PSSA+science+vocabulary

IX. GLOSSARY

science and technology:** || Science builds principles or theories while technology is the practical application of those principles or theories. || system:** || A group of related objects that do not have feedback and cannot modify themselves. ||
 * **Allele:** || **Any of a set of possible forms of a gene.** ||
 * **Biochemical conversion:** || The changing of organic matter into other chemical forms. ||
 * **Biomass conversion:** || The changing of organic matter that has been produced by photosynthesis into useful liquid, gas or fuel. ||
 * **Biomedical technology:** || The application of health care theories to develop methods, products and tools to maintain or improve homeostasis. ||
 * **Biomes:** || A community of living organisms of a single major ecological region. ||
 * **Biotechnology:** || The ways that humans apply biological concepts to produce products and provide services. ||
 * **Carbon chemistry:** || The science of the composition, structure, properties and reactions of carbon based matter, especially of atomic and molecular systems; sometimes referred to as organic chemistry. ||
 * **Construction technology:** || The ways that humans build structures on sites. ||
 * **Desalinization:** || To remove salts and other chemicals from sea or saline water. ||
 * **Dichotomous:** || Divided or dividing into two parts or classifications. ||
 * **Electronic communication:** || System for the transmission of information using electronic technology (e.g., digital cameras, cellular telephones, Internet, television, fiber optics). ||
 * **Embryology:** || The branch of biology dealing with the development of living things from fertilized egg to its developed state. ||
 * **Engineering:** || The application of scientific, physical, mechanical and mathematical principles to design processes, products and structures that improve the quality of life. ||
 * **Enzyme:** || A protein that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without being changed by the reaction; an organic catalyst. ||
 * **Ergonomical:** || Of or relating to the design of equipment or devices to fit the human body’s control, position, movement and environment. ||
 * **Evolution:** || A process of change that explains why what we see today is different from what existed in the past; it includes changes in the galaxies, stars, solar system, earth and life on earth. Biological evolution is a change in hereditary characteristics of groups of organisms over the course of generations. ||
 * **Fact:** || Information that has been objectively verified. ||
 * **Geologic hazard:** || A naturally occurring or man-made condition or phenomenon that presents a risk or is a potential danger to life and property (e.g., landslides, floods, earthquakes, ground subsidence, coastal and beach erosion, faulting, dam leakage and failure, mining disasters, pollution and waste disposal, sinkholes). ||
 * **Geologic map:** || A representation of a region on which is recorded earth information (e.g., the distribution, nature and age relationships of rock units and the occurrences of structural features, mineral deposits and fossil localities). ||
 * **Hydrology:** || The scientific study of the properties, distribution and effects of water on the earth’s surface, in the soil and underlying rocks and in the atmosphere. ||
 * **Hypothesis:** || An assertion subject to verification or proof as a premise from which a conclusion is drawn. ||
 * **Information technology:** || The technical means that humans create to store and transmit information. ||
 * **Inquiry:** || A systematic process for using knowledge and skills to acquire and apply new knowledge. ||
 * **Instructional technology:** || Any mechanical aid (including computer technology) used to assist in or enhance the process of teaching and learning. ||
 * **Law:** || Summarizing statement of observed experimental facts that has been tested many times and is generally accepted as true. ||
 * **Manufacturing technology:** || The ways that humans produce goods and products. ||
 * **Mitosis:** || The sequential differentiation and segregation of replicated chromosomes in a cell’s nucleus that precedes complete cell division. ||
 * **Model:** || A description, analogy or a representation of something that helps us understand it better (e.g., a physical model, a conceptual model, a mathematical model). ||
 * **Nova:** || A variable star that suddenly increases in brightness to several times its normal magnitude and returns to its original appearance in a few weeks to several months or years. ||
 * **Patterns:** || Repeated processes that are exhibited in a wide variety of ways; identifiable recurrences of the element and/or the form. ||
 * **Physical technology:** || The ways that humans construct, manufacture and transport products. ||
 * **Radioactive isotope:** || An atom that gives off nuclear radiation and has the same number of protons (atomic number) as another atom but a different number of neutrons. ||
 * **Relationship between
 * **Scale:** || Relates concepts and ideas to one another by some measurement (e.g., quantitative, numeral, abstract, ideological); provides a measure of size and/or incremental change. ||
 * **Science:** || Search for understanding the natural world using inquiry and experimentation. ||
 * **System:** || A group of related objects that work together to achieve a desired result. ||
 * **Open Loop
 * **Closed Loop system:** || A group of related objects that have feedback and can modify themselves. ||
 * **Subsystem:** || A group of related objects that make up a larger system (e.g., automobiles have electrical systems, fuel systems). ||
 * **Technology education:** || The application of tools, materials, processes and systems to solve problems and extend human capabilities. ||
 * **Technological design process:** || Recognizing the problem, proposing a solution, implementing the solution, evaluating the solution and communicating the problem, design and solution. ||
 * **Theory:** || Systematically organized knowledge applicable in a relatively wide variety of circumstances; especially, a system of assumptions, accepted principles and rules of procedure devised to analyze, predict or otherwise explain the nature or behavior of a specified set of phenomena. ||
 * **Theory of evolution:** || A theory that the various types of animals and plants have their origin in other preexisting types and that the distinguishable differences are due to modification in successive generations. ||
 * **Topographic map:** || A representation of a region on a sufficient scale to show detail, selected man-made and natural features of a portion of the land surface including its relief and certain physical and cultural features; the portrayal of the position, relation, size, shape and elevation of the area. ||
 * **Transportation systems:** || A group of related parts that function together to perform a major task in any form of transportation. ||
 * **Transportation technology:** || The physical ways humans move materials, goods and people. ||
 * **Tool:** || Any device used to extend human capability including computer-based tools. ||