Term |
Definition |
biology |
study of all living things; life science |
critical thinking |
comparing what you already know with the information you are given to decide whether you agree with it |
ethics |
rules of conduct or moral principles |
hypothesis |
possible explanation about an observation that can be tested by scientific investigations; educated guess; usually written if, then, because format; must be tested |
inference |
logical explanation of an observation that is drawn from prior knowledge or experience; EXPLAIN what happened |
observation |
using one or more of your senses to gather information and take note of what occurs |
prediction |
statement about what will happen next in a sequence of events; |
science |
the investigation and exploration of natural evens and of the new information that results from those investigations |
scientific theory |
explanation of observations or events based on knowledge gained from many observations and investigations; not proven |
scientific law |
describes a pattern or an event in nature that is always true; tested and proven many times |
technology |
practical use of scientific knowledge, especially for industrial or commercial use |
accuracy |
description of how close a measurement is to an accepted or true value; hitting the bulls eye is an example |
description |
spoken or written summary of observations |
digital |
of, pertaining to, or using numbers (numerical digits) |
explanation |
interpretation of observations; "Why" or "How" |
International System of Units (SI) |
internationally accepted system of measurement |
precision |
description of how similar or close measurements are to each other; "close together in one proximity" is an example |
significant digits |
number of digits in a measurement that are known with a certain degree of reliability |
constants |
factors in an experiment that remain the same |
dependent variable |
factor that is measured or observed during an experiment |
independent variable |
factor being tested in an experiment that is changed by the investigator to observe how it affects a dependent variable |
variable |
any factor in an experiment that can have more than one value |
control |
factor that remains constant, or the same |