Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

The question for the project is "What type of honey crystallizes fastest?". We are using 3-4 diff types of honey. Will have 4 containers for honey. Will have honey only in first container, 1tsp of water added in #2 container, 2tsp water added in #3 container and 3tsp of water to #4 container. The containers will be put in the freezer. Will check every 2 minutes for any crystallization. Once crystallization is seen, will check the temp of the honey mixture and note the amount of time it took. We are not sure what the dependent and independent variables are. Is it true that you can only have 1 independent variable????

Here is a great resource for learning more about variables:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... bles.shtml

Your experiment should only have one independent variable to test the effect of that one variable alone. If you had more than one independent variable you would not know which one caused the result.

Audrey

Audrey gives excellent advice. You could have more than one independent variable, but I don't recommend it for an elementary school project. I would stay with one variable. Is there a reason you are putting different amounts of water in each jar? That is a variable, along with the different types of honey. Based on your experimental question, I recommend keeping only the different types of honey as your independent variable, which means each jar should have the same amount of water.

Your dependent variable will be what you are measuring.

I hope this helps. Certainly write back if you have more questions!

Cheers,

The independent variable is something you can alter. The dependent variable result is based on the change of something else.
For example: The ball bounces higher because you changed the type of ball. The type of ball doesn’t change because of how high it bounces.