Plan a fair experiment

Grade 6 Science Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

1. 1.

   Groups, warm: 1 spoon, stirred, cold: 3 spoons, not stirred. Esme's plan: warm circle water gets 1 spoon of sugar, cold circle water gets 3 spoons, and only the warm glass is stirred. Which fix makes it fair?

   • Use warm water in both glasses
   • Use 1 spoon in each and stir both the same way
   • Keep the plan, since it already compares temperatures
   • Use 3 spoons in each, but stir just the warm glass
2. 2.

   Groups, 1 soaked seed. Jun's plan: soak 1 seed overnight, plant it, and count the days until it sprouts. What is the best fix?

   • Soak the 1 seed for longer
   • Soak 2 seeds instead of 1
   • Plant the soaked seed in a sunnier spot
   • Soak 10 seeds, keep 10 dry, and plant all alike
3. 3.

   Groups, light: 1 throw outdoors, heavy: 1 throw indoors. Kira's plan: throw a light paper plane once outdoors and a heavy one once indoors, then compare distances. What is the best fix?

   • Add a third plane with a new wing shape
   • Throw the heavy plane harder than the light one
   • Throw both indoors, several times each
   • Throw both outdoors, once each
4. 4.

   Table, Trials, with columns Trial 1, Trial 2, Trial 3. Luz's friend says one trial is enough if you are careful. Which response is best?

   • Agree: more trials would change the variables
   • Agree: careful work has no odd results
   • Disagree: each trial needs its own new hypothesis
   • Disagree: repeat trials catch odd results
5. 5.

   "If ..., then ...". Investigation card: hypothesis, If ..., then .... Noah's friend says a hypothesis is just a guess, so any statement works. Which response is best?

   • Disagree: it is a testable prediction about two variables
   • Agree: any guess counts as a hypothesis
   • Agree: a hypothesis does not need testing
   • Disagree: a hypothesis must be shown to be true before testing
6. 6.

   Four plan cards beside a ball and a meter stick. Pia wants to know whether drop height changes bounce height. Which plan is best?

   • Drop the ball once from each height
   • Drop from 3 heights onto 3 different floors
   • Drop 3 different balls from one height
   • Drop the same ball from 3 heights, 3 times each, same floor
7. 7.

   What is changed, magnets in stack: 1, 2, 3; what is measured, blank. Ren tests whether stacking more magnets changes how many paper clips they pick up. What should Ren record?

   • Clips picked up, with a different clip size for each stack
   • The paper clips picked up on 1 trial
   • The color of each magnet
   • Magnets in the stack and clips picked up, for 3 trials
8. 8.

   Four blank table headers. Which results table fits Tala's plant-and-light test?

   • Light level, heights of 3 plants, average height
   • Plant name and favorite color
   • Light level and height, with a different soil in each row
   • Light level and the height of 1 plant
9. 9.

   Note: average of 3 trials. Sugar dissolved in 40 seconds on average in warm circle water and 95 seconds in cold. Which conclusion fits Zee's data?

   • Sugar dissolved faster in the warm water in this test
   • Warm water dissolves anything faster
   • Warm water is the nicer kind of water
   • Sugar dissolved faster in the cold water in this one test
10. 10.

    Note: 10 seeds per group. Bo's hypothesis: if seeds are soaked, they will sprout sooner. Ten seeds were in each group. What do the data say?

    • They support it: soaked seeds sprouted 2 days sooner
    • The data do not support it; dry seeds sprouted first
    • The data show soaked seeds grow into bigger plants
    • Seeds sprout because they wish to grow