An educational researcher is interested in the relationship between students' participation in two after school programs and academic achievement. She states the following hypothesis in the description of her study:

Children who participate in an after school program that emphasizes critical thinking skills will score higher on measures of academic achievement and self esteem than students who participate in a program that emphasizes rote memorization.

What are the variables in this study? What would be good names for the variables? Identify the independent variable(s) and dependent variable(s). Describe how each variable varies (i.e., whether the variable is categorical or continuous). Provide justification for why each variable varies the way you describe?