Virginia SOL 6.1.a.ii

Science6th GradeScientific and Engineering Practices

The Standard

develop hypotheses and identify independent and dependent variables

Virginia Standards of Learning for Science · The student will demonstrate an understanding of scientific and engineering practices by

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students turn a testable question into a hypothesis that predicts how one factor will affect another. They identify the factor changed on purpose and the result measured.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students write a clear if-then-because hypothesis for a fair test. They correctly label the independent and dependent variables and keep other conditions the same.
Common Misconceptions: Students may label the measured result as the independent variable or list controlled conditions as dependent variables. They may also write a guess that cannot be tested or measured.
How to Assess It: Give students this prompt: “How does ramp height affect the distance a toy car travels?” Ask them to write a hypothesis and label both variables.

Lesson moves

Change the wing length on paper helicopters, measure fall time, then write a hypothesis and identify both variables.
Discuss this prompt: How could we test whether water temperature affects how quickly sugar dissolves?
Play a variable sort game using experiment cards labeled changed, measured, or kept the same.
Plan a test of how hours of sunlight affect the growth of bean plants in a school garden.

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