Selection of a problem to study and an initial hypothesis.
Part 1: Selection of a problem to study and an initial hypothesis.
1. Select an issue/problem/topic from one of the physical sciences: physics, chemistry, earth
science, or astronomy.
2. Propose an initial hypothesis related to the issue.
Part 2: Review current research knowledge.
1. Describe how you could perform a review of current research on the subject/issue.
Identify which UMUC Library/database sources could be useful in your research review.
What criteria will you use in the selection of review sources from the web?
2. Do the results of your research review lead you to suspect that your initial hypothesis is
correct, or does it suggest that you should modify your initial hypothesis in some way? If
so, restate or revise. Are there gaps in the current research that further
research/experimentation/observation might fill and shed light on your hypothesis?
Part 3: Write a research plan based on the results of parts 1 and 2 above.
1. Suggest a plan to test your hypothesis (initial or revised). What data will you study? How
and where will you gather it? What equipment or resources will be needed? How much
time will be needed to gather the data? Are there any confounding issues that might
affect/influence the quality of your data? If so, discuss how might you mitigate these
unwanted effects/influences? Justify all of your statements.
2. Provide a list of UMUC sources that could be used to review this issue. Include a citation
of one article you read.
3. Provide a list of web sources that could be used to review this issue. Discuss why these
web sources would be trusted sources of information on the issue. Include a citation of
one site you reviewed.
4. Suggest how your data would be presented (chart, graph, or table).