Vocabulary

Empirical methods

Approaches to inquiry that are tied to actual measurement and observation.

Ethics

Professional guidelines that offer researchers a template for making decisions that protect research participants from potential harm and that help steer scientists away from conflicts of interest or other situations that might compromise the integrity of their research.

Hypotheses

A logical idea that can be tested.

Systematic observation

The careful observation of the natural world with the aim of better understanding it. Observations provide the basic data that allow scientists to track, tally, or otherwise organize information about the natural world.

Theories

Groups of closely related phenomena or observations.