Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Reading For Meaning In Science
Course: Ged Test Prep
Subject: Science
Chapter: Chapter 1 Reading For Meaning In Science
Science Vocabularies, Terms, and Phrases
When learning science, students will encounter questions that use common science symbols, terms, and phrases such as degree signs, atomic element symbols, and scientific formulas. You will also see common scientific words. For instance, a science passage about the causes of earthquakes might include special geology terms or concepts like plate tectonics. It might also include maps showing earthquake activity and charts that describe quake intensity in addition to the text provided. You should be able to take all of these elements and understand and describe the key message that the passage is trying to communicate.
Science uses different vocabularies and terms to explain scientific terms. One of the challenges that students face is to understand the long, strange, and poorly understood vocabulary. They include photosynthesis, thigmotropism, and plasmodesmata among others. To understand the meaning of these terms, a student must know that the words originate from the Greek or Latin languages.
To understand them, one has to dissect the vocabulary into parts. Two examples are provided below;
Example 1:
Photosynthesis” is a Greek word with three parts. They include “photo” meaning “light”, “syn” meaning “together” and “thesis” meaning “putting”. Therefore, photosynthesis means putting together with light or process by which plants put together molecules using energy from the sun.
The above information is summarized diagrammatically as shown:
Example 2
“Thigmotropism” is formed by combining two Greek words; “thixis”, meaning “touch”, and “tropos” meaning “turning”. Therefore, “thigmotropism” refers to the coiling/turning of plants as they respond to touch
Scientific Symbols
Scientific symbols originating from Greek or the Latin Language may also be used to express scientific information. The symbols below are some of the commonly used in Physics and Chemistry disciplines
- β refers to Beta particles/ radiations
- ℽ refers to gamma,
- α represents alpha among others.
From these scientific symbols, a student should know that beta (β) is a negatively charged particle; alpha (α) is a positively charged particle, and gamma (ℽ is a particle with no charge. This information is critical when writing and balancing equations based on radioactivity and radioactive decay series as the one given below;
23892U→ 42He + 23490Th
In the above example, the Uranium Isotope transmuted into thorium and the process gave an alpha particle represented as (42He). A student should note that when a particle emits an alpha particle, its mass number decreases by 4 and atomic number by 2.
Uses of Atomic Symbols in Science
Atomic element symbols are also derived from Latin words. For example;
- Natrium is the Latin word for Sodium (Na)
- Kalium for Potassium (K)
- Ferrum for Iron (Fe)
- Argentum for Silver (Ag)
Scientific Formulas and Equations
Scientific formulas and equations may also be used to represent scientific data. The two equations below are examples of how equations may be used in science:
Example
If a body with acceleration (a) m/s2 moves from an initial velocity (u) m/s to a final velocity (v) m/s at time t seconds, its equation may be represented as:
v=u + at.
This implies that for a science student to get the final velocity, one must have the initial velocity, the acceleration of the body, and the time taken as the body moves from one point to another.