In our daily lives we often conduct little experiments todetect cause-and-effect connections. If you are interested ingardening for example you might try adding plant food to one bedof flowers but not another and then ask the question: Does the useof plant food (the independent variable) affect the size of theflowers (the dependent variable)? By comparing unfed plants (thecontrol group) to those receiving plant food (the experimentalgroup) you could then find out if plant food is worth using. Thinkof an informal experiment youve conducted or consider anexperiment you would like to conduct.