You want to know if the amount of protein in a female rat’s diet affects the average birth weight of her individual offspring. In a controlled experiment, what would be the dependent (responding) variable?
a) amount of protein in the diet
b) average birth weight of offspring
In a controlled experiment, the dependent (responding) variable is the variable that is being measured or observed as a result of manipulating the independent variable. In this case, the independent variable is the amount of protein in a female rat's diet. The purpose of the experiment is to investigate if this independent variable has an effect on the average birth weight of her individual offspring.
Therefore, the dependent variable in this experiment would be the average birth weight of the offspring. This is the variable that will be measured or observed to determine if it is influenced by the amount of protein in the female rat's diet.
So, the correct answer is b) average birth weight of offspring.