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Science Fair Club: Week 4 Handout

Designing an Experiment

Part 1: Variables

Once you have your science project question decided, your hypothesis can

help you determine what your experiment should look like and what data

you should collect to prove or disprove your idea. The first step is to

determine what your want to test for, or what your variables are;

Variables

M -Manipulated

These are variables that you change on purpose in your experiment. It is what you are

testing.

(Independent)

I will change_________________________between my tests because I want to know what

will happen.

R- Responding

These are the changes that happen in your experiment because of what you did, the results.

(Dependent)

I will measure or observe _______________, and_____________________ to get my results.

Controlled

These are the variables that are held constant or are assumed to stay the same

during the experiment.

(Constant)

I will keep ________________, ______________, and ______________the same between

my tests so they don’t affect my results and make my test unfair.

Hypothesis: If [independent variable], then [dependent variable]

Examples of Variables

Question

Independent

Dependent Variables

Controlled Variables

Variable

(What I observe)

(What I keep the same)

(What I change)



Does heating

Temperature of

Amount of sugar that dissolves

Stirring



a cup of

the water

completely measured in grams

Type of sugar

water allow it

measured in

to dissolve

degrees

"More stirring might also increase the amount of sugar

more sugar?

Centigrade

that dissolves and different sugars might dissolve in

different amounts, so to insure a fair test I want to

keep these variables the same for each cup of water."

 Growth of the plant measured

 Same type of fertilizer

Does fertilizer

Amount of

 Same size pot for each plant

make a plant

fertilizer

by its height

 Growth of the plant measured

 Same type of plant in each pot

grow bigger?

measured in

grams

 Same type and amount of soil in each pot

by the number of leaves

 See

 Same amount of water and light

Measuring Plant Growth

 Make measurements of growth for each plant at the

for more ways to measure

plant growth

same time

"The many variables above can each change how fast a

plant grows, so to insure a fair test of the fertilizer,

each of them must be kept the same for every pot."

Page 1 of 4

Designing An Experiment

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