Long-term Project Hypothesis

Biology

In the next few weeks, you will begin setting up your long-term projects and collecting data. Prior to doing that, you should develop a hypothesis – a research-based, educated predicted answer to your question. Since all of you should have phrased your questions in the form “How does _____ affect ______?”, your hypothesis should be written in the form of an answer to that specific question. For example, if your question is “how does wind speed affect plant growth?” your hypothesis might state “we predict that plant growth will be higher in places where the wind is slower.”

In order to write your hypothesis, you and your partner should start by doing some research. In other words, you should try to find some information that leads you to make a certain prediction – you should not simply make a “guess” about what the answer to your question will be. In order to create a hypothesis, you and your partner should follow these steps:

1. Each of you should use the internet to find one website that gives you a “hint” that might help you predict the answer to your question.

2. After reading the information on the websites you found, discuss with your partner what you predict the answer to your question will be, and why the websites you found led you to that prediction. (If the website you or your partner looked at didn’t help you make a prediction, then find a new website!)

3. Write your hypothesis in this format (you can copy, paste, and edit from this document if it’s helpful):

“We predict that” + your prediction + “for the following reasons:” + reason #1 from one website with an in-text citation* + reason #2 from the other website with an in-text citation*.

For the example question above, the hypothesis might look like this:

“We predict that plant growth will be higher in places where the wind is slower for the following reasons: 1) plants in people’s yards grow better when they are protected from the wind (“Growing Landscape Plants” 1998) and 2) high wind speed can remove needed moisture from plant leaves (Alexander 2004).”

4. Create a list of references in proper format** for each of the websites you looked at.

5. E-mail your hypothesis to dan.bregar@corvallis.k12.or.us with the subject line “per X your name your partner’s name hypothesis”

Help for in-text citations and your list of references:

* If you know the author of the web site, your in-text citation should look like this:

(Bregar 2003)

If you don’t know the author, use the title in quotation marks (just use a little bit with an ellipsis if it’s long):

(“Arsenic and environmental…” 2001)

If you don’t know the year, leave it off:

(“Health effects of…”)

Here is an example of how an in-text citation would be used in a paper:

Arsenic is sometimes found in soils that developed through volcanic activity (“Arsenic and environmental” 2001).

** Here is a link to Citation Maker, which you can use to make your list of references: http://www.oslis.org/APACitations/.