As a class, do this exercise on formulating hypotheses with an independent and dependent variable:

Each person writes on a slip of paper the name of a variable that could be used to characterize college students, for example, eye color, major, gender, location of home. Pairs of students draw two slips and try to state a plausible hypothesis linking the two variables with one as the IV (predictor) and one as the DV (outcome). Then repeat the exercise using variables that characterize colleges or universities rather than individual students. Some of these place variables might be based on the individual variables (for example, percentage of female enrollment), but others might pertain only to the place or organization (i.e., they will be at the level of the organization or place and not at the level of the individual). Examples of data at the organizational level would be the number of students or annual tuition.