Tool for Success—Writing a Hypothesis

    In this Tool for Success you will learn how to write and test a scientific hypothesis. Scientists develop hypotheses after they observe something new or look at someone else’s experiment and come up with a new question. The hypothesis is a formalized question that is needed to design an experiment to test the hypothesis.

    Step 1. Formulating a Hypothesis

    Formulating a hypothesis follows set guidelines. A scientific hypothesis must:

    • explain, account for, and/or predict a phenomenon
    • answer questions about how, why, and/or when the phenomenon occurs
    • be clear and logical
    • be supported or disproved

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