Natural Disasters
There is a violent, spinning funnel of wind that stretches from a thunderstorm to the ground
What is a tornado?
In the water cycle, this is the process where liquid water heats up and turns into an invisible gas called water vapor.
What is evaporation
This is the invisible force that pulls objects down toward the center of the Earth.
What is gravity?
An organism, like a green plant, that can make its own food using energy from the sun.
What is a producer
Sound energy is completely caused by these quick, back-and-forth movements of matter.
What is vibration?
This natural disaster happens when the ground suddenly shakes because blocks of earth slide past one another.
What is Earthquake
This type of rock is formed when hot, molten magma or lava cools and hardens.
What is igneous rock?
This state of matter has a fixed shape and a fixed volume, like a brick or an ice cube.
What is a solid?
Known as the "brain" or control center of both plant and animal cells, it holds the cell's DNA.
What is the nucleus?
Sound waves travel at different speeds depending on the medium; it travels fastest through this state of matter because the molecules are packed tightly together.
What is a solid?
Liquid rock called magma is trapped deep underground, but when it erupts onto the surface, it takes on this new name.
What is Lava
This step of the water cycle happens when water vapor cools down and turns back into liquid water drops, forming clouds.
What is condensation?
This resistive force happens when two surfaces rub against each other, slowing down moving objects and creating heat.
What is Friction
Creatures like mushrooms, worms, and bacteria that break down dead plants and animals and return nutrients to the soil.
What is a decomoposer?
This happens when light waves hit a smooth surface, like a mirror or a calm lake, and bounce right back at you.
What is reflection?
This specific scale, upgraded in 2007, rates the strength of tornadoes from 0 to 5 based on the amount of wind damage they cause.
The EF Scale
This specific process in the water cycle happens when plants absorb groundwater and release it back into the air as water vapor through tiny holes in their leaves.
What is transpiration?
This state of matter has no fixed shape and no fixed volume; it expands to completely fill whatever container it is in.
What is gas?
This tough, outer layer is found only in plant cells (not animal cells) and gives the plant its stiff shape and support.
What is the cell wall?
The scientific word for the bending of light as it passes from one material to another, like a straw looking bent in a glass of water.
This dangerous meteorological event occurs when a single thunderstorm is powerful enough to produce a long-lasting, rotating updraft called a mesocyclone, which often spawns violent tornadoes.
What is a supercell?
This geological process describes how rocks are constantly broken down by wind or rain, transported to new locations, and dropped off to form new layers.
What are weathering, erosion, and deposition?
This is the upward force exerted by a fluid that opposes the weight of an immersed object, allowing things to float.
What is buoyancy?
Because energy is lost as heat at every step of a food chain, only about this percentage of energy is actually passed up to the next trophic level.
What is 10%
This term describes how high or low a sound is, and it is directly determined by the frequency of the sound waves.
What is pitch?