Scientists make hypotheses (an educated guess) in scientific investigations that can be tested for additional information and observations. Predictions are expected outcomes of a test assuming the hypothesis is correct, scientists use and test their predictions to gather data, observations, measurements,etc. Lastly, scientists use experiments as a procedure to test a hypotheses and confirm it as true or false.
An independent variable is a factor that is varied and can be altered during an experiment. The dependent variable is the measured variable