Indiana Social Studies P.1.3
The Standard
Create testable hypotheses pertaining to the interaction between independent and dependent variables and distinguish between experimental and control groups and how both processes contribute to scientific theories.
2026 Indiana Academic Standards: K-12 Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students predict how changing one factor will affect a result they can measure. They identify the group that receives the change and the group used for comparison. They explain how repeated fair tests can support or challenge a scientific theory.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given a test of paper helicopters, a student names blade length as the independent variable and fall time as the dependent variable. They label the standard design as the control and the longer-blade design as the experimental group. They know one result does not prove a theory.
Common Misconceptions
- Students often mix up the factor changed with the result measured. Some think a control group must receive nothing, rather than serve as a baseline. Others treat one matching result as proof of a theory.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: “A class drops paper helicopters with standard or longer blades and times each fall.” Ask students to write a testable prediction, name both variables and groups, and explain whether one test proves a theory.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Build paper helicopters with 5 cm and 10 cm blades, drop each from the same height, and time their falls.
Ask students to write why changing both blade length and drop height would make the helicopter results hard to interpret.
Give pairs experiment cards to sort under independent variable, dependent variable, control group, or experimental group.
Print a trial summary comparing a new cold medicine with a sugar pill, then have students circle both groups and underline the measured outcome.
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Related Standards
- S.8.7
Discuss theories that attempt to explain collective behavior.
- P.1.11
Locate and analyze primary sources of landmark experiments in psychology and other counter arguments.
- P.1.2
Differentiate between research methods including descriptive, correlational, and experimental methods, decide when to use each, and differentiate between correl...
- P.1.10
Construct a testable hypothesis and apply the principles of research design to an appropriate experiment.
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