Assessment criteria of total control

95-100 - A (the analytical and critical approach to disclosure issues of the ticket, the full coverage of the subject matter, complete answers to the additional questions of the teacher);

90-94 – A- (the presence of a critical approach to disclosure issues of the ticket, the full disclosure of the essence of questions, the answers to the additional questions of the teacher);

85-89 - B+ (full disclosure of the subject matter of the ticket, the answers to the additional questions of the teacher);

80-84 - B (full disclosure of the subject matter of the ticket, incomplete answers to the additional questions of the teacher);

75-79 - B- (a fairly complete disclosure of the subject matter of the ticket, incomplete answers to the additional questions of the teacher);

70-74 - C+ (quite full disclosure of the issues of the ticket, difficulty with answers to additional questions of the teacher);

65-69 - C (incomplete disclosure of the issues of the ticket, difficulty with answers to additional questions of the teacher);

60-64 – C- ((incomplete disclosure of the issues of the ticket, the absence of answers to the additional questions of the teacher);

55-59 - D+ (partial disclosure of the subject matter of the ticket, difficulty with answers to additional questions of the teacher);

50-54 - D (partial disclosure of the subject matter of the ticket, the lack of answers to the additional questions of the teacher);

0-49 - F (issues are not disclosed, the lack of answers to the additional questions of the teacher).

Glossary

ACCEPT - To take as the best explanation based on the evidence. In the scientific community, an idea is generally accepted when it is supported by many lines of evidence and meets other criteria (e.g., consistency with well-established ideas in related fields). To learn more about how and why scientific ideas are accepted.

ANOMALY - In science, an observation that differs from the expectations generated by an established scientific idea. Anomalous observations may inspire scientists to reconsider, modify, or come up with alternatives to an accepted theory or hypothesis.

APPLIED SCIENCE - Research undertaken with the explicit goal of solving a problem or developing a technology. The boundary between pure and applied science is fuzzy.

ASSUMPTION - In science, an auxiliary hypothesis that is taken as true for the purposes of interpreting a particular test.

CLINICAL TRIAL - In medical research, a study that is carried out with human participants, as opposed to one that relies on animal models or in vitro experiments.

CONTROL GROUP - In scientific testing, a group of individuals or cases matched to an experimental group and treated in the same way as that group, but which is not exposed to the experimental treatment or factor that the experimental group is.

CONTROL - In scientific testing, to keep a variable or variables constant so that the impact of another factor can be better understood..

CONTROLLED EXPERIMENT - An experiment that uses a control group.

CORRELATION - A relationship between two variables, such that the value of one variable can be used to generate an expectation about the value of the other.

DATA - Information gleaned from observations — usually observations that are made in a standardized way.

DEDUCE - To figure out through logical reasoning. Deductions are often based on established knowledge and/or assumptions.

ERROR - In reference to statistics, the difference between a computed or measured value and the true value.

EVIDENCE - Test results and/or observations that may either help support or help refute a scientific idea.

EXPECTATION - In science, a potential outcome of a scientific test that is arrived at by logically reasoning about a particular scientific idea (i.e., what we would logically expect to observe if a given hypothesis or theory were true or false).

EXPERIMENT - A scientific test that involves manipulating some factor or factors in a system in order to see how those changes affect the outcome or behavior of the system. Experiments are important in science, but they are not the only way to test scientific ideas.

FACT - Statement that is known to be true through direct observation. Since scientific ideas are inherently tentative, the term fact is more meaningful in everyday language than in the language of science.

FALSIFY - To perform a test showing that a particular claim or scientific idea is false.

HUMAN SUBJECTS PROTOCOLS - Ethical guidelines for research involving human participants.

HYPOTHESIS - A proposed explanation for a fairly narrow set of phenomena, usually based on prior experience, scientific background knowledge, preliminary observations, and logic.

INDUCTIVE REASONING - Making a generalization based on many individual observations.

LINE OF EVIDENCE - Evidence drawn from one sort of test result that bears on the accuracy of an idea. In science, it is often desirable to use multiple lines of evidence (drawn from different sorts of tests and even different fields of study) to evaluate a scientific idea.

NATURAL EXPERIMENT - A scientific test that mimics the design of an experiment, but that involves phenomena not controllable by the investigator (e.g., planetary movement, tectonic action).

NATURAL WORLD - All the components of the physical universe – atoms, plants, ecosystems, people, societies, galaxies, etc., as well as the natural forces at work on those things. Elements of the natural world (as opposed to the supernatural) can be investigated by science.

NATURAL - Of the physical universe. Natural entities include all the components of the physical universe around us like atoms, plants, ecosystems, people, societies, and galaxies, as well as the physical forces at work on those things.

NULL HYPOTHESIS - Usually a statement asserting that there is no difference or no association between variables. The null hypothesis is a tool that makes it possible to use certain statistical tests to figure out if another hypothesis of interest is likely to be accurate or not.

OBJECTIVE - Not influenced by biases, opinions, and/or emotions. Scientists strive to be objective in their reasoning about scientific issues.

OBSERVE - To note, record, or attend to a result, occurrence, or phenomenon. Though we typically think of observations as having been made "with our own eyes," in science, observations may be made directly (by seeing, feeling, hearing, tasting, or smelling) or indirectly using tools.

OVER-ARCHING THEORY - A term used here to refer to fundamental and particularly broad explanations for many aspects of the natural world. Over-arching theories often help define scientific disciplines and embody the principles that are at the core of our understanding of phenomena in that discipline. Examples include plate tectonics and evolution.

PARSIMONY - Principle suggesting that when two explanations fit the observations equally well, a simpler explanation should be preferred over a more complex one.

PEER REVIEW - A method of vetting articles. Articles submitted to a peer-reviewed publication are sent out to several scientists who work in the same field as the paper's author. Those reviewers provide feedback on the article and tell the editor of the publication whether or not they think the study is of high enough quality to be published.

PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE - The study of what science is and how science works. These topics are not ones for which cut-and-dried explanations exist, and the philosophy of science is an area of active debate and investigation.

PLACEBO EFFECT - Phenomenon in which a patient experiences an improvement (or apparent improvement) in a medical condition simply as the result of receiving some sort of treatment — not because of the effectiveness of the treatment itself.

PREDICTION - In science, a possible outcome of a scientific test based on logically reasoning about a particular scientific idea (i.e., what we would logically expect to observe if a particular idea were true or false). This website generally uses the term expectation in place of prediction.

PURE SCIENCE - Research undertaken to build knowledge and understanding, regardless of its potential applications.

REPLICATE - In reference to the process of science, to repeat a study using methods equivalent to the original's and obtain similar results. Sometimes the term is also applied to situations in which one study's findings are backed up by the results of another study, regardless of the methods employed.

SAMPLE - In science, to collect information from part of an entity, with the aim of learning about the entity as a whole (e.g., to collect information on a subset of the members of a population or on cores of ice from the Antarctic). The term sample size refers to the number of repeated measurements made (e.g., the number of individuals surveyed or the number of ice cores studied).

SCIENCE - Our knowledge of the natural world and the process through which that knowledge is built. The process of science relies on the testing of ideas with evidence gathered from the natural world. Science as a whole cannot be precisely defined but can be broadly described by a set of key characteristics.

SCIENTIFIC ARGUMENT - A logical description of a scientific idea and the evidence for or against it.

SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE - An event, usually organized by a scientific society or a group of researchers, at which scientists give short presentations describing their research. Conferences are one way in which scientists share their ideas, results, and research methods with the scientific community.

SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL - Publication that contains firsthand reports of scientific research, often reviewed by experts. In these articles, scientists describe a study and any details one might need to evaluate that study — background information, data, statistical results, graphs, maps, explanations of how the study was performed and how the researchers interpreted their results, etc.

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE - The body of scientific publications that contain firsthand reports of research, often reviewed by experts. The scientific literature provides the cumulative, permanent record of scientific research that can be consulted to learn about research in a field. Because science is ongoing and builds on itself, scientists often consult the scientific literature in order to figure out what is already known about a particular topic and to keep up with new ideas and findings in their fields.

SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCT - Actions that violate the expectations and norms of the scientific community and that undermine the aims of science and the success of the scientific enterprise. Scientific misconduct can include a failure to fairly scrutinize other scientists' work, a failure to report results honestly, a failure to fairly assign credit, and/or a failure to work within the ethical guidelines of the community

SUBJECTIVE - Influenced by biases, opinions, and/or emotions. Scientists strive to be objective, not subjective, in their reasoning about scientific issues.

SUPERNATURAL - Not of the natural world. Supernatural entities, forces, and processes cannot be studied with the methods of science.

TECHNOLOGY - Designed innovations that serve some practical function. Science and technology frequently contribute to one another — with scientific advances leading to the design of new technologies, and new technologies enabling new observations or tests that advance scientific knowledge.

TEST - In science, an observation or experiment that could provide evidence regarding the accuracy of a scientific idea. Testing involves figuring out what one would expect to observe if an idea were correct and comparing that expectation to what one actually observes.

TESTABLE - Capable of being tested scientifically. An idea is testable when it logically generates a set of expectations about what we should observe in a particular situation. Ideas that are not testable cannot be investigated by science.

THEORY - In science, a broad, natural explanation for a wide range of phenomena. Theories are concise, coherent, systematic, predictive, and broadly applicable, often integrating and generalizing many hypotheses. Theories accepted by the scientific community are generally strongly supported by many different lines of evidence-but even theories may be modified or overturned if warranted by new evidence and perspectives.

UNCERTAINTY - In reference to statistics, the range of values within which the true value is likely to fall. All measurements have some degree of uncertainty.