WORKSHEET no.

2 AUGUST 12, 2020

FIRST QUARTER/FIRST SEMESTER THIRD WEEK
EARTH SCIENCE
11 BONIFACIO (STEM)

The Scientific Variables

Instructions: Read the following experimental scenarios and identify the variables. Use a different font color in typing
your answer.

1. It is January, Sarah and Becky are tired of having cold feet while waiting for the school bus to come in the morning. They
decide to design an experiment to test the effectiveness of wool, cotton and nylon as insulators. They fill identical
bottles with 200 ml of water at 100 ̊C and place inside each sock. They take the temperature of the water after 20
minutes.

Independent Variable: Sock

Dependent Variable: Temperature of water after 20 minutes
Constant Variables: Type of bottle, 200 ml of water, Temperature at 100 ̊C, Amount of water, 20 minutes

2. A group of middle school students were given a short course in speed-reading. The instructor was curious if a monetary
incentive would influence performance on a reading test taken at the end of the course. Half the students were offered
$5 for obtaining a certain level of performance on the test, the other half were not offered money.

Independent Variable: Five dollars

Dependent Variable: Test performance
Constant Variables: Speed-reading, Monetary incentive

Control Group: Students who were not offered money

Experimental Group: Students who were offered with money

3. A social psychologist thinks that people are more likely to conform to a large crowd than to a single person. To test this
hypothesis, the social psychologist had one person in set up A and five persons in set up B to stand on a busy walking
path on campus and look up. The psychologist stood nearby and counted the number of people passing by who also
looked up.

Independent Variable: Number of people who were looking up

Dependent Variable: Number of people who stopped looking up
Constant Variables: Walking path on the campus

Control Group: The person in Setup A and the other five in the Setup B
Experimental Group: The people passing by

4. Troy wants to know if the food given to his four mice affect their mass. Below is the data that he gathered after three
weeks of experimentation.
Mass Before the Mass Gained (Grams)
Mouse Food Given
Experiment Week 1 Week 2 Week 3
#1 Rice 6g 7 9 14
#2 Grain 6g 6 4 9
#3 Corn 6g 8 4 12
#4 Mixture of Rice, Grain, and Corn 6g 12 8 20

Independent Variable: Food given to the 4 mice

Dependent Variable: Their results after 3 weeks
Constant Variables: Equal mass of the 4 mice
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Based from the activity above, create your OWN experimental scenarios and identify the variables.
Teacher’s Note: Please do not copy and paste from the internet. In this part, your higher order thinking skill will be tested.

Experimental Scenario #1:

You want to compare brands of toothpastes, to see which products are effective for whitening your teeth.
The independent variable in your experiment would be the brand of toothpastes. The dependent variable
would be the whitening effect of toothpastes being used.
 WORKSHEET no. 2 AUGUST 12, 2020
FIRST QUARTER/FIRST SEMESTER THIRD WEEK
EARTH SCIENCE
11 BONIFACIO (STEM)

Experimental Scenario #2:

You want to compare brands of cat litter, to see which products are effective for absorbing the odor of
your pet’s feces. The independent variable in your experiment would be the brand of cat litter. The
dependent variable would be how effective the absorption of the litter is.

Rubric for the experimental scenario: