How Do I Write A Hypothesis For A Science Fair Project

One of the most important components of a science fair project is the hypothesis. The hypothesis is the foundation of the experiment and the reason for completing the project. If this is your first year working on a science fair project then these steps will help you to turn your project idea into a hypothesis.

Step #1 Come Up With a Topic or Project Idea

Before you can create a hypothesis you need to select a topic for your project. The topic will be a general subject area that you are interested in. For example, you can select computers, robotics, electricity, physics or other broad topics.

Step #2 Conduct Research and Narrow Your Topic

You cannot build a project if all you have is a broad topic. You need to narrow down the topic to a very specific concept, issue or problem. The best way to do this is to conduct background research on your broad topic. This research will help you to find interesting subtopics that are related to your broad topic.

Step #3 Ask a Question About Your Subtopic

The next step is to ask questions about your subtopic that you would like to answer. The questions can relate to anything from how a reaction occurs, what influences the results or how something can be improved. Write down your questions in a list and select the one question that you are most interested in.

Step #4 Make a Prediction

Step four is to make a prediction about the answer to your question. For example, if your question is how can solar energy be produced to meet the power needs of my community? then your prediction may be that the different circuit designs produce different outputs of power from the same inputs of solar energy.

Step #5 Make Sure Your Hypothesis Is Testable

The final step is to make sure your hypothesis is testable, otherwise it is not going to do you much good. To be testable, at least by you, it will need to have an independent variable that can be manipulated and a dependent variable that can be measured.

For example, in the above hypothesis the independent variable is the type of circuit design used and the dependent variable is the output of power. The circuit design can be manipulated by changing its set-up from a parallel circuit to a serial circuit. The power output can then be measured in Watts.