Crafting Effective Research Questions and Hypotheses for Scientific Inquiry

1. Developing A Research Question and Hypothesis

2. Research question How to create a good research question

3. A research question guides and centers your research • It should be clear and focused • It should ideally be something that you are interested in or care about

4. How do you formulate a good research question? • Choose a general topic of interest • Conduct preliminary research on this topic in current periodicals and journals to see what research has already been done • This will help determine what kinds of questions the topic generates • Once you have conducted preliminary research, consider: • Who is the audience? • Is its an academic essay, or will it be read by a more general public? • Start asking open-ended “How?” “What?” and “Why?” questions • Then evaluate the possible responses to those questions

5. Checklist of Potential Research Questions • Is the research question something I/others care about? Is it arguable? • Is the research question a new spin on an old idea, or does it solve a problem? • Is it too broad or too narrow? • Is the research question researchable within the given time frame and location? • What information is needed?

7. Independent and dependent variables • A variable is an object, event, idea, feeling, time period, or any other type of category you are trying to measure • There are two types of variables, independent and dependent • An independent variable stands alone and is not changed by other variables you are trying to measure • When looking for the relationship between variables, you are trying to see if the independent variable causes some kind of change in other variables, or dependent variables • A dependent variable is a variable that depends on other factors • Example: a test score could depend on how much you studied, how much sleep you got the night before the test, or even how hungry you were when you took the test • When looking for the relationship between variables, you are trying to find out what makes the dependent variable change the way it does • The independent variable causes a change in the dependent variable and it is not possible that the dependent variable could cause a change in the independent variable

8. hypothesis How to create a good scientific answer to the question

9. A strong hypothesis should meet three fundamental criteria • Needs to state the hypothesis in proper phrasing (i.e. grammar, punctuation • Needs to clearly establish the relationship between the variables • Needs to establish that said relationship is scientifically provable • Always make sure the hypothesis being tested matches your project and the preliminary research conducted • Remember, a hypothesis is not a question, but a statement

11. Examples of a hypothesis • Water levels affect the amount of lice suffered by rainbow trout • Good general statement, but it does not guide how to design the experiment or research • Rainbow trout suffer more lice when water levels are low • Provides some directionality, but statement is still not testable • Rainbow trout suffer more lice in low water conditions because there is less oxygen in the water • Statement is testable; It established variables to see if there is a correlation between water levels and the number of lice on fish