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Appendix for "Definitions-and-Uses of Terms in NGSS"

This page describes the definitions-and-uses of terms in NGSS.  It supplements Terms in NGSS - a Glossary with Clarifications with quotations (that may have bold and italics added by me) from NGSS - Appendix F (pages 1-23) and the Framework - Chapter 3 (pages 41-82).
 

Theories – Strong Support and Wide Scope

These quotations from the Framework (with bold & italics added) show that, in science, calling something a theory usually implies that it has strong support and a wide scope:

"scientific theories are constructs based on significant bodies of knowledge and evidence..... are not mere guesses, and they are especially valued because they provide explanations for multiple instances. (p 67)"

"A theory becomes accepted when it has multiple lines of empirical evidence and greater explanatory power of phenomena than previous theories. (p 20)"

"The goal of science is to develop a set of coherent and mutually consistent theoretical descriptions of the world that can provide explanations over a wide range of phenomena. (p 48)"   "The aim of science is to find a single coherent and comprehensive theory for a range of related phenomena. (p 48 )   /   comments:  This says "the aim of science" rather than “of scientists” because in their daily work very few scientists are trying to develop a Grand Unified Theory of Everything, instead most are trying to understand a small part of nature.  This "aim" is a collective goal of science (and scientists), not the personal goals of individual scientists.

Although I couldn't find a single explicit statement about support-and-scope for models, the Framework seems to view them as usually having narrower scope than theories, and having support that can range from weak to strong, which is similar to my descriptions of Theory & Model for Design Process.

 

comment - Originally I had planned to develop this page much more fully during early-April 2013, but since then its priority level has dropped quite a bit.