This is probably so simple that I am overlooking it. I am having a problem with hypotheses and predictions. I have read multiple definitions of the 2 and have went through various examples and I feel silly that I am unsure how to identify a hypothesis and a prediction. Here is my question:

Which part of this exercise is the hypothesis and which part is the prediction.

 

And here is the excercise:

My cheek cells will be ________ (larger/smaller/same size) compared to grasshopper testis cells. The reason I think this is because _________.

 

I was thinking that the size of the cheek cells would be the hypothesis and the because part would be the prediction.... however, every example of a hypothesis and prediction I have reviewed is in an entirely different format. I understand that a hypothesis is an educated answer to a question. The questions was : are human cells bigger or smaller than the cells of other animals?

 

Sorry if this has an obvious answer. I think I am stressing it to much. It also asks:

based on your results, what might your revised hypothesis be? This is the part that confuses me. Why would the teacher care what the revised hypothesis is if it is as simple as changing an answer from larger to smaller, etc. It is this part of the question that makes me think I've got it all wrong.

 

Thanks for any help.

It might help to think of it this way... A hypothesis tends to be more of a proposal or idea-based explanation of something. A prediction tends to be a specific statement about specific end states... "I will have X amount after Y seconds," for example.

 

Prediction = Specific outcome

Hypothesis = Proposed reason for outcome.

 

 

Does that help? After reading my post, what do YOU think the answer is?

The hypothesis is like a theory, only one that has not yet been tested. It is a more general principle, allowing you to make predictions. A prediction tells you beforehand what an observation or the result of a specific experiment must be if your hypothesis is true. Making a correct prediction does not mean the hypothesis is right, but an incorrect prediction is enough to disprove it. If the hypothesis makes a wrong prediction, it must either be discarded or modified in such a way as to account for the new data.

Okay. In that case if a prediction is a specific outcome, I would think that the size of my cheek cells would be the prediction and the other part would be the hypothesis. I can't come up with a good hypothesis however and that might be adding to my confusion of the whole thing. This is my first bio lab so I haven't actually learned any reasons why cells of a certain species may vary from another species. Any help on that would be great as well.

 

Anyway, am I correct on the prediction/hypothesis distinctions now?

Your hypothesis can be anything that will give that prediction. It doesn't have to be particularly clever. Eg you could say that your cells will be bigger cause smarter things have bigger cells (which almost certainly isn't true) and humans are smarter than grasshoppers.

Well, my the hypothesis I wrote down was definitely silly but he also asked "Based on your results, what might your revised hypothesis be?" and All I really noticed in the results was the difference in cell shape... and I'm not really sure how to produce a new and better hypothesis out of those results.

 

Thanks so much for giving a clear answer on the distinction between hypotheses/prediction.

You could change your hypothesis to be about epithelial cells vs whatever type of cell grasshopper testis are.