An experiment was designed to determine the effect of temperature on the growth rate of phasmids—insects more commonly known as "walking sticks." five walking sticks were grown in four different incubators, set at variable temperatures for two weeks. which component of the experiment is the dependent variable?
a.) growth of walking sticks
b.) number of walking sticks per incubator
c.) temperature of incubators
d.) amount of time data are collected
e.) species of walking sticks

a) Growth of walking sticks.

Explanation:

An independent variable is a characteristic that the researcher can change. In this experiment, the independent variable would be temperature.

A dependent variable, on the other hand, is the variable that you cannot change, but instead, it changes or depends on the independent variable. In this case, the dependent variable would be the growth of the walking sticks.

Why? Because the growth of these insects will depend on the temperature of each incubator.

All of the other options can be changed by the researcher, but what will happen -the result- when you change them will be the growth of the animals.

the principles and empirical processes of discovery and demonstration considered characteristic of or necessary for scientific investigation, generally involving the observation of phenomena, the formulation of a hypothesis concerning the phenomena, experimentation to test the hypothesis, and development of a conclusion that confirms, rejects, or modifies the hypothesis.