- Acetic Acid: a colorless, pungent, water-miscible liquid, C2H4O2, the essential constituent of vinegar, produced by oxidation of acetaldehyde, bacterial action on ethyl alcohol, the reaction of methyl alcohol with carbon monoxide, and other processes: used chiefly in the manufacture of acetate fibers and in the production of numerous esters that are solvents and flavoring agents.
- Agricultural Residue: refers to usable materials recovered primarily from annual crops as byproducts of food and fiber production.
- Biofuels: broadly defined as solid, liquid, or gas fuel consisting of, or derived from biomass.
- Biomass: the amount of living matter in a given habitat, expressed either as the weight of organisms per unit area or as the volume of organisms per unit volume of habitat. Organic matter, esp. plant matter, that can be converted to fuel and is therefore regarded as a potential energy source.
- Calibration: to determine, check, or rectify the graduation of (any instrument giving quantitative measurements).
- Cellulose: an inert carbohydrate, (C6H10O5)n, the chief constituent of the cell walls of plants and of wood, cotton, hemp, paper, etc.
- Control: A standard of comparison for checking or verifying the results of an experiment.
- Electromagnetic Spectrum: The entire range of radiation extending in frequency from approximately 1023 hertz to 0 hertz or, in corresponding wavelengths, from 10-13 centimeter to infinity and including, in order of decreasing frequency, cosmic-ray photons, gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet radiation, visible light, infrared radiation, microwaves, and radio waves.
- Electron Microscope: a microscope of extremely high power that uses beams of electrons focused by magnetic lenses instead of rays of light, the magnified image being formed on a fluorescent screen or recorded on a photographic plate: its magnification is substantially greater than that of any optical microscope.
- Enzymes: Any of numerous proteins or conjugated proteins produced by living organisms and functioning as biochemical catalysts.
- Ethanol: A colorless volatile flammable liquid, C2H5OH, synthesized or obtained by fermentation of sugars and starches and widely used, either pure or denatured, as a solvent and in drugs, cleaning solutions, explosives, and intoxicating beverages. Also called ethanol, ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol.
- Experimental Design: the design of all information-gathering exercises where variation is present, whether under the full control of the experimenter or not.
- Fermentation: a process in which an agent causes an organic substance to break down into simpler substances; especially, the anaerobic breakdown of sugar into alcohol.
- Fibers: the structural part of plants and plant products that consists of carbohydrates, as cellulose and pectin, that are wholly or partially indigestible and when eaten stimulate peristalsis in the intestine.
- Fibril: Any of various threadlike fibers or filaments that are constituent parts of a cell or larger structure. Cellulose fibrils are the main component of cell walls in plants. Fibrils make up the contractile part of striated muscle fiber in the body.
- Fungus: any of a diverse group of eukaryotic single-celled or multinucleate organisms that live by decomposing and absorbing the organic material in which they grow, comprising the mushrooms, molds, mildews, smuts, rusts, and yeasts, and classified in the kingdom Fungi.
- Fossil Fuels: hydrocarbons, primarily coal and petroleum (fuel oil or natural gas), formed from the fossilized remains of dead plants and animals by exposure to heat and pressure in the Earth’s crust over hundreds of millions of years.
- Geographic Information System (GIS): system for capturing, storing, analyzing and managing data and associated attributes which are spatially referenced to the earth.
- Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS): the standard generic term for satellite navigation systems that provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning with global coverage.
- Green Process: The invention, design and application of chemical products and processes to reduce or to eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances.
- Hemicellulose: Any of several polysaccharides that are more complex than a sugar and less complex than cellulose, found in plant cell walls and produced commercially from corn grain hulls.
- Life Cycle Assessment: The assessment of the environmental impact of a given product or service throughout its lifespan.
- Methane: a chemical compound with the chemical formula CH4. It is the simplest alkane, the main component of natural gas, and probably the most abundant organic compound on earth.
- Nanofibers: are defined as fibers with diameters less than 1000 nm (nanometers). They can be produced by interfacial polymerization, electrospinning, and forcespinning.
- Nanotechnology: The branch of engineering that deals with things smaller than 100 nanometers (especially with the manipulation of individual molecules)
- Near Infrared Light: 0.75-1.4 µm in wavelength, defined by the water absorption, and commonly used in fiber optic telecommunication because of low attenuation losses in the SiO2 glass (silica) medium.
- Pyrolysis: is a thermochemical decomposition of organic material at elevated temperatures without the participation of oxygen. It involves the simultaneous change of chemical composition and physical phase, and is irreversible.
- Pulp: Any soft, moist, slightly cohering mass, as that into which linen, wood, etc., are converted in the making of paper.
- Scanning Electron Microscope: An electron microscope that forms a three-dimensional image on a cathode-ray tube by moving a beam of focused electrons across an object and reading both the electrons scattered by the object and the secondary electrons produced by it.
- Sustainability: is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of responsibility, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of stewardship, the responsible management of resource use.
- Tensile Test: A standard test piece is gripped at either end by suitable apparatus in a testing machine which slowly exerts an axial pull so that the steel is stretched until it breaks. The test provides information on proof stress, yield point, tensile strength, elongation and reduction of area.
- Transmission Electron Microscope: an electron microscope that transmits a beam through a specimen, detecting its electrons and forming a highly magnified image on a screen.
- Variables: A factor or condition that is subject to change, especially one that is allowed to change in a scientific experiment to test a hypothesis.
- Xylanase: The name given to a class of enzymes which degrade the linear polysaccharide beta-1,4-xylan into xylose, thus breaking down hemicellulaose, which is a major component of the cell wall of plants.
- Xylan: A yellow, water-soluble, gummy polysaccharide found in plant cell walls and yielding xylose upon hydrolysis.
- Xylose or wood sugar is aldopentose – a monosaccharide containing five carbon atoms and including an aldehyde functional group. It has chemical formulaC5H10O5. Xylose is found in the embryos of most edible plants.
Middle & High School Connections
Summer 2017
