Natural Resources
A material or energy source humans use.
What is a natural resource?
A community of organisms and the nonliving components in their environment.
What is an ecosystem?
The features or qualities that a solution should have.
What are criteria?
These two types of effects occur from the use of natural resources.
What are positive and negative effects?
This practice involves asking questions and developing explanations about the natural world.
What is science?
These types of resources cannot be replaced as quickly as they are used.
What are nonrenewable resources?
The number and variety of organisms in an ecosystem is called this.
What is biodiversity?
The limitations or restrictions engineers face when solving a problem.
What are constraints?
This group of people plays a key role in driving the life cycle of natural resources.
Who are consumers?
The practice of solving problems with designed solutions.
What is engineering?
These renewable resources include sunlight, wind, and plants.
What are renewable resources?
This describes the service ecosystems provide to society, like clean air and water.
What are ecosystem services?
Engineers often make this trade when giving up one design feature for another.
What is a tradeoff?
This phase of a product’s life cycle involves modifying a resource from its original state.
What is production or manufacturing?
This is any tool, process, or system made to solve a problem.
What is technology?
Sand, coal, and this substance are all examples of nonrenewable resources.
What is oil?
One way that resource use negatively impacts ecosystems.
What is decreased biodiversity?
This type of testing is done many times to improve a design.
What is iterative testing?
Engineers must consider the environmental effects of obtaining and using these.
What are natural resources?
Engineers use scientific knowledge to solve problems, while scientists use tools developed by these professionals.
Who are engineers?
A natural resource’s life cycle starts when this happens.
What is when it is collected, mined, or harvested?
When ecosystems are affected by this, it causes a change in the environment and biodiversity.
What is natural resource use?
Engineers use this process to refine and improve their designs based on test results.
What is the engineering design process?
Ecosystems are harmed when the methods used to obtain these decrease biodiversity.
What are natural resources?
The amount of force a material can tolerate before it breaks.
What is tensile strength?