STEAM Curriculum Vocab List

This includes a basic list of five vocabulary words to go along with our 10 week STEAM curriculum. Students should be able to learn and understand the basic concept of each as they complete each project.

  1. Chain Reaction Mystery Part 1
  • Gravity – Force caused when the mass of physical bodies attract each other
  • Mass – measurement of how much matter is in an object.
  • First law of motion – any object in motion will continue to move in the same direction and speed unless external forces act on it.
  • Second law of motion – The greater the mass of an object, the more force it will take to accelerate the object.
  • Third law of motion – For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

2. Chain Reaction Mystery Part 2

  • Physics – the study of matter, energy, and the interaction between them
  • Potential energy – Energy stored by an object due to its state or position.
  • Kinetic energy – Energy an object has due to its motion.
  • Force – The measurement of a push or pull on an object.
  • Friction – The resistance of motion when one object rubs against another.

3. Rainbow Walking Water Experiment

  • Viscosity – the property of a liquid that describes how fast or slow it will flow
  • Capillary action – the name of the process when liquids, like water, move up through a solid, like a hollow tube or spongy material.
  • Liquid- a substance that flows freely but is of constant volume
  • Volume – the amount of space the object takes up, a measure of the size of an object
  • Hydrostatic pressure – the pressure a fluid creates due to its weight

4. Color Wheels and Walking Water

  • surface tension – force present within the surface layer of a liquid that causes the layer to behave like elastic, water molecules stick together
  • primary colors – are red, yellow and blue, cannot be created
  • Secondary Colors – colors made by a mixing two primaries
  • Tertiary Colors – colors achieved by mixing  primary and secondary colors
  • Complementary Colors – colors located opposite each other on a color wheel.

5. Imprinting Fall

  • imprint – a mark made by pressure
  • stem – the main structure that supports leaves and flowers.
  • Leaves – specialized for photosynthesis., leaves capture energy from sunlight as well as collect carbon dioxide from the air
  • Roots – help to keep the plant from falling over and gather water and minerals from the soil. 
  • photosynthesis – the process plants use to take the energy from sunlight and use it to convert carbon dioxide and water into food.

6. Day of the Dead + Paper Flowers

  • Day of the Dead – (known as Día de Muertos in Spanish) is celebrated in Mexico between October 31st and November 2nd. On this holiday, Mexicans remember and honor their deceased loved ones
  • ofrenda – an offering to recently deceased loved ones
  • Caretas – the ornate masks worn by dancers to scare the dead away at the end of all the celebrations.
  • culture- the shared values, norms, traditions, etc, of a group of people
  • diversity – the concept of means understanding that each individual is unique

7. Electrifying Static and Fall Transformation

  • Static electricity – the increase of electric charge on the surface of objects
  • Friction – the resistance of motion when one object rubs against another.
  • Electricity – the flow of tiny particles called electrons and protons.
  • Current – the flow of an electric charge
  • energy – “the ability to do work”, how things change and move

8. Can you Build a Chain Reaction

  • chain reaction – a series of events in which each event causes the next one
  • lever – a rigid bar resting on a pivot, used to help move a heavy load with one end when pressure is applied to the other.
  • Catalyst – A substance that speeds up the rate of a chemical reaction
  • Result – is what happens at the end of an experiment.
  • Variables – are the things that can change during an experiment

9. Salty Painting Experiment

  • Predicting – to say what you think is going to happen in an experiment or investigation.
  • Absorption – when one thing becomes part of another thing,
  • texture – the feel of a surface or a fabric
  • Gradient – gradual blending from one color to another color 
  • blend -a mixture of different things or qualities.

10. Reactive Paintings

  • acid- liquid with a lot of hydrogen ions
  • base- liquid with very few hydrogen atoms
  • Salts – chemical compounds that are formed by the reaction of an acid and a base.
  • Solution – A mixture where one substance called the solute is fully dissolved into another substance 
  • Reaction – is something that happens in response to something else.