Read about the experiment below. Then use the word bank to identify the variables within the experiment. 1. Question: What is the best way to cut a banana? Eating a healthy breakfast when you wake up each day is very important. You know this, and so everyday you have a big bowl of cereal and a half of a banana. You don’t have time to eat the entire banana so you often leave it on the kitchen table to come back and eat after school. Sometimes when you get home the banana is all brown and you don’t want to eat it any more, so you decide to do an experiment to figure out if the banana will always turn brown, no matter what way you cut it. Below is the procedure of your experiment: 1. Get out three plastic cups. 2. In one cup you place a whole banana. 3. In the second cup you slice the banana up into 4 separate pieces 4. In the third cup you mash the banana with a spoon. 5. All bananas are kept in the same area on the kitchen table. 6. Then you wait and observe the banana every hour, and record the results you see. All of the bananas will be left out for 3 hours total a. What research would you need to do before completing this experiment? Why do bananas turn brown? Type of cup to use b. What is your hypothesis? (use if/then format) If I have 3 different bananas, then the whole banana will not turn brown. c. Use the word bank below to identify the variables in the experiment: - Type of cup - Size of Banana (whole slice, smushed, cut up) - Observations of banana after each hour - Food that was used (banana) - Area on the kitchen table - Total amount of time the bananas are left on the table Independent Variable: size of banana __________________________________________________________________________________ Dependent Variable: observations after each hour __________________________________________________________________________________ Control Variables _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ Read about the experiment below. Then use the word bank to identify the variables within the experiment. 2. Question: Who is the best basketball player? You have two friends, Harry and Sally that are both great basketball players. One day Harry and Sally were out at recess and they were arguing about who the better basketball player was. You walk over and say to Harry and Sally, “Let’s have an experiment to see who is the better player!” Harry and Sally agree, and so you set up the experiment for them. Below is the procedure of your experiment: 1. You give Sally a basketball and tell her to stand on the free throw line. 2. Harry stands underneath the basket, ready to chase the ball and give it back to Sally after she shoots it. 3. When you say go, you start a timer and see how many shots Sally can make in a minute. 4. You record the number of shots Sally made on a piece of paper. 5. Sally and Harry switch, it is Harry’s turn to shoot the baskets. Harry stands on the free throw line, and uses the same basketball as Sally. 6. Start the timer for one minute, and record how many baskets Harry makes. 7. Whoever scores more baskets will be the better basketball player! a. What research would you need to do before completing this experiment? Go to Harry and Sally’s games to observe b. What is your hypothesis? (use if/then format) If Harry and Sally both shoot free throws, then Sally will get 5 more than Harry. c. Use the word bank below to identify the variables in the experiment: Basketball used Number of baskets scored Person who is shooting (Harry or Sally) Position when shooting (on the free throw line) Amount of time given to shoot the baskets Independent Variable: Person shooting basketball __________________________________________________________________________________ Dependent Variable: Number of baskets scored __________________________________________________________________________________ Control Variables _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ Read about the experiment below. Then use the word bank to identify the variables within the experiment. 3. Question: Am I right handed or left handed? When you were little your parents did not know if you were right handed because you had not yet learned how to write. One day they decided to do an experiment to figure out if you were right handed or left handed. They took you to the park and did this experiment while teaching you how to throw a baseball. Below was the procedure for their experiment. 1. Give you a baseball in your left hand. 2. Ask you to throw the ball as far as you can. 3. Use a ruler to measure how many feet the baseball went, record the measurement. 4. Give you a baseball in your right hand. 5. Ask you to throw the ball as far as you can. 6. Use a ruler to measure how many feet the baseball went, record the measurement. 7. See switch throw went farther! a. What research would you need to do before completing this experiment? How to teach throwing, right hand or left hand percents b. What is your hypothesis? (use if/then format) If a person throws a baseball with their right hand and then the left, then their right hand will throw it farther. c. Use the word bank below to identify the variables in the experiment: Baseball used Number of feet you threw the baseball Person throwing the ball Hand you are throwing the ball with (right or left) Independent Variable: Hand throwing with __________________________________________________________________________________ Dependent Variable: number of feet baseball is thrown __________________________________________________________________________________ Control Variables person throwing and the baseball _______________________________ _______________________________ Read about the experiment below. Then use the word bank to identify the variables within the experiment. 4. Question: Does the temperature of the oven effect the amount of time it takes cookies to bake? You are an excellent cook, and love to make chocolate chip cookies. The directions on the recipe say to bake the cookies at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 minutes, but you really love cookies and want to know if you can make them faster than 12 minutes. You decide to increase the temperature of the oven to see if this makes the cookies bake faster! Below is the procedure for your experiment: 1. Put 12 cookies on a tray in the oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. 2. Watch the cookies and wait until they turn golden brown (this means they are done cooking). Take cookies out of the oven when they are done. 3. Record the amount of time it took cookies to bake. 4. Put 12 new cookies on a tray in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. 5. Watch the cookies and wait until they turn golden brown (this means they are done cooking). Take cookies out of the oven when they are done. 6. Record the amount of time it took cookies to bake. 7. See which cookies cooked faster! a. What research would you need to do before completing this experiment? How long cookies normally take to bake, type of cookie dough b. What is your hypothesis? (use if/then format) If I cook 2 sets of cookies with different temperatures, then the one with the higher temp will take shorter. c. Use the word bank below to identify the variables in the experiment: Number of cookies on the tray Oven Amount of time it took cookies to cook Temperature of the oven Independent Variable: temp of oven __________________________________________________________________________________ Dependent Variable: amount of time to cook __________________________________________________________________________________ Control Variables _______________________________ _______________________________ Read about the experiment below. Then use the word bank to identify the variables within the experiment.
