Control and Experimental Groups

Control and Experimental Groups Worksheet (Grade 6 Science, TEKS 6.1B)

Show grade 6 students how scientists set up a fair test with a control group and an experimental group. The reading follows Jordan, who tests whether plant food makes bean plants grow taller.

What's Inside

• A short reading on control groups and experimental groups
• One clear experiment with bean plants, plant food, and plain water
• Activity 1: Students read a data table of average plant heights and circle the best answers
• Activity 2: Three true or false sentences about the experiment
• A visual answer key with answers marked in red

How Teachers Use It

Use it to teach experimental design, before students run their own plant experiment, or as data reading practice. Every term is taught on the page, so no prior knowledge is needed. The sheet takes about 10 minutes, works for independent work, partners, or homework, and prints clearly in black and white.

This worksheet is part of the Reading in Science series for grade 6. It supports TEKS 6.1B: use scientific practices to plan and conduct descriptive, comparative, and experimental investigations and use engineering practices to design solutions to problems. Pair it with the other sheets in the series to build a full unit on scientific and engineering practices, one skill at a time.

Why It Works

Each sheet teaches one or two new terms in plain words first, then asks students to use only what the page taught. Activities stay at the sort, circle, and match level, so students build confidence while the answer key gives teachers the reasoning they need.