academic: Relating to school, classes or things taught by teachers in formal institutes of learning (such as a college).
adolescent: Someone in that transitional stage of physical and psychological development that begins at the onset of puberty, typically between the ages of 11 and 13, and ends with adulthood.
advocacy: Work performed to support some cause, idea or program. People who do this work are known as advocates. For instance, advocates might campaign for some change, speak up on behalf of someone or something in court (or other public forum), or write commentaries (opinion pieces) on a topic for some news outlet.
advocate: (n.) Someone who performs work to support some cause, idea or program. For instance, they might campaign for some change, speak up on behalf of someone or something in court (or other public forum), or write commentaries (opinion pieces) on a topic for some news outlet. (v.) The term for the act of doing such work. For instance, Sarah advocated for turning over the group’s bake sale proceeds to buy a new park bench.
anxiety: A nervous reaction to events causing excessive uneasiness and apprehension. People with anxiety may even develop panic attacks.
bisexual: Adjective for someone who is sexually attracted to both males and females.
bullying: (v. to bully) A group of repeated behaviors that are mean-spirited. They can include teasing, spreading rumors about someone, saying hurtful things to someone and intentionally leaving someone out of groups or activities. Sometimes bullying can include attacks using violence (such as hitting), threats of violence, yelling at someone or abusing someone with violent language. Much bullying takes place in person. But it also may occur online, through emails or via text messages. Newer examples including making fake profiles of people on websites or posting embarrassing photos or videos on social media.
cisgender: Someone whose gender identity matches that of the sex they were assigned at birth. (The Latin prefix cis- means “on the same side.”)
clinical: (in medicine) A term that refers to diagnoses, treatments or experiments involving people.
component: Something that is part of something else (such as pieces that go on an electronic circuit board or ingredients that go into a cookie recipe).
depression: (in medicine) A mental illness characterized by persistent sadness and apathy. Although these feelings can be triggered by events, such as the death of a loved one or the move to a new city, that isn’t typically considered an “illness” — unless the symptoms are prolonged and harm an individual’s ability to perform normal daily tasks (such as working, sleeping or interacting with others). People suffering from depression often feel they lack the energy needed to get anything done. They may have difficulty concentrating on things or showing an interest in normal events. Many times, these feelings seem to be triggered by nothing; they can appear out of nowhere.
develop: To emerge or to make come into being, either naturally or through human intervention, such as by manufacturing. (in biology) To grow as an organism from conception through adulthood, often undergoing changes in chemistry, size, mental maturity or sometimes even shape.
development: (in biology) The growth of an organism from conception through adulthood, often undergoing changes in chemistry, size and sometimes even shape. (in economics and social sciences) The conversion of land from its natural state into another so that it can be used for housing, agriculture, or resource development. (in engineering) The growth or change of something from an idea to a prototype.
discrimination: (in social science) An attitude of prejudice again people or things based on a bias about one or more of their attributes (such as race, sex, religion or age). It is not based on the actions of an individual but instead based on yet-unfounded expectations that are being applied broadly to a whole group.
engineering: The field of research that uses math and science to solve practical problems. Someone who works in this field is known as an engineer.
focus: (in behavior) To look or concentrate intently on some particular point or thing.
gay: (in biology) A term for people who are sexually attracted to members of their own sex. Gay had been a general term. In recent years, however, people have tended to use it primarily to refer to men (with lesbian being the preferred term for women).
gender: The complex relationship between someone’s body, their identity and often how their culture tries to assign them roles and behaviors. Gender and biological sex are often incorrectly used to mean the same thing. Gender identity includes binary (female or male) and nonbinary (genderfluid, genderqueer) and more. People share some of their gender identity by their choice of pronouns, for example, he, she or they are common ones. Someone’s gender identity can be the same or different from the sex that individual had been assigned at birth.
gender identity: A term for someone’s strong internal sense of being male, female, both, neither or somewhere in between. While a person’s gender identity commonly matches the sex they were assigned at birth, this isn’t always the case.
heterosexual: A term for someone attracted to people of the opposite gender.
high school: A designation for grades nine through 12 in the U.S. system of compulsory public education. High-school graduates may apply to colleges for further, advanced education.
host: (v.) The act of providing a home or environment for something. A website, for instance, could host photos, news or other types of information.
journal: (in science) A publication in which scientists share their research findings with experts (and sometimes even the public). Some journals publish papers from all fields of science, technology, engineering and math, while others are specific to a single subject. Peer-reviewed journals are the gold standard: They send all submitted articles to outside experts to be read and critiqued. The goal, here, is to prevent the publication of mistakes, fraud or work that is not novel or convincingly demonstrated.
lesbian: A woman who is sexually attracted to other women.
mental health: A term for someone’s emotional, psychological and social well-being. It refers to how people behave on their own and how they interact with others. It includes how people make choices, handle stress and manage fear or anxiety. Poor mental health can be triggered by disease or merely reflect a short-term response to life’s challenges. It can occur in people of any age, from babies to the elderly.
mentor: An individual who lends his or her experience to advise someone starting out in a field. In science, teachers or researchers often mentor students or younger scientists by helping them to refine their research questions. Mentors also can offer feedback on how young investigators prepare to conduct research or interpret their data.
model: A simulation of a real-world event (usually using a computer) that has been developed to predict one or more likely outcomes. Or an individual that is meant to display how something would work in or look on others.
network: A group of interconnected people or things. (v.) The act of connecting with other people who work in a given area or do similar thing (such as artists, business leaders or medical-support groups), often by going to gatherings where such people would be expected, and then chatting them up. (n. networking)
nonbinary: Meaning “not one of two.” People who identify this way might feel they are both male and female, neither male nor female, or somewhere in between. Instead of he or she, nonbinary individuals may choose to go by the pronoun “they.”
online: (n.) On the internet. (adj.) A term for what can be found or accessed on the internet.
out: (in gender issues) Someone who is open about their gender identity or sexual orientation with other people.
peer: (noun) Someone who is an equal, based on age, education, status, training or some other features. (verb) To look into something, searching for details.
policies: Plans, stated guidelines or agreed-upon rules of action to apply in certain specific circumstances. For instance, a school could have a policy on when to permit snow days or how many excused absences it would allow a student in a given year.
political: (n. politics) An adjective that refers to the activities of people charged with governing towns, states, nations or other groups of people. It can involve deliberations over whether to create or change laws, the setting of policies for governed communities, and attempts to resolve conflicts between people or groups that want to change rules or taxes or the interpretation of laws. The people who take on these tasks as a job (profession) are known as politicians.
psychologist: A scientist or mental-health professional who studies the mind, especially in relation to actions and behaviors. Some work with people. Others may conduct experiments with animals (usually rodents) to test how their minds respond to different stimuli and conditions.
psychology: (adj. psychological ) The study of the human mind, especially in relation to actions and behavior. To do this, some perform research using animals. Scientists and mental-health professionals who work in this field are known as psychologists.
queer: A word that used to be an insult to describe people as strange or different. Some LGBTQ people now commonly use it as an inclusive and positive word to describe anyone who isn’t straight, who is transgender or who doesn’t identify as only male or female.
regulate: (n. regulation) To control with actions. Governments write rules and regulations — laws — that are enforced by police and the courts.
risk: The chance or mathematical likelihood that some bad thing might happen. For instance, exposure to radiation poses a risk of cancer. Or the hazard — or peril — itself. (For instance: Among cancer risks that the people faced were radiation and drinking water tainted with arsenic.)
role model: Someone whose skill, behavior and/or personality makes them an inspirational ideal, the type who inspires others to model themselves after this person.
sex: An animal’s biological status with respect to reproductive functions, typically male or female. There are a number of indicators of biological sex, including sex chromosomes, gonads, internal reproductive organs, and external genitals. It can also be a term for some system of mating between male and female animals such that each parent organism contributes genes to the potential offspring, usually through the fertilization of an egg cell by a sperm cell.
social: (adj.) Relating to gatherings of people; a term for animals (or people) that prefer to exist in groups. (noun) A gathering of people, for instance those who belong to a club or other organization, for the purpose of enjoying each other’s company.
spectrum: (plural: spectra) A range of related things that appear in some order.
straight: (in gender issues) A term for a man who is sexually attracted to women, or a woman who is sexually attracted to men.
stress: (in biology) A factor — such as unusual temperatures, movements, moisture or pollution — that affects the health of a species or ecosystem. (in psychology) A mental, physical, emotional or behavioral reaction to an event or circumstance (stressor) that disturbs a person or animal’s usual state of being or places increased demands on a person or animal; psychological stress can be either positive or negative. (in physics) Pressure or tension exerted on a material object.
suicidal: A mental state in which a person feels a strong impulse to take his or her own life (also known as committing suicide). Warning signs may include talking about wanting to die or about making plans to commit suicide; saying goodbye to people as if this person won’t ever see them again; taking steps to make it possible to commit suicide, such as obtaining a gun or drugs that could cause death; being obsessed with the subject of death or dying; and withdrawing from social contact in a way that is unusual for that person.
survey: To view, examine, measure or evaluate something, often land or broad aspects of a landscape. (with people) To ask questions that glean data on the opinions, practices (such as dining or sleeping habits), knowledge or skills of a broad range of people. Researchers select the number and types of people questioned in hopes that the answers these individuals give will be representative of others who are their age, belong to the same ethnic group or live in the same region. (n.) The list of questions that will be offered to glean those data.
system: A network of parts that together work to achieve some function. For instance, the blood, vessels and heart are primary components of the human body’s circulatory system. Similarly, trains, platforms, tracks, roadway signals and overpasses are among the potential components of a nation’s railway system. System can even be applied to the processes or ideas that are part of some method or ordered set of procedures for getting a task done.
transgender: An adjective for someone who has a gender identity that does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. Sex is usually assigned based on someone’s genitalia.
urban: Of or related to cities, especially densely populated ones or regions where lots of traffic and industrial activity occurs. The development or buildup of urban areas is a phenomenon known as urbanization.