Question

Lauren wants to know which location in her apartment is best for growing African violets. She has three African violets. She puts one on the balcony, one by the kitchen window, and one on the mantel in the living room. Each plant has the same size pot and the same soil, and Lauren gives each plant the same amount of water. What are the dependent and independent variables? Your answer:

Answer 1

The dependent variable in Lauren's experiment is the growth of the African violets, and the independent variables are the locations of the plants. Other growth factors like watering, plant food, soil amount, and soil type should be controlled to ensure the experiment's accuracy.

Step-by-step explanation:

In Lauren's situation with the African violets, the dependent variable is the growth or health of the plants, since it is what she is observing and measuring in response to the different conditions. The independent variables are the locations where the plants are placed (balcony, kitchen window, mantel in the living room), as these are the conditions that Lauren is changing to see how they affect the growth of the African violets.

To have a controlled experiment, Lauren should keep other factors constant that may affect plant growth, such as the amount of water (which she is already controlling), the amount of plant food, the amount of soil, and the type of soil.

If Lauren's experiment were setup like Gary's - with a focus on the amount of sunshine - she might control for things like individual plant variation, soil temperature due to different colors of containers, water loss due to evaporation from the soil, and the effect of insects which may attack one set of plants but not another.

Answer 2

First, before determining which variable is which, we go over the definition of each.
The independent variable is the one which is intentionally changed in order to investigate its effect on the dependent variable.
The dependent variable is monitored and changes occur in it due to the changing conditions of the independent variable.

In this case, the location of the African violets is the independent variable as it is intentionally changed, while the rate of growth of the African violets is the dependent variable as it is being measured.