Your hypothesis is a guess of how things work based on your new knowledge you acquired during your background research. You are going to test this guess so make sure your hypothesis is a
testable one.
When you do your test (experiment) you will need to
have all conditions exactly the same except for ONE. If too many things are changing during an experiment, there is no way to evaluate what is happening with any certainty. The things that can change are called
variables. You will have one variable you consciously change while you do your experiment (
Independent) and a variable you observe or measure during your experiment (
dependent).
Imagine you are wanting to know if yeast is necessary to rise bread. You could keep all of your ingredients, mixing times, baking pans, and baking temperatures all the same except the yeast. One batch with yeast one without yeast. So Yeast is your independent variable. All others are your dependent variables. Now, after your bread comes out of the oven and cools you can measure the height of your bread loaves. This height is your dependent variable and is the data you will present on your project board. Cool, huh?
Please go to the
Worksheet to complete and print the blank forms to determine your variables and write your hypothesis. Go to
http://sciencebuddies.com/science-fair-projects/project_guide_index.shtml?From=Tab. and go down to the secion on "
Constructing a Hypothesis". Please come to the clinic T 10:30-12:30 if you need help.