Soil research has shown that soil profiles are influenced by five separate, yet interacting, factors: parent material, climate, topography, organisms, and time. Soil scientists call these the factors of soil formation
By performing controlled experiment that are tested by gathering more data based on observations
I can’t give you a specific answer because I’m not sure what your lab is. However, an independent variable is the variable that is changed, the dependent variable is the variable that is affected by the change, and the constant variables are those which remain the same throughout the entire experiment.
It's controlled by the Hypothalamus.