Description
What our Identify Independent/Dependent Variables lesson plan includes
Lesson Objectives and Overview: Identify Independent/Dependent Variables introduces students to the terminology used in math equations and science experiments. At the end of this lesson, students will be able to identify independent and dependent variables. This lesson is for students in 6th grade.
Classroom Procedure
Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the yellow box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand.
Options for Lesson
Included with this lesson is an “Options for Lesson” section that lists a number of suggestions for activities to add to the lesson or substitutions for the ones already in the lesson. One optional addition to this lesson is to have your students research a subject area that they are interested in and find several journal articles where they can identify the independent and dependent variables. You can also have your students pick a location/setting and come up with as many hypotheses as they can in a group.
Teacher Notes
The teacher notes page includes a paragraph with additional guidelines and things to think about as you begin to plan your lesson. This page also includes lines that you can use to add your own notes as you’re preparing for this lesson.
IDENTIFY INDEPENDENT/DEPENDENT VARIABLES LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
Identify Independent and Dependent Variables
The Identify Independent/Dependent Variables lesson plan includes one content page. We use independent and dependent variables in subjects like math and science to show the relationship between two variables. When a hypothesis or mathematical function has two variables, one of those variables will rely on the other. Therefore, one of them will change in response to the other.
Independent variables are variables (often denoted as x) whose variation does not depend on another variable. Dependent variables are variable (often denoted as y) whose variation and value does depend on that of another. Essentially, x leads to or causes a change in y.
It’s helpful to look at some real-world examples to understand how to find the independent and dependent variables. For example, say Sally enters the school science fair with an experiment about plants. She hypothesizes that adding fertilizer makes plants grow bigger because they add extra nutrients to the plant. To determine the independent and dependent variables, you can ask yourself whether fertilizer causes a change in growth or growth causes a change in fertilizer. Sally thinks that the fertilizer (x) causes a change in growth (y). Therefore, the independent variable (x) is the fertilizer, and the dependent variable (y) is the growth.
For another example, ask yourself whether an early bedtime leads to better concentration or better concentration leads to an early bedtime. Changing your bedtime to be earlier leads to better concentration, so the independent variable (x) is the change in bedtime and the dependent variable (y) is better concentration.
It’s important to be able to identify independent and dependent variables. Understanding these concepts will help you better understand what someone is trying to prove with an experiment. You’ll be able to understand the hypothesis!
IDENTIFY INDEPENDENT/DEPENDENT VARIABLES LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Identify Independent/Dependent Variables lesson plan includes four worksheets: an activity worksheet, a practice worksheet, a homework assignment, and a quiz. You can refer to the guide on the classroom procedure page to determine when to hand out each worksheet.
CUT OUTS ACTIVITY WORKSHEET
For the activity worksheet, students will cut out the statements printed on the worksheet and place them together. They will match them to complete the sentence “ _____________ depends upon ______________” to determine the independent and dependent variable.
VARIABLE SCENARIOS PRACTICE WORKSHEET
The practice worksheet asks students to identify the independent and the dependent variable in each scenario.
IDENTIFY INDEPENDENT/DEPENDENT VARIABLES HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
For the homework assignment, students will identify the independent and dependent for each scenario. They will also write two statements and determine which are the independent and dependent variables.
QUIZ
This lesson also includes a quiz that you can use to test students’ understanding of the lesson material. For the quiz, students will fill in the table on the worksheet by identifying the independent and dependent variables for each scenario.
Worksheet Answer Keys
This lesson plan includes answer keys for the activity worksheet, the practice worksheet, the homework assignment, and the quiz. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits these pages. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.
