Hypothesis Based Research and Meta-Analysis Research Plan

**When working through this document, complete ALL Action Steps.  Keep all underlined bold headings. Delete all instructions after you complete each section.**

Title

Name(s): 

Grade: 

School: 

County: 

Working Title 

Your title should identify your topic and general plan. (It doesn’t have to be your final title.)

Action Step:

1. Write your title.

Statement of Problem/Question 

Action Step:

1. State your problem or question.

Hypothesis  

A good hypothesis includes a prediction of the result and reason(s) why the result is expected.  Make sure your hypothesis is something you can test!  

Action Step:

1. Write your hypothesis using the format below:

If _(this is done/independent variable)_ then __(this will happen/dependent variable)_ because __(what is the scientific reasoning behind your prediction)__.

Background Research 

Think of the background research section as if you were writing a report on your subject. Give enough relevant information and organize it logically so that when the audience reads your  hypothesis at the end of the section, they’ll think, “Oh, that makes sense”. 

Action Steps:

4. Write up to 5 pages, double-spaced.  
5. Use at least 5 references in APA or MLA-style formatting for in-text citations and references. 
6. Cite sources of any photos, diagrams, tables or graphs used.  
7. Pay attention to the scientific journal articles in your topic area to see how they’re written.  

1st paragraph:

This is the introduction 

Action Steps:

1. Explain why your research question or problem is important. Find statistics to support your answer.

Example: To feed the growing population on the planet and to provide food security for everyone in both developing and developed nations, the diets of the future will have to include biofortified foods. Biofortification increases the nutritional value of food crops by increasing the vitamins or minerals in the food (Ofori et al. 2022). This can be achieved by genetic engineering, biotechnology, conventional plant breeding, and agricultural practices like providing beneficial supplements in livestock feed. Biofortified foods, also called functional foods, are a sustainable way to provide better nutrition to the world’s population. Biofortifying eggs would be a great way to provide a good source of vitamins and phytochemicals worldwide, since eggs are consumed all over the world. A goal of the biofortification of eggs is to increase their carotenoid content (Dansou et al. 2023). A specific example of an important nutrient deficiency that can be prevented with biofortified foods is vitamin A deficiency. Vitamin A is essential for vision, skin, and immune health. Over 124 million children worldwide suffer from vitamin A deficiency, and it is the leading cause of childhood blindness. It is estimated that improving vitamin A supplementation and availability could prevent 250,000–500,000 deaths annually among children under age 5 (Yue et al. 2022). Eggs that are biofortified with provitamin A carotenoids, such as β-carotene, could improve the lives of millions of people. 

Middle paragraph: 

This is the bulk of your background research. Try to set it up logically to lead your  reader to the hypothesis while giving them enough information to understand your study. Be sure to tie the different pieces together to make a single story.

 

Action Steps:

Last paragraph: 

Close the research section by:

Action Steps:

3. Write a transition sentence that connects your background research to your hypothesis. 
4. Restate your hypothesis. 
5. Explain how your experimental design will address your problem or question. 

Example: The objective of this research was to determine if a feed supplement including a high carotene-containing fruit in combination with high xanthophyll-containing petals could be used to produce a more nutritious quail egg that contains higher levels of both provitamin A (β-carotene and β-cryptoxanthin) and non-provitamin A (lutein and zeaxanthin) carotenoids important for human health and vision without having a negative effect on egg production efficiency. Hypothesis 1: Feed supplements containing a combination of petals with high xanthophylls and orange fruits with high carotenes will result in a more nutritious egg with higher concentrations of provitamin A and non-provitamin A carotenoids in the yolks. Hypothesis 2: Feed supplementation at 5-10% (by weight) of dried petals and/or fruits will not have a negative impact on egg production efficiency as determined by egg weights and feed conversion ratio. 

Methods and Materials

It is very important to think through the design of your experiment by listing the materials and procedure so you could give someone else this information and he/she could replicate your experiment.  You should also consider what data you will collect and how you plan to analyze the data.

Action Step:

1. Explain how you will design your experiment to test your hypothesis. Include your independent variable, dependent variable, and controls.

Materials:

Action Step:

3. List of all of the materials and equipment needed to conduct your experiment. 
4. Explain how the materials will be prepared for the experiment.
5. Optional: Identify the brand of the materials you used.

Procedure:

Action Step:

2. List the step-by-step procedure for conducting your experiment
3. Identify any potential risks and safety precautions needed.

Data Collection and Analysis:

Action Step:

1. Explain how you will collect your data, including what measurements will be made and what calculations will be performed. 
2. State any statistical tests you will use to analyze your data. 
3. Describe the number of trials you plan to run and the sample size you anticipate using.  Always state the number of trials as (N = number). 

*Stop and think: What results would I need to get to support my hypothesis→ could I get those results from the experiment as I have designed it?*  

References 

Action Step:

1. Use APA or MLA-style formatting for your reference list and in-text citations. 
   

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

Examples: 

Dansou DM, Zhang H, Yu Y, Wang H, Tang C, Zhao Q, Qin Y, Zhang J. 2023. Carotenoid enrichment in eggs: From biochemistry perspective. Animal Nutrition. 14:315-333. doi.org/10.1016/j.aninu.2023.05.012 

Ofori KF, Antoniello S, English MM, Aryee ANA. 2022. Improving nutrition through biofortification-A systematic review. Frontiers in Nutrition. 9(9):1043655. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.1043655.

Yue T, Zhang Q, Li G, Qin H. 2022. Global burden of nutritional deficiencies among children under 5 years of age from 2010 to 2019. Nutrients. 2022; 14(13):2685. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14132685