Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Good evening,
My son and his project partner have to do a project on climate change, it also entails an experiment.
They decided to look at the possibility of reducing plastic ( specifically the plastic cases that PS4, Nintendo and Xbox games come in) and replace them with recycled paper cases. The reason behind this is the popularity of gaming in this dane age, millions of games are sold annually despite the availability of downloading them online and these games come in plastic game boxes. So in theory they know they can't stop the production of plastic completely but there is the possibility of reducing it.
Their experiment will entail them to make the recycled paper and produce a paper gaming sleeve/box, replacing the plastic gaming sleeve/box.
Basically they want to prove that recycled paper is better for the environment than plastic.
What they are struggling with is, what will the independent and dependent variable be for this project?

Hello ElaineK,

Welcome to ScienceBuddies!

A useful way of finding the dependent and independent variables in your experiment is to look at the meaning behind the words. (ScienceBuddies has a great resource on dependent and independent variables here: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... /variables)

Essentially an independent variable is the one factor that is being changed within an experiment. The dependent variable is the factor that changes as a result of changes in the independent variable. In your son's case, determining the variables right off the bat is a rather difficult task seeing that the experiment has many factors to consider (i.e. How would you measure the environmental impact? How would you report the different materials used to make the cases?). A great way to start is to isolate each factor and think about what changes if you were to alter one part of your setup. So for example, when you change from plastic to recycled paper [independent variable], a measurable way that you can see this change affecting the environment could be that there are more boxes in the neighborhood recycling bins [dependent variable].

Hope this helps! Feel free to write back with more questions!