An exercise sheet to be used when teaching the ideas presented in "Scientific Method-Variables": http://www.slideshare.net/MMoiraWhitehouse/varviables-of-sci-method-4th

1. Name: ________________________________________
A student was doing an experiment using the scientific method.
A picture of the student’s project is shown below.
1. What is the student’s change variable?
a. the angle of the light shining on the light
b. the type of soil the plant is growing in
c. thebrightnessof the light is shining on the plant
d. the temperature of the air in which the plant is growing
2. List all the control variables that you can see that the
student is keeping constant (the same)

2. 3. Every 3 days the student plans to count the number of green
leaves that are growing on the plant.
What is a possible hypothesis for this experiment?
A. The plant in the bright light will grow more green leaves
than the plant grown in the dim light.
B. The plant in sunlight will grow more green leaves than
the plant grown under the light bulb.
C. The plant in the clay pot will grow more green leaves
than the plant grown in the plastic pot.
D. The plant in the warmer temperature will grow more
green leaves than the plant grown in the colder
temperature.

3. To answer these questions, use the diagram below.
1. According to the diagram, which question is being tested?
a. Do flowering plants grow taller when watered with salt
water?
b. How much fertilizer do flowering plants need?
c. Does adding fertilizer cause flowering plants to grow
taller?
d. What is the best kind of fertilizer that a gardener can give
a flowering plant?
2. Write change in the blank beside the change variable;
responding beside the responding variable; and control
beside any control variables.
______________________________ a. the size of the pot
_______________________________b the kind of potting soil

4. _______________________________c. whether or not the plant receives
fertilizer
________________________________d. the amount of water the plant
receives
________________________________e. the amount of light the plant
receives
________________________________f. how tall the plant grows
________________________________g. the temperature of the room
the plant is in

5. 1. The experimenter in the diagram above is pulling a piece of
wood up a ramp. What the responding variable (the one that
the experimenter observes or measures) in this investigation?
a. the weight of the block
b. the many books he places under one end of the ramp
c. how smooth the board is
d. how hard it is (as read on the spring scale) to pull the
wooden block up the ramp
2. List as many variables as you can that the experimenter
could change that might affect the amount of force needed to
pull a wooden block up a ramp.

6. 3. Choose one of these change variables and write a problem
(a question) that this experimenter might want to ask?
For example: Would oiling the ramp make it harder to pull the
wooden block up the ramp?
4. Write an hypothesis that predicts what you think would
happen if the experimenter did this experiment?

7. 1. According to the diagram, which question is being tested?
a. Do flowering plants grow taller in red, green or yellow
light.
b. How much fertilizer do flowering plants need?
c. Does adding fertilizer cause flowering plants to grow
taller?
d. What is the best kind of soil to make plants grow taller?
2. Write change in the blank beside the change variable;
responding beside the responding variable; and control
beside any control variables.
______________________________ a. the size of the pot
_______________________________b the kind of potting soil

8. _______________________________c. whether or not the plant receives
fertilizer
________________________________d. the amount of water the plant
receives
________________________________e. the color of light the plant
receives
________________________________f. how tall the plant grows
________________________________g. the temperature of the room
the plant is in