Lesson 2/3: Creating a fair test

Last updated 3 months ago

1 question

Note from the author:

A beverage company wants to stop using plastic straws, so the company designs a new lid. The new lid has a much bigger hole than the old lid.
Alex, a scientist at the company, is wondering how this might affect what happens with the liquid inside the cup.

Instructions

A beverage company wants to stop using plastic straws, so the company designs a new lid. The new lid has a much bigger hole than the old lid.
Alex, a scientist at the company, is wondering how this might affect what happens with the liquid inside the cup.

Alex thought about how the liquid in the cup could change. She thought the amount of liquid might change over time. She created the investigation below to find the answer.

Experiment question: Does a lid affect the amount of the liquid in a cup over time?

Procedure: 
Fill 2 cups with the same cold liquid
Put the old lid (small hole) on 1 cup
Put the new lid (large hole ) on 1 cup
Draw a line where the liquid level is on each cup
Wait 30 days
Measure the weight of the liquid

Required

If Alex wants to use the mass of the liquid as her dependent variable, has she created a fair test to find her data? Explain you answer.

If she did create a fair test, explain what steps make this a fair test. Be specific.
If she did not make a fair test, explain what steps should be added or changed to make this a fair test. Be specific.