Choosing What to Measure

Lab Brief #5

🎯 Your mission

Run the experiment. Find out what really happens.

⚡ The twist

What the body does in one minute is wilder than any cartoon.

What you'll learn

Deciding what to measure is half the investigation. "Is this plant healthy?" cannot be answered directly, but height, leaf count and leaf colour can all be measured — and together they stand in for health.

Key words

indicator
Something measurable that stands in for a quality you cannot measure directly.
quantitative
Expressed as a number rather than a description.

Make a hypothesis first

Guess: how does the body solve this problem?

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Get ready

🧰 What you need

two potted plants
ruler
notebook

⚠️ Safety first

Wash hands after handling soil.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Think about what you just learned: say what "indicator" and "quantitative" mean in your own words before you start.

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Choose three measurable indicators of plant health and record them for two plants over two weeks, one watered and one not. Say which indicator changed first.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Record what actually happened, including anything that did not match what you expected.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Write a conclusion that answers the question this lesson opened with, and state your uncertainty.

Question 1 of 2

An indicator is used when the thing you care about is:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 2

Which of these is a quantitative measurement?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🦠 You have more bacterial cells in your body than human cells.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 2 right.

All lessons

🎯

Next Smart Experiment

We'll pick an experiment that matches exactly how you're thinking right now.

✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: Your own body is doing this thousands of times every second.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Find one thing about your body that's different from a friend's. Wonder why.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “Tell me something you noticed about your own body today.”

🏭Share card

Share this experiment

Send it to a parent who's looking for a 10-minute kitchen science win.

Choosing What to Measure

Next Smart Experiment

Share this experiment

Choosing What to Measure

Done with science? Try something else

Your Cart (0)