Variables and Constants

Situation 1

Max purchased “super” sand at a toy store and was amazed at the way it acted when it was poured into a glass of water.  She set up an experiment to see how it might differ from beach sand and sandy soil.  She placed a funnel of sand above the beaker.  She poured exactly 25 mL of water into the funnel and measured the amount of water that filtered through into the beaker.

Situation 2

Max noticed that windstorms seemed to follow a drop in temperature during the summer.  He wanted to find out if his observations were accurate.  He decided to collect and analyze data for a few months.

Situation 3

Max’s math teacher gives the class a quiz everyday.  Max wants to improve his grades.  He thinks that he might study better at certain times of the day.  He decides to study math at different times of the day for the next 3 weeks.

Situation 4

Krusty Krabs Breath Mints

Mr. Krabs created a secret ingredient for a breath mint that he thinks will “cure” the bad breath people get from eating crabby patties at the Krusty Krab. He asked 100 customers with a history of bad breath to try his new breath mint. He had fifty customers (Group A) eat a breath mint after they finished eating a crabby patty. The other fifty (Group B) also received a breath mint after they finished the sandwich, however, it was just a regular breath mint and did not have the secret ingredient. Both groups were told that they were getting the breath mint that would cure their bad breath. Two hours after eating the crabby patties, thirty customers in Group A and ten customers in Group B reported having better breath than they normally had after eating crabby patties.

Situation 5

Squidward’s Symphony

Squidward loves playing his clarinet and believes it attracts more jellyfish than any other instrument he has played. In order to test his hypothesis, Squidward played a song on his clarinet for a total of 5 minutes and counted the number of jellyfish he saw in his front yard. He played the song a total of 3 times on his clarinet and repeated the experiment using a flute and a guitar. He also recorded the number of jellyfish he observed when he was not playing an instrument.

Situation 6

Patrick and SpongeBob love to blow bubbles! Patrick found some Super Bubble Soap at Sail-Mart. The ads claim that Super Bubble Soap will produce bubbles that are twice as big as bubbles made with regular bubble soap. Patrick and SpongeBob made up two samples of bubble solution. One sample was made with 5 oz. of Super Bubble Soap and 5 oz. of water, while the other was made with the same amount of water and 5 oz. of regular bubble soap. Patrick and SpongeBob used their favorite bubble wands to blow 10 different bubbles and did their best to measure the diameter of each one.