Tuesday morning, April 27th: Environmental Workshop

On Tuesday morning, Ms Shintu Cherian Manathara, Coordinator, Multicultural Environmental Stewardship Program at Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, will be presenting to MicroSkills LINC 4 - 7 Classes the topic of the Great Lakes.

She has thoughtfully suggested that we learn the following vocabulary words ahead of time:

1. Bioaccumulation: the term used to describe how an animal stores harmful substances or chemicals (such as pesticides) in the body.
2. Consumer: Organism that eats other organisms for food
3. Decomposer: An organism that obtains energy from decaying organic material.
4. Drainage Basin: It is an extent of land where water from rain or snow melt drains downhill into a body of water, such as a river, lake, dam, estuary, wetland, sea or ocean.A drainage basin acts like a funnel collecting all the water within the area covered by the basin and channeling it into a waterway.
5. Ecosystem: A group/community of organisms interacting with their environment.
6. Endangered Species: Animals or Plants facing possible extinction in the wild (the danger of no longer existing in the wild)
7. Food chain: The feeding relationships of species that transfer energy through the organisms in a community.
8. Food web: The complex interconnection of food chains in an ecosystem.
9. Habitat: The local environment in which a specified organism, population, or species lives, characterized by physical and chemical features, and the presence of certain other species.
10. Lake: Body of water larger and deeper than a pond
11. Non native species: Plants and animals that are not native to an environment, introduced intentionally or accidentally. When these plants or animals out compete and crowd out native species for space, light, and nutrients, they are considered to be invasive.
12. Ocean: The large body of salt water surrounding the great continents or land masses, and divided by the land masses into several distinct portions, each of which is called an ocean. The Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Arctic Oceans
13. Plankton: Microscopic plants and animals floating in the sea or fresh water, including larvae of larger creatures. They are at the bottom of the food chain, being eaten by filter feeders and larger larvae.
14. Pesticides: Chemicals used to prevent insects and other crops from destroying crops.
15. Pollution: Human and natural contamination of the environment by chemicals or heat energy to the extent that existing habitats are threatened or populations of organisms are endangered.
16. Population: A group of organisms of the same species that live in the same area at the same time
17. Predator: An organism that kills and consumes another organism (prey); includes animals eating other animals, and animals eating plants.
18. Prey: An organism that is killed and eaten by another organism.
19. Producer: An organism that makes its own food
20. River: A natural stream of water with a large volume
21. Sea: A large body of water but smaller than on ocean
22. Solar energy: Energy from the Sun in the form of light and heat energy.
23. Threatened Species: are animals or plants that are likely to be endangered if factors threatening it are not reversed or removed.
24. Water cycle: The process, involving evaporation and condensation, by which the Earth's water circulates through the environment.

Let's see if we can learn the above terms to get the most out of the presentation!