeter:
in one inch)
1/100th of a meter, about the width of your little finger (there are 2.4 cm
Clarification: another (more detailed) explanation
Collaboration: working together
Compare/Contrast: what is similar, what is different between two things
Concave (also known as concave up):  opens up, like a smile or valley
Conical: like an ice-cream cone
Convex (also known as concave down):  opens down, like a frown
Cooperation: working together
Cotyledon: the first leaf in the plant embryo (it becomes the first leaf or leaves)
Craters: a pit created by a meteor or volcano
Cylindrical: like a roll of paper towels, toilet paper
Diagonal:
a line across a figure
Dialogue: conversation, discussion
Diameter:
Diamond:
bottom)
the line across the middle of a circle (or the length of that line).
(often a rhombus – all equal sides – but drawn with the corners at the top and
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Summer 2007
Dicot (dicotyledon): plants having an embryo with two cotyledon
Displacement: the length from the starting point to the ending point
Drag: air resistance, something that slows down progress
Edge:
a line boundary (sometimes used for any line that connects points)
Elasticity: how well an object goes back to its original shape if bent
Embryo: a plant/person in the earliest stages of development
Erosion: the process (or result) of wearing away
Face:
the flat side of a 3-dimentional figure (e.g. there are six faces on a cube)
Flower: the reproductive structure in some plants
Force: a push, pull, twist, or acceleration
Fractions: portions of an object (like one-half or four-thirds).
Fuel: a substance (like food or oil) used to produce energy or power
Geometry: the study of shapes and measurement
Germinate: start to grow
Gravitational Force: the natural force that draws objects together (but is only noticeable if the
objects are really large)
Gravity: the attraction of objects to the earth (or moon or other large objects)
Human vs. Artificial Intelligence: human thought vs. technology that appears to mimic human
thought.
Hypothesis: an educated guess, a prediction
Impact: a forceful collision
Invasive Species: a plant or animal that thrives so well in a new environment that it kills off the
other plants/animals that live there
Kinetic Energy: energy related to motion
Launch: to generate enough thrust to propel a device
Life Cycle: the stages through which an organism passes between successive recurrences of a
specified primary stage
Line: a one-dimensional geometric shape
Meteor: debris from the early days that the solar system that gets trapped by gravity and
collides with a planet or moon
Momentum: a property of a moving body that the body has by virtue of its mass and motion
and that is equal to the product of the body's mass and velocity
Monocot (monocotyledon): plants having an embryo with a single cotyledon, usually parallelveined leaves, and floral organs arranged in cycles of three.
Motion: an act, process, or instance of changing place
MST Creating Inquiry-Based classroom projects for Students in Grades K-6
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Summer 2007
Obtuse (angle):
more than 90° [obtuse can also mean not sharp, as in dull or blunt, both
for angles and for people]
Opposite: being the other of a pair that are corresponding or complementary in position,
function, or nature
Parallel: two lines that are equidistant apart at all points.
Pentagon: a five-sided figure
Planes: two-dimensional surface
Pollination: the transfer of pollen from an anther to the stigma in angiosperms or from the
microsporangium to the micropyle in gymnosperms
Polygon: a closed figure bounded by straight lines
Pressure: force spread over a given area
Reflectivity: that amount of energy that bounces back from a surface
Rhombus: a parallelogram with four equal sides
Rippled: to impart a wavy motion
Scalene (for a triangle): having three unequal signs
Scribe: a person assigned to record observations
Seed Coat (testa): the outer protective coating on a seed
Seedling: young plant grown from a seed
Semicircle: one-half of a circle
Strategies: careful plan or method
Symbols: short-hand item for something else
Symmetric: having the property of being identical on two sides.
Temperature: measurement of internal heat.
Thrust: force causing movement
Trapezoid: a four-sided figure with only two sides are parallel
Triangles: three sided figures (depending on the relative lengths of the sides, you can have
equilateral (all three sides the same), isosceles (two sides the same), etc.)
Two-dimensional: having length and width but no depth (flat)
Upward Thrust: force which causes motion towards higher altitudes
Vertex: a point (as of an angle, polygon, polyhedron, graph, or network) that terminates a line
or curve or comprises the intersection of two or more lines or curves
Volatile: readily vaporizable at a relatively low temperature
Yaw: to turn by angular motion about the vertical axis
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Summer 2007