Middle School Science Glossary · NYS Grade 8 science test vocabulary

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The Middle School Science Glossary lists more than 1,600 terms from New York State middle school science (grades 6–8): the vocabulary of the middle school science learning standards (NYSSLS performance expectations) and of released Grade 8 Science Test questions, along with the organisms, substances, places, celestial objects and units they name.

This glossary is strictly limited to terms originating from official NYSED materials such as standards and released test questions. Every term links to its source: a performance expectation (for example MS-LS2-2) means the term appears in that standard's text, clarification statement, assessment boundary, disciplinary core ideas or performance level descriptions; a test cluster means the term appeared in that released question cluster, and the link opens the question. Sections: vocabulary from the standards, vocabulary from released tests, organisms, substances and materials, places, features and events, celestial objects, spacecraft and instruments, units, and terms the standards point to without naming.

Vocabulary from the standards

Terms used in the middle school performance expectations and their supporting NYSED text (clarification statements, assessment boundaries, disciplinary core ideas and performance level descriptions). This is the core vocabulary; the science-practice and engineering words the standards use (claim, evidence, model, criteria, constraint) are included because the test uses them the same way. Each term links to the first standard, in course-map order, that uses it.

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Vocabulary from released tests

Terms that do not appear in the standards' text but have appeared in a released Grade 8 Science Test cluster. The test is noted after each term; the link opens the question.

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Organisms

Living things that the released test clusters name, grouped by cluster so teachers can see the kinds of organisms NYSED writes about.

From the standards

Spring 2026 Grade 8 Science Test

Spring 2025 Grade 8 Science Test

Spring 2024 Grade 8 Science Test

Sample question clusters

Substances and materials

Specific substances, chemicals and materials named in the standards or the released test clusters, grouped by source.

From the standards

Spring 2026 Grade 8 Science Test

Spring 2025 Grade 8 Science Test

Spring 2024 Grade 8 Science Test

Sample question clusters

Places, features and events

Geographic places, landforms, named events and people that the released test clusters mention.

Spring 2026 Grade 8 Science Test

Spring 2025 Grade 8 Science Test

Spring 2024 Grade 8 Science Test

Sample question clusters

Celestial objects, spacecraft and instruments

Planets, moons and other bodies, spacecraft and instruments named in the standards or the released test clusters.

From the standards

Spring 2026 Grade 8 Science Test

Spring 2025 Grade 8 Science Test

Spring 2024 Grade 8 Science Test

Units

Units used in the released tests, with the first cluster that uses each one.

Implied terms

These terms are not named in the standards or released tests, but the NYSED wording points to them so directly that teachers will want to use them. Each entry quotes the wording that implies it. Terms that could be argued either way are deliberately left out; for example, digestive and excretory systems are not listed because MS-LS1-3 only gives "e.g. circulatory, respiratory, nervous, musculoskeletal", and solstices and equinoxes are not listed because MS-ESS1-1 asks only for the cyclic pattern of "seasons".

  • acceleration – MS-PS2-2: implied by "the change in an object’s motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object" (Newton’s Second Law)
  • action–reaction force pair – MS-PS2-1: implied by "the force exerted by the first object on the second object is equal in strength to the force that the second object exerts on the first, but in the opposite direction"
  • carbon cycle – MS-LS2-3: implied by "The atoms that make up the organisms in an ecosystem are cycled repeatedly between the living and nonliving parts of the ecosystem"
  • carrying capacity – MS-LS2-1: implied by "Growth of organisms and population increases are limited by access to resources"
  • conduction and radiation – MS-PS3-3: implied by "Energy is spontaneously transferred out of hotter regions or objects and into colder ones" (convection is named in MS-ESS2-6)
  • continental drift – MS-ESS2-3: implied by "Earth’s plates have moved great distances, collided, and spread apart"
  • convergent, divergent and transform plate boundaries – MS-ESS2-3: implied by "collided, and spread apart" and "ridges, fracture zones, and trenches"
  • DNA – MS-LS3-1: implied by "changes in genetic material" and "Genes are located in the chromosomes of cells"
  • endothermic reaction – MS-PS1-6: implied by the same wording: a process that "absorbs thermal energy"
  • exothermic reaction – MS-PS1-6: implied by "a device that either releases or absorbs thermal energy during a chemical and/or physical process" and "Some chemical reactions release energy, others absorb energy"
  • food chain – MS-LS2-3: implied by "Food webs are models that demonstrate how matter and energy is transferred between producers, consumers, and decomposers"
  • front (weather front) – MS-ESS2-5: implied by "the complex interactions at air mass boundaries"
  • glucose – MS-LS1-6: implied by "make sugars (food) from carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and water"
  • gravitational potential energy – MS-PS3-2: implied by "the Earth and either a roller coaster cart at varying positions on a hill or objects at varying heights on shelves"
  • greenhouse effect – MS-ESS3-5: implied by "the release of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, are major factors in the current rise in Earth’s mean surface temperature (global warming)"
  • homologous structures – MS-LS4-2: implied by "anatomical similarities and differences among modern organisms" as "evidence of common ancestry"
  • inertia – MS-PS2-2: implied by "balanced (Newton’s First Law)" forces
  • kinetic energy equation (KE = ½mv²) – MS-PS3-1: implied by "proportional to the mass of the moving object and grows with the square of its speed" and "quantitative evaluations of kinetic energy"
  • lava – MS-ESS2-1: implied by "the processes of melting, crystallization" that form "igneous" rocks (magma is named in the Spring 2026 test)
  • law of superposition – MS-ESS1-4: implied by "evidence from rock strata" used "to establish relative ages of major events in Earth’s history"
  • limiting factor – MS-LS2-1: implied by "compete with each other for limited resources, access to which consequently constrains their growth and reproduction"
  • net force – MS-PS2-2: implied by "the sum of the forces on the object" and "if the total force on an object is not zero, its motion will change"
  • non-contact force – MS-PS2-5: implied by "forces on each other even though the objects are not in contact" and "Forces that act at a distance"
  • opaque and translucent materials – MS-PS4-2: implied by "reflected, absorbed, or transmitted through various materials" alongside the named "transparent materials"
  • Pangaea – MS-ESS2-3: implied by "Maps of ancient land and water patterns" and "the shapes of the continents (including continental shelves)"
  • prototype – MS-ETS1-4: implied by "iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process" and "Models of all kinds are important for testing solutions"
  • refraction – MS-PS4-2: implied by "the light path bends" at "surfaces between different transparent materials" and "the frequency-dependent bending of light"
  • relative dating – MS-LS4-1: implied by "the chronological order of fossil appearance in the rock layers"
  • relative dating and absolute dating – MS-ESS1-4: implied by "provide only relative dates, not an absolute scale"
  • seafloor spreading – MS-ESS2-3: implied by "seafloor structures" and "ridges" as evidence of plates that "spread apart"
  • specific heat – MS-PS3-4: implied by "the amount of energy transfer needed to change the temperature of a matter sample by a given amount depends on the nature of the matter, the mass of the sample"; the boundary excludes "calculating the total amount of thermal energy transferred"
  • symbiosis and commensalism – MS-LS2-2: implied by "competition, predation, mutualism, and parasitism" and "mutually beneficial interactions"
  • thermal insulator – MS-PS3-3: implied by "an insulated box, a solar cooker, and a Styrofoam cup" and "a device that either minimizes or maximizes thermal energy transfer"
  • trade-off – MS-ETS1-3: implied by "one design may not perform the best across all criteria"
  • wave speed (v = f × λ) – MS-PS4-1: implied by "use mathematical representations to describe waves that includes frequency, wavelength"
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