Elisabet O. Orville
Objectives Scientific words can be overwhelming for many high school students but they can also be fun if approached as a guessing game. The thing to be avoided is memorization of lists.
Students don’t realize that those ponderous words are made up of short Latin and/or Greek roots that scientists have strung together and that if they know what the roots mean they are home safe, because they will begin to see them everywhere. (Puerto Rican students will be delighted because they will know so many of the roots.)
Strategies I’ve picked out many of the scientific words in this unit plus some others that will help reinforce their meanings. The roots in the words have been underlined so that by using the
List of Latin/Greek
Roots, students can write down the literal word meanings. Xerox both the List and the words, so that your students can work independently at first. (You may want to delete or add.)
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Example: LEUKOCYTE
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LEUK = white
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CYTE = cell
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Hence, white blood cell.
List of Scientific Words
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pre
natal
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cyto
logy
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vena
cava
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neo
nate
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leuk
o
cyte
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intra
venous
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peri
nat
ology
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erythro
cyte
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leuk emia
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peri meter
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hemo cyto meter
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an
emia
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thermo meter
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hemato logy
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tox
emia
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hypo thermic
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circum
cision
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post
partum
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hyp
oxic
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in
cision
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anti
biotic
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carbon
di
oxide
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in
halation
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gyneco logy
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carbon
mono
ox
ide
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ex
halation
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ped iatrician
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bio
logy
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ex
cava
tion
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List of Latin/Greek Roots
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a, an = without
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gyn = woman
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natal = birth
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anti = against
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hal = breathe
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neo = new
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bi,di = two
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hem = blood
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ox = oxygen
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bio = life
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hyper = too much
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partum = birth
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cava = hollow
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hypo = too little
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ped = child
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circum = around
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ician = specialist in
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peri = around
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cis = cut
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in,intra = in or inside
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post = after
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cyt = cell
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leuk = white
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pre = before
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emia = blood
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logy = study of
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therm = heat
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erythro = fed
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meter = measure
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tox = poison
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ex = out
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mono = one
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ven = vein
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Follow-up Activity:
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1. When students have finished word meanings have a scientific word “bee” with the class split in two. Vary the questions by asking if a student can think of other words that contain the roots. For instance, for MONO, answers could monocle, monogamy, monotonous, monogram etc.
