| A | B |
| biology | the study of life |
| organism | anything that possess all the characterisitics of life |
| organization | the orderly structure that all living things demonstrate |
| reproduction | the production of offspring |
| species | a group of orgnaisms that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring |
| growth | an increase in the amount of living material and the formation of new structures |
| development | all of the changes that take place during the life of an organism |
| environment | the surroundings: air, water, weather, temperature, etc. |
| stimulus | anything in an organism's internal or external environment that causes a reaction |
| response | a reaction to a stimulus |
| homeostasis | regulation of an organisms's internal environment to maintain conditions suitable for its survival |
| adaptation | any inherited structure behavior, or internal process that enables an organism to respond to environmental factors and live to produce fertile offspring |
| evolution | the gradual change in a species through adaptations over time |
| scientific methods | the common steps that biologists and other scientists use to gather information and answer questions |
| problem | the question that needs to be answered |
| hypothesis | the educated guess, sometimes called a prediction or an inference |
| experiment | the test of the hypothesis |
| control | the part of the experiment that is the standard against which results are compared |
| independent variable | the condition in an experiment that is being tested |
| dependent variable | the second condition that is observed or measures that results from the change |
| data | information obtained from an investigation |
| theory | an explanation of natural phenomenon that results from continual verification and refinement of a hypothesis |
| ethics | refers to the moral principles and values held by humans |
| SI | international system of measurement that uses the metric system |
| technology | the application of scientific research to society's needs and problems |