TrexlerMiddle School

Hypothesis Development

There are many ways in which your hypothesis can be developed. The best way to develop your hypothesis is through research. By researching your topic and question, you can gather useful information about your project and determine exactly which direction you want to take your project.

Regarding Plagiarism: As you research keep in mind that you will need to gather information for your Works Cited page. This page must be provided with your research paper. Any words or thoughts taken from another author must be properly cited. To do this for your research draft paper, you must list at least the following items on your Works Cited page (if you know how to properly cite information, you may do so in place of the below):

1. Author

2. Title of article/webpage

3. Title of book, article, newspaper, website, or other work where your information was found

4. Page number where your information was found

5. Date (as specific as possible) the work was published

6. URL, if website

Remember! A hypothesis is NOT an educated guess. It is an educated prediction backed up by research. When writing a hypothesis, you need to use your topic and question to direct the research you conduct. When using Google or another search engine on the internet, you can literally type in the question you asked in order to effectively find the best information possible. If the question doesn't work, then research just the main idea listed in your topic. Get your information from scientific websites such as NASA, Smithsonian, National Geographic, and NOAA. Don't rely on the first site to be the best. Wikipedia, How To, and AskAbout.com are okay to start your research. Use these sites to get to the more reputable sites. They should have a list of resources at the bottom of their articles that you can then go to for better sources.

After you have researched and found enough information to answer your question then you are ready to write your hypothesis. You can state your hypothesis as an If-then statement to help you get it right. Follow this format: If (something happens), then (something else will happen as a result) because (state a fact from the research). 

For example:

If your topic is Solar Energy and you have researched how the angle of the sun effects the amount of heat energy transferred you may develop a question that looks something like this:

Question:

Will a solar oven be more efficient at heating water in early morning, mid day or late afternoon?

Hypothesis:

If a solar oven is used during mid day (12:00pm-2:00pm) then it will heat water more efficiently because the sun's rays are most direct on the earth's surface at that time of the day.