Info on candy confusion project

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smlampphill
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2014 5:55 am
Occupation: Parent
Project Question: Is candy confusion a true scientific experiment as opposed to a population study. And what would the manipulative variables be?
Project Due Date: Dec 09, 2014
Project Status: Not applicable

Info on candy confusion project

Post by smlampphill »

Is candy confusion a true scientific experiment / method as opposed to a population study ? If so what would be the manipulative variables? Info as stated requested by moderator for school science fair. Thank you
scibuddyAK
Former Expert
Posts: 118
Joined: Thu Aug 29, 2013 5:19 pm
Occupation: Mentor/Moderator
Project Question: I'm registering because I'm interested in volunteering with the Ask an Expert program to help students with their science fair projects.
Project Due Date: n/a
Project Status: Not applicable

Re: Info on candy confusion project

Post by scibuddyAK »

Hi smlampphill,

Thanks for the question! I assume you're talking about this project: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#summary (Candy Confusion on Science Buddies).

To help answer some of your questions, an experimental study involves specifically modifying/testing one parameter and looking for desired results. A correlational study, on the other hand, seeks to find relationships between two variables (usually in a population) without specifically exposing one group of people to a modified parameter. While Candy Confusion may not be a "true scientific experiment" in that sense, it is still a valuable project to do to understand and apply the scientific method.

A manipulative variable is what you change to observe its effects on something else, the dependent variable. The manipulative variable could be considered as age of the child in this study (as you're looking to see what effect age has on distinguishing candy from medicine), but to double-check, I'd point you to the Science Buddies resource pages. There is information on the scientific method and these terms that may help you greatly!

Thanks,
scibuddyAK
connief
Former Expert
Posts: 302
Joined: Thu Apr 04, 2013 12:27 pm
Occupation: Graduate Student
Project Question: I am volunteering for the "Ask an Expert" program.
Project Due Date: I am volunteering for the "Ask an Expert" program.
Project Status: Not applicable

Re: Info on candy confusion project

Post by connief »

Hi there,

The previous expert already gave you a great answer, and in addition to his/her comment, I would like to add that Science Buddies has a page that explains pretty well how to define independent and dependent variables in your experiments, and thought that this would serve as a really great resource as you plan this as well as future experiments!

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... evariables

Let us know if you have anymore questions as you continue on with this project!

Connie
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