Question

the passage below describes an experiment.
image of an air plant displayed on a rock
an air plant displayed on a rock
janet had four air plants on her desk that were not growing. she suspected that they needed more water. her sister recommended soaking them in a bowl of water once a week, while her coworker recommended spraying them with a mist of water daily. janet decided to test both ideas. first, she measured the initial weight of all four air plants. then, for the next two months, she sprayed two of the plants with a mist of water each day and soaked the other two in water once a week. finally, janet measured the weight of the plants again and calculated the change in weight for each.
complete the sentence.
in this experiment, the watering method used was ______________.
option: an independent variable
option: a dependent variable

Explanation:

In an experiment, the independent variable is the factor that is manipulated. Here, Janet changed the watering method (spraying daily or soaking weekly) to observe its effect on plant growth (measured by weight change). The dependent variable depends on the independent variable. So the watering method is the independent variable.

Answer:

an independent variable