Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My question is-which type of salt melts ice the quickest? What are the independent, dependent and controlled variables?

Hi Michelesjake,

The independent variable is the thing that you (or your student, in this case) change from one experiment to the next. The dependent variable is what changes in response to the independent variable. Controlled variables are things that you keep the same in all of your tests.

This article does an excellent job of explaining this in more detail:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... bles.shtml

Using this information, chat with your student and decide together what you think the independent, dependent, and controlled variables are in this project. Then, post them here and we'll give you some feedback on them.