Dr. Overy's KBase: Resources for Teaching and Learning - Glossary

• Precision
  Precise measurements are ones in which there is very little spread about the mean value. Precision depends only on the extent of random errors – it gives no indication of how close results are to the true value.
• Prediction
  A prediction is a statement suggesting what will happen in the future, based on observation, experience or a hypothesis
• Placebo
  A placebo is a dummy pill or injection given to members of a control group in medical trials. Where a placebo is in the form of a pill, it should be identical to the pill used with the experimental group. The only difference should be that that the placebo does not contain the drug being trialled. The use of placebos helps to ensure that the data collected from a trial are valid.
• Probability
  Probability is the likelihood of an event occurring. It differs from chance in that it can be expressed mathematically. In statistical tests, probabilities are usually expressed as a decimal fraction of one. Thus a probability of 0.01 means that an event is likely to occur 1 time in every 100.
• Pollutant
  A contaminant that adversely alters the physical, chemical, or biological properties of the environment
• Pathogens
  Disease-causing microorganisms.
• Pandemic
  An epidemic of infectious disease that has spread through human populations across a large region; for instance multiple continents, or even worldwide.  (plural : Pandemics)
• Pollution
  The presence in or introduction into the environment of a substance which has harmful or poisonous effects.
• Painkillers
  Drugs or medicines for relieving pain
• Pathogen
  A bacterium, virus, or other microorganism that can cause disease
• Pituitary Gland
  The major endocrine gland, a pea-sized body attached to the base of the brain that is important in controlling growth and development and the functioning of the other endocrine glands
• Progesterone
  A steroid hormone released by the corpus luteum of the ovary that stimulates the uterus to prepare for pregnancy.
• phototropism
  the orientation of a plant or other organism in response to light, either towards the source of light ( positive phototropism ) or away from it ( negative phototropism )
• Park Rangers
  People entrusted with protecting and preserving parklands – national, state, provincial, or local parks.
• Programme of study
   UK:  The prescribed syllabus that pupils must be taught ateach key stage in the National Curriculum
• Principle of Superposition
  The Principle Of Superposition states that when two waves of the same kind meet at a point in space, the resultant displacement at that point is the vector sum of the displacements that the two waves would separately produce at that point.
• Physics
  the branch of science concerned with the nature and properties of matter and energy. The subject matter of physics includes mechanics, heat, light and other radiation, sound, electricity, magnetism, and the structure of atoms.