Reimagine Hypotheses for PBL

A response to the Misunderstood Activity
created by Rachel Boorsma (@Rachel Boorsma)

Number of views: 101

My students have a difficult time understanding the concept of hypotheses and how to hypothesize within a healthcare scenario.

  1. A hypothesis is a testable educated guess that you make based on incomplete information that you have. We make these all the time in our everyday lives! Consider these:
    1. Sports: The Raptors just picked up the star player from last year’s NBA championship-winning team. They probably have a good shot at winning this year’s championship.
      1. I know this player is good. I know he has won a championship before. I know he is on the Raptors.
      2. I don’t know whether the Raptors will win.
      3. If I put these 2 together, I can hypothesize that the Raptors will win.
      4. I can test this by watching the games and seeing who wins the championship this year.
    2. Food: This recipe has yeast in it. It’s probably going to take longer to make because the dough will need to rise.
      1. I know yeast is used to make dough rise. I know letting the dough rise usually takes over an hour. I know that yeasted dough often requires 2 rises.
      2. I don’t know how long this recipe will take to make.
      3. If I put these 2 together, I can hypothesize that this recipe will take over 2 hours to make.
      4. I can test this by reading through the recipe instructions to see how long the recipe will take to make in total.
    3. Zoom: Prof. Rachel suddenly stopped talking in the middle of her sentence and hasn’t moved in 30 seconds. Her internet has probably dropped for a minute, and she’ll either come back on or post an announcement on Canvas.
      1. I know that Prof Rachel values our time. I know that Prof Rachel wants to teach us this content. I know that Prof Rachel has a hard time staying still and quiet for long periods of time.
      2. I don’t know what’s happened to make her freeze like this.
      3. If I put these 2 together, I can hypothesize that her internet has glitched and she is frozen on Zoom.
      4. I can test this by asking (verbally or in the chat) if anyone else sees her as frozen, and by checking Canvas to see if she has posted an announcement.