Maggie is a member of her school’s environmental club and is interested in recycling. She asks the question, “How does exposure
to the environment affect recyclable plastics?” What best describes why and how Maggie should change her question to make it a better scientific question?
a. The answer to the question leads to a testable hypothesis, so the question should be changed to prevent testing.
b. The question involves giving an opinion about recycling, so it should be changed to rely only on facts.
c. The focus of the question is too broad, so it should be narrowed to a single environmental factor.
d. The results are too uncertain, so the question should be changed to one that has a known outcome.
The best answer is C - you want to test one independent variable (a specific environmental condition). If you are just testing 'the environment', your experiment would need to include all (possibly an unattainable amount of environmental circumstances due to the variety that exists) environmental conditions...there would not be a single testable IV and you would not come to a definite conclusion making your experiment invalid.
