Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello Committee,

I am in the process of doing the project,"Decomposing Energy: Extracting Heat Energy from a Compost Pile" and I have close to no clue on what the independent variable, dependent variable, control, and constant. The project has to be an experiment, but I don't know what the independent variable, dependent variable, control, and constant are. If this is not an experiment than I would like to know how to add some things to make it one. I also want to know what kind of problem I am trying to solve with this and if there isn't how do I alter the project so that it does solve the project I really need an answer to all these questions asap.

Thanks

This is a really cool project!

According to the project summary, which can be found here: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#summary, this project aims to answer the question of whether the heat from a compost bin or pile can be used to efficiently and effectively heat water. Scientific questions, as you mentioned, usually ask what the effect of changing something (the independent variable) will have on something else (the dependent variable). Notice that the words "effect" or "change" were not used for this project. However, thanks to the wonderful nature of science, you have every right to manipulate this experiment so that you can involve those two variables.

You can start brainstorming ways to do so by looking at the Make it Your Own section, which can be found here: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... eityourown. It describes ways where you can change the design of the of the bin (independent variable, the thing being changed) in order to see if it is more efficient, or produces more heat (dependent variable, the thing being measured).

Take some time to think about it and let me know if you still have any questions.
Thanks and good luck!
Trystan