General Vocab
Community of Science
The Nature of Science
Our Island, Earth
100

A formal examination of a research report by the scientific community

Peer Review

100

Ensemble of knowledge, beliefs, values, and learned ways of life shared by a group of people

What is culture?

100

The starting point of a scientific study, generally, which can be made with the eye, with instruments, or by reading scientific literature.

What is an observation?

100

This resource, extracted from the ground, is an example of a non-renewable resource.

What is oil/gas?

200

a broad explanation for a wide range of situations and observations

theory

200

These testable explanations for a narrow set of phenomena should be tested several times, in several ways, before they are accepted by the scientific community.

What is a hypothesis?

200

Experiments or observational studies in which only one variable is manipulated are described

What is a controlled experiment? 


200

The name for a situation in which resources, made available to everyone, are used unsustainably and eventually depleted

Tragedy of the commons

300

a factor determined by the conditions set up in an experiment

dependent variable

300

A worldview in which all components of an ecosystem have value

What is ecocentrism?

300

a proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.

What is a hypothesis?

300

One is objective, unbiased pursuit of knowledge about the workings of the environment and our interactions with it; the other is a social movement dedicated to protecting the natural world

What is the difference between Environmental Science and Environmentalism?

400

used at a rate equal to the rate of replenishment into the foreseeable future

sustainable

400

This movement recognizes that quality of life is connected to environmental quality, and promotes fair and equitable treatment of all people regarding environmental policy and practice

What is Environmental Justice?

400

facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis

What are data?

400

This term encompasses all living and nonliving things with which organisms interact.

What is the environment?

500

the environmental effects of an individual or group in terms of resources used and waste produced

What is an ecological footprint?

500

A worldview that holds humans and human welfare as the most important

What is Anthropocentrism? 

500

The factor you manipulate, control, or vary in an experimental study to explore its effects

What is an Independent Variable?
500

The agricultural revolution, beginning around 10,000 years ago, marked the start of this method of producing food

What is farming?