Overview
Teaching: 10 min Exercises: 5 minQuestions
What makes a good scientific question or hypothesis?
Objectives
To compose a strong scientific question
To differentiate between questions that describe a distribution, relationship, comparison, or composition
Scientific Question Challenge
Match
Column AwithColumn B.
A B Comparison How was the population of Africa distributed across the continent by country in 2007? Distribution What is the relationship of GDP per capita, life expectancy, and population across the world per country in 2007? Relationship How was the world population distributed among continents in 2007? Composition How has the composition of the world population among continents changed from 1952-2007? Answer
- Distribution: How was the population of Africa distributed across the continent by country in 2007?
- Relationship: What is the relationship of GDP per capita, life expectancy, and population across the world per country in 2007?
- Comparison: How was the world population distributed among continents in 2007?
- Composition: How has the composition of the world population among continents changed from 1952-2007?
Key Points
Strong research questions and hypotheses direct the goals of data collection and analysis. They have clearly defined answers with deliberate investigation.
A well detailed research question can be answered with a good chart.