**Arctic**: A region that falls within the Arctic Circle. The edge of that circle is defined as the northernmost point at which the sun is visible on the northern winter solstice and the southernmost point at which the midnight sun can be seen on the northern summer solstice. The high Arctic is that most northerly third of this region. It’s a region dominated by snow cover much of the year.
**climate**: The weather conditions that typically exist in one area, in general, or over a long period.
**climate change**: Long-term, significant change in the climate of Earth. It can happen naturally or in response to human activities, including the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests.
**crop**: (in agriculture) A type of plant grown intentionally grown and nurtured by farmers, such as corn, coffee or tomatoes. Or the term could apply to the part of the plant harvested and sold by farmers.
**drone**: A remote-controlled, pilotless aircraft or missile.
**egg**: A reproductive cell that contains half of the genetic information necessary to form a complete organism. In humans and in many other animals, ovaries produce eggs. When an egg fuses with a sperm, they combine to produce a new cell, called a zygote. This is the first step in the development of a new organism."
**generation**: A group of individuals (in any species) born at about the same time or that are regarded as a single group. Your parents belong to one generation of your family, for example, and your grandparents to another. Similarly, you and everyone within a few years of your age across the planet are referred to as belonging to a particular generation of humans. The term also is sometimes extended to year classes of other animals or to types of inanimate objects (such as electronics or automobiles).
**hibernation**: A state of inactivity that some animals enter to save energy at certain times of year. Bears and bats, for example, may hibernate through the winter. During this time, the animal does not move very much, and the use of energy by its body slows down. This eliminates the need to feed for months at a time.
**honey**: A viscous (gooey) material that honeybees store in their honeycombs. The bees make it from nectar. Foraging bees visit flowers in search of that sugary liquid. Back at the hive, honeybees will add some enzymes to the nectar, then deposit the amber colored liquid into the hive’s combs. As worker bees use their wings to fan the cells containing this liquid, the goo heats up and some of its water will evaporate to form honey.
**insect**: A type of arthropod that as an adult will have six segmented legs and three body parts: a head, thorax and abdomen. There are hundreds of thousands of insects, which include bees, beetles, flies and moths.
**nectar**: A sugary fluid secreted by plants, especially by flowers. It encourages pollination by insects and other animals. It is collected by bees to make into honey.
**pollen**: Powdery grains released by the male parts of flowers that can fertilize the female tissue to make a seed. Pollinating insects, such as bees, often pick up pollen that will later be eaten.
**pollinate**: To transport male reproductive cells — pollen — to female parts of a flower. This allows fertilization, the first step in plant reproduction.
**pollinator**: Something that carries pollen, a plant’s male reproductive cells, to the female parts of a flower, allowing fertilization. Many pollinators are insects such as bees.
**population**: (in biology) A group of individuals (belonging to the same species) that lives in a given area.
**range**: The full extent or distribution of something. For instance, a plant or animal’s range is the area over which it naturally exists.
**rodent**: A mammal of the order Rodentia, a group that includes mice, rats, squirrels, guinea pigs, hamsters and porcupines.
**scavenge**: To collect something useful from what had been discarded as waste or trash.
**species**: A group of similar organisms capable of producing offspring that can survive and reproduce.
**swarm**: A large number of animals that have amassed and now move together. People sometimes use the term to refer to huge numbers of honeybees leaving a hive.
**temperate**: In geography, areas that are cooler than the tropics but warmer than polar regions.
**tropics**: The region near Earth’s equator. Temperatures here are generally warm to hot, year-round.