Anne Kolsky    4 posts   Re: Topic 8 DQ 1  Dependent and Independent Variables Defined:   A dependent variable is what you measure in the experiment and what is affected during the experiment. The dependent variable responds to the independent variable. It is called dependent because it “depends” on the independent variable. In a scientific experiment, you cannot have a dependent variable without an independent variable (Helmenstine, 2018).   The PICOT question for the capstone project is, “Do preschool aged children (P) who are given early childhood screenings (I) compared to children who are not screened (C) score higher in assessments related to kindergarten readiness (O) upon entry to kindergarten (T)?” The independent variable is the early childhood screening and the dependent variable is the scores of the kindergarten readiness assessments.   The independent variable for the capstone study is the variable that can be controlled by the person conducting the research. In this case, the early childhood screens are the independent variable because the researcher can either conduct screenings or can do study reviews to determine which subjects have completed screenings. The dependent variable is the scores of all the children entering kindergarten that have been assessessed for kindergarten readiness using a standardized assessment tool. The scores between those who have been screened and those who have not been screened can be analyzed using a statistical comparative analysis to determine the difference by comparing the scores between the two samples. A two-sample t test comparison between the means should be sufficient to compare (CliffsNotes, 2016).  CliffsNotes. (2016). Two sample t test for comparing two means. Retrieved from  https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/statistics/univariate-inferential-tests/two-sample-t-test-  For-comparing-two-means  Helmenstine, T. (2018). What is the difference between independent and dependent variables?  Retrieved from  https://www.thoughtco.com/independent-and-dependent-variables-