Key terms & definitions

The investigation of the natural world through observation, evidence and experiments.

A site where science- or technology-based businesses and research organisations cluster, often near a university, to support innovation.

The sharing of scientific methods, evidence, conclusions and their implications in a form an intended audience can understand.

The sharing of scientific questions, methods, evidence, conclusions and significance in a form suited to its intended recipients.

The exchange of scientific findings and viewpoints in ways that an audience can understand and use.

Fiction that explores imagined scientific or technological developments and their effects.

Fiction that explores imagined possibilities involving science or technology and their consequences.

A site containing research and technology-based businesses, usually with links to a university.

A development in scientific knowledge, methods or understanding.

A development in scientific knowledge, understanding or methods.

The sharing of scientific methods, findings and explanations in a form that an intended audience can understand and use.

Broad agreement among scientists based on the overall scientific evidence.

A clear, accurate line drawing used to record visible features of a specimen, with labels identifying those features.

An observational drawing that records visible structures clearly and in proportion, with accurate labels.

Measurements or observations used to support or challenge a scientific explanation or claim.

Observable information used to test and support explanations of the natural world.

A scientific account that connects evidence and accepted ideas to explain how or why something happened.

An account of how or why a particular event or phenomenon occurs, often produced by applying a scientific theory to that situation.

An account of why something happens, using scientific ideas; it may apply a scientific theory to a particular situation.

An explanation of an event through natural processes, supported by observation and evidence, rather than an appeal to supernatural action.

A systematic process of posing questions, gathering and analysing evidence, considering alternative explanations and communicating conclusions.

The understanding of the natural world developed by gathering evidence, testing explanations and reviewing conclusions.

A boundary on what scientific methods or the available evidence allow scientists to explain, establish or predict.

A labelled drawing that records the structures actually observed in a specimen, using clear lines rather than shading.

A way of investigating a question, such as collecting observations or carrying out controlled experiments.

A simplified representation of a system that selects important features and rules for how they interact.

A simplified representation used to describe and explain scientific observations; it may be changed or replaced when new evidence does not fit it.

A simplified representation used to describe and explain observations; it may be changed or replaced when new evidence does not fit it.

A representation used to explain scientific observations and make predictions, which may be changed or replaced when new evidence emerges.

The view that the world can be explained through natural processes and scientific laws without supernatural explanations.