Sara and Juan conducted an experiment to test which soil would be best for growing plants. They used all three types of soil seen in the jar: sand, silt, and clay. They also made a mixture of soils using equal parts of sand, silt, and clay. The planted bean seeds in four pots and placed the pots in the sunlight. they watered the pots every day and tracked the seed germination and plant growth. Which of these is a control of the experiment?
In an experiment, a control group is a group or condition that is kept unchanged or unaffected by any experimental variables. Its purpose is to provide a baseline against which the other groups or conditions can be compared.
In the given scenario, the control group would be the soil type that is not manipulated or changed. Since Sara and Juan conducted an experiment to test which soil type is best for growing plants, the control group would be a pot containing only one type of soil.
Based on the information provided, it can be assumed that one of the pots contained only sand, another contained only silt, and another contained only clay. Therefore, the control group would be the pot that contained only one of these soil types (either sand, silt, or clay) without any mixture or combination.