September 8, 2011

Today’s greeting will be led by BreeyannaDaily News: Confirmation Classes are ok for Saturday school, we have Family Reunion on Friday, have out your agenda and a pencilDo Now: Make one word from all these jumbled letters: o r e n o d wActivity: Smart Goals.

Aim: to setting goals

What’s a SMART Goal?

S   

M   

A   

R   

T   

Intention Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant Time Bound

What is important to you? What do you want to achieve?

Who?What?Why?Where?When?

What will you have achieved? How will you know if you achieved it?How Much?How Often?How Many?

Is your goal achievable?Does it work with your schedule?Do you have the resources you need to succeed?

Is it important to what you want to achieve ultimately?

When?How Often?

      

         

      

         

      

         

September 8, 2011

Homework: Hypothesis 101

Do Now: Partner Check your homework

Notes: Writing a Hypothesis

Aim: to identify inferences and write hypotheses

Writing HypothesesAim: to identify when and how to write hypotheses.

What is a hypothesis?

A tentative statement that proposes a possible explanation to some phenomenon or event

An assumption you make about what you think will happen in your experiment and an explanation or reason for that belief

A useful hypothesis is a testable statement which may include a prediction based on some previous observation

When are hypotheses used?

Key word is testableYou must be performing a test of how two

variables might be related

VARIABLESIndependent Variables (IV) what you are changingDependent Variables (DV) what you are

measuringConstant Variables- what you are keeping the

same

Independent Variables Dependent Variables

How do you write a hypothesis?

Formalized Hypotheses examples:

If skin cancer is related to ultraviolet light, then people with a high exposure to uv light will have a higher frequency of skin cancer.

If leaf color change is related to temperature, then exposing plants to low temperatures will result in changes in leaf color.

Notice that these statements contain the words, if and then. They are necessary in a formalized hypothesis. But not all if-then statements are hypotheses.

For example, "If I play the lottery, then I will get rich." This is a simple prediction. In a formalized hypothesis, a tentative relationship is stated.

For example, if the frequency of winning is related to frequency of buying lottery tickets. "Then" is followed by a prediction of what will happen if you increase or decrease the frequency of buying lottery tickets. If you always ask yourself that if one thing is related to another, then you should be able to test it.

Formalized hypotheses contain two variables. One is "independent" and the other is "dependent." The independent variable is the one you, the "scientist" control and the dependent variable is the one that you observe and/or measure the results. In the statements above the dependent variable is blue and the independent variable is red.

The ultimate value of a formalized hypothesis is it forces us to think about what results we should look for in an experiment.

Hypothesis Do’s and Dont’s:

Do1. Generate several questions first and then

choose the best one. That will be your guiding question.

2. Answer the guiding question with your best educated guess. Try to make your guiding question simple and concise; be specific, such as, “Can Goldfish think?”

3.  Start your hypothesis by stating it in the following manner: 'I believe that' or 'It is my opinion that'; "It was hypothesized that ..” or “It was theorized that…”

4.  Think of the hypothesis in terms of a cause - effect relationship and use the formula, “Because__therefore__since_” For example:  (Because) Mary eats healthy foods and sleeps for 8 hours a night, (therefore) she will live a long life, (since) those who eat well and get enough rest live longer than others.

5.  Or, use the method used in Science: “If__then__because___”

If Mary eats healthy foods and sleeps 8 hours a night, then she will live a long life; because those that eat well and get enough rest live longer than others.

Don’t Don’t get stuck on just one

question - brainstorm several. Don’t make your guiding question

too broad by avoiding words like all, never, and sometimes, such as in, “Can all fish think?” since you can not test all fish out there.

Delete the phrase “I believe” on the final draft as the hypothesis becomes a theory at the end.

Watch out for fragmented sentences – rephrase your statements if necessary to make it a complete sentence.

Remember that your hypothesis needs to be written so you can collect data.