Imagine a new alien life form that has just been discovered on a nearby planet. Your job is to study this new life form. The Effect of Environment on New Life Form Gizmo shows 100 individuals that have been transported from the planet to your laboratory.
It is your job to discover how three environmental factors affect the aliens: light, water, and temperature.
A variable is something that can be changed in an experiment. Look at the SIMULATION pane. What are the three variables you can change in your laboratory?
When all the sliders are set to the lowest numbers, which body type has the smallest number?
When all the sliders are set to the lowest numbers, which body type has the highest number?
When all the sliders are set to the highest numbers, which body type has the highest number?
When all the sliders are set to the highest numbers, which body type has the lowest number?
You changed all the variables at the same time. Which environmental variable caused the change in life form type?
Form a hypothesis: A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for an observation. Hypotheses must be testable. You decide to test the effect of temperature on the shape of the alien life forms.
Which statement below is a hypothesis that tests the effect of temperature on the shape of the alien life form?
Go to Google Classroom and open the spreadsheet. Record your observations in the spreadsheet. We will start by setting the controlled variables of light and water. Set the amount of light to 15 hours/day and the amount of water to 15 drops/hour.
Our independent variable is temperature.
Our dependent variable is the number of each life form shape at various temperatures.
Record the amount of each alien body type at 5-degree intervals in the data table.
Make a line graph to represent the data in the table. Watch the video on how to make a line graph from your completed data table.
Download a copy of your line graph as a .png to your Google Drive, then upload it into the workspace. NOTE: Copy/Paste directly from Google Sheets won't work.
You can also use Snip & Sketch - copy/paste works with Snip & Sketch.
How does changing the temperature affect the alien body shape? Select all statements that are supported by your data.
Match the variable in the experiment with its academic term.
The independent variable(s) in this experiment is/are
Match the variable in the experiment with its academic term.
The controlled variable(s) in this experiment is/are
Now, let's test a new hypothesis. If the amount of light changes, then the number of each alien life form will change.
The independent variable(s) in this experiment is/are
The dependent variable(s) in this experiment is/are
The controlled variable(s) in this experiment is/are
How does changing the amount of water affect the aliens?
Which variable was the independent variable in this experiment?
The controlled variable(s) in this experiment:
The dependent variable(s) in this experiment is/are
