A series of steps used by scientists to solve a problem or answer a question.

Every hypothesis begins with what word?

Mr. Del sets up an experiment to see how the mass of a ball affects the distance it rolls off a ramp. Identify the independent variable.

The summary at the end of an experiment that explains the results.

A student wants to test the effects of type of exercise on heart rate.  She measures her pulse while she is resting, standing, walking and running.  What is the dependent variable?

An experiment is performed on plants to see how different liquids affect plant growth. Each plant in the experiment is given a different liquid; water, apple juice, or milk. Each plant is in the same type of pot and has the same amount of soil and sunlight. What is the independent variable?

Stephen predicted that seeds would start to grow faster if an electric current traveled through the soil in which they were planted.

This is an example of which of the following?

Students of different grades were given the same jigsaw puzzle to assemble. The time they took to assemble it was measured.

What is the independent variable?

Students of different grades were given the same jigsaw puzzle to assemble. The time they took to assemble it was measured in seconds.

What is the dependent variable?

A test is set up to test which brand of soda creates the biggest foam explosion when adding a Mentos candy.  Three different sodas were tested. They measured the height of the foam eruption.   What is the dependent variable?

A hypothesis is a prediction or explanation that can be -

In an experiment to determine which bug spray works best to keep mosquitoes from biting, what is the dependent variable?

Identify the problem with this experiment:   A scientist thinks that flatworms swim faster if they are in salt water.  So he drops them in salt water and finds that they do swim very fast.  He concludes that salt water makes flatworms swim fast.  

The group that does not receive treatment and is used for comparison.

The variable that a scientist changes