Design a Fair Test micro-lesson

Natalie Dixon

The Scientific Process – Before The Experiment

Science

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Learning time

Kids learn by watching short, engaging video lessons.

An important part of the scientific process is to design a fair test. This means considering what you are changing, your independent variable, and what you will measure, your dependent variable, and controlling for all other variables. When we control for variables, we keep them the same. You can think of this like two people having a race. If one person won the race, you might think that they are faster, but you cannot be sure this is true if one person had their shoelaces tied together and the other did not. This would not be a fair test. So, for example, if I'm trying to find out if playing music to plants makes them grow faster, I would measure the growth for plants growing with and without music, but I would need to make sure all other variables were the same such as the amount of seeds I planted, how much I watered the plants, where I kept the plants, and so on.

Answer time

Kids earn more screen time by answering fun educational questions.

Here are some example of questions about this video that kids may be asked in the 1Question app to earn screen time.

A fair test would be...

1) an experiment which had good controls.

2) a race where someone had their shoelaces tied together.

3) all races are fair tests.

4) any experiment.
What are controls?

1) Variables you must keep the same.

2) All variables.

3) The variable you will measure.

4) The variables you will change.
What is a dependent variable?

1) The variable you will measure.

2) Variables you must keep the same.

3) All variables are dependent variables.

4) There is no such thing as a dependent variable.
What is an independent variable?

1) The variable you change.

2) Variables you must keep the same.

3) All variables are independent variables.

4) There is no such thing as an independent variable.
Which of these might be a control for an experiment on plant growth?

1) The amount you water the plants.

2) Measuring how much the plant grows.

3) There would be no controls

4) The independent variable would be a control.

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Meet your educator

Our micro-courses are developed and delivered by qualified educators from around the world.

Natalie Dixon

I qualified to be a teacher in London (UK) in 2013 and have since taught in England and at an international school in the Caribbean. I love helping students to master new skills

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