making a hypothesis lesson

The Scientific Method Lesson Plan: Developing Hypotheses

Submitted by: charlie conway.

This is a lesson plan designed to be incorporated into a elementary or middle school general science class. Using BrainPOP and its resources, students will be introduced (or further exposed) to the steps necessary to undertake scientific experimentation leading (perhaps) to a Science Fair project. The Scientific Method is a core structure in learning about scientific inquiry, and although there are many variations of this set of procedures, they all usually have similar components. This lesson should take 45-60 minutes, with opportunities for extending the lesson further.

Students will:

• Students will use BrainPOP features to build their understandings of the Scientific Method.
• Students will learn how to identify and write effective hypotheses.
• Students will use game play to write an appropriate hypothesis for an experiment.
• Students will identify and utilize the tools necessary to design a scientific investigation.
• Laptops/Computers
• Interactive White Board
• Pencil/Paper
• Class set of photocopies of the Scientific Method Flow Chart
• BrainPOP accounts (optional)

Vocabulary:

Preparation:.

These procedures may be modified according to the needs/resources of each teacher & class. For example, you may decide to do the quiz with pencil/paper, or do the quiz as a class.

Lesson Procedure:

• Ask the students how scientists answer questions and solve problems. Take a few minutes to explore students' prior knowledge with a short discussion.
• Tell the class that you're going to watch a BrainPOP movie about answering a scientific question about plant growth.
• Show the BrainPOP movie on the Scientific Method two times. The first time, students should just watch and listen. The second time they should take notes. Pause the movie at critical STOP points.
• Students should log on to their individual student accounts and take the Scientific Method Quiz to give the teacher some immediate feedback. (This can also be done as a pre-assessment, or at the very end of the lesson). NOTE: If you choose to, you can give a pencil/paper quiz also; students who work best with electronic media can be given accommodations). If you don't have access to individual student logins via MyBrainPOP (a school subscription), students can take the Review Quiz or paper quiz instead.
• Discuss the main points from the movie: a. Write the definition of the scientific method: the procedure scientists use to help explain why things happen. b. Make a list on the board of the steps mentioned as part of the scientific method: problem, fact finding, observation, inference, hypothesis, experiment, conclusions. c. Tell students that there are various versions of the scientific method that they may see, but they are all basically the same.
• Hand out the Scientific Method Flow Chart . Introduce the "If...then...because..." format for writing hypotheses. Give the students 10 minutes to complete the sheet with their group. They may use their notes from the movie to help them, and/or work collaboratively with other students.
• Discuss some of the student responses in class. Focus on the hypotheses, and explain that a good hypothesis is a testable explanation of the problem. For example, a good hypothesis to the third problem would be, "If I move farther away from the microwave oven, then the cell phone signal will improve because I am further away from the source of interference." Show how this is a TESTABLE hypothesis that can lead to a scientific experiment.
• Introduce the students to the Pavlov’s Dog game in GameUP. Allow time for the kids to explore the game without telling them why they are playing it.
• After 10-15 minutes, have the students take a break from playing, and have a short discussion about the game. Ask if anyone was able to complete the task successfully, and have them share how they got the "diploma." If time allows, show the students how to complete the task so that they all understand that the dog has been conditioned to respond to a stimulus (noise before food has been introduced).
• Have the students write a hypothesis that Pavlov may have written before he started his experiment. Students can either do this with pencil/paper, or the teacher may create a BrainPOP quiz and have students submit their hypothesis electronically. This may be used as a part of the assessment.
• Choose some sample responses from the students, highlighting the hypotheses that are TESTABLE, and not just guesses or predictions.

If this lesson is an introduction to allowing students to plan and carry out their own experiments, then all that follows is naturally an extension to the lesson.

Other, shorter extensions are easy to develop as well.

Extension Activities:

• BrainPOP Jr. (K-3)
• BrainPOP ELL
• BrainPOP Science
• BrainPOP Español
• BrainPOP Français
• Set Up Accounts
• Single Sign-on
• Manage Subscription
• Quick Tours
• About BrainPOP

• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Trademarks & Copyrights

SciGen Teacher Dashboard

Exploring a Hypothesis

Reaction Times in Sports

Constructing a Hypothesis

Writing a Procedure

Reaction Ruler

Duration: Approximately 50 minutes

Students learn the essential elements of a scientific hypothesis and learn to identify whether or not a statement contains these essential elements. Additionally, students learn to write a detailed procedure for a science experiment.

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

Students understand the essential components of a hypothesis.

Teacher Tune-up

• What is a hypothesis and why is it so tricky to teach?

Teaching Notes

ACTIVITY OVERVIEW

Introducing the concept of hypothesis (10 minutes)

Working with examples as a class (20 minutes)

Working with examples individually or in groups (20 minutes)

Paraphrase :

When we construct a scientific hypothesis, we include:

• a view that states what we think is true and
• a reason or cause that we can test with a measurement.

Both examples include two statements from the script of the scene about reaction times in baseball.

The first is Malik’s hypothesis that “Boys are better at hitting fastballs than girls because boys have faster reaction times.” This statement has both elements.

It’s important that students recognize that regardless of our feelings or experiences, a statement that contains the essential elements is indeed a scientific hypothesis.

The second model includes Stephanie’s statement that “They lost because everybody has a bad day now and then.” While this statement has a view that Stephanie believes is true, the reason or cause cannot be tested with a measurement. Some students may insist that this can be tested with a measurement. If they do, encourage them to think about how they would measure having a bad day “now and then.” While Stephanie’s statement may be true, it cannot be a scientific hypothesis because it lacks the second element.

There are other correct ways to frame a hypothesis, such as using an if/then statement.

See here for an explanation of this alternate structure as well as an introduction to the terms dependent and independent variable.

Students identify whether or not a statement can be considered a hypothesis.

Check off whether or not the statement contains the components of a hypothesis.

Students write a brief explanation of their thinking for each statement.

Sample responses :

• George’s statement is a hypothesis because it includes both of the essential parts. First, he states his view that he believes fish are dying because of the pollution from the factory. The cause can be tested with a measurement because someone could measure the amount of pollution found in the stream.
• Christina’s statement contains the essential elements of a hypothesis because she can measure the amount of hours that students study and see if those who study more get higher grades. Because her statement includes a view that she thinks is true and a reason that can be tested with a measurement, Christina’s statement is a hypothesis.
• Tashia’s statement is not a hypothesis because it does not contain a cause or reason that can be measured.

BETA Version - Please send comments and corrections to [email protected]

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Biology library

Course: biology library   >   unit 1, the scientific method.

• Controlled experiments
• The scientific method and experimental design

Introduction

• Make an observation.
• Ask a question.
• Form a hypothesis , or testable explanation.
• Make a prediction based on the hypothesis.
• Test the prediction.
• Iterate: use the results to make new hypotheses or predictions.

Scientific method example: Failure to toast

1. make an observation..

• Observation: the toaster won't toast.

2. Ask a question.

• Question: Why won't my toaster toast?

3. Propose a hypothesis.

• Hypothesis: Maybe the outlet is broken.

4. Make predictions.

• Prediction: If I plug the toaster into a different outlet, then it will toast the bread.

5. Test the predictions.

• Test of prediction: Plug the toaster into a different outlet and try again.
• If the toaster does toast, then the hypothesis is supported—likely correct.
• If the toaster doesn't toast, then the hypothesis is not supported—likely wrong.

Logical possibility

Practical possibility, building a body of evidence, 6. iterate..

• Iteration time!
• If the hypothesis was supported, we might do additional tests to confirm it, or revise it to be more specific. For instance, we might investigate why the outlet is broken.
• If the hypothesis was not supported, we would come up with a new hypothesis. For instance, the next hypothesis might be that there's a broken wire in the toaster.

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Formative Assessment Probe

What Is a Hypothesis?

By Page Keeley

Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, Volume 3: Another 25 Formative Assessment Probes

Share Discuss

This is the new updated edition of the first book in the bestselling  Uncovering Student Ideas in Science  series. Like the first edition of volume 1, this book helps pinpoint what your students know (or think they know) so you can monitor their learning and adjust your teaching accordingly. Loaded with classroom-friendly features you can use immediately, the book includes 25 “probes”—brief, easily administered formative assessments designed to understand your students’ thinking about 60 core science concepts.

Access this probe as a Google form:  English

Download this probe as an editable PDF: English

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about hypotheses. The probe is designed to find out if students understand what a hypothesis is, when it is used, and how it is developed.

Type of Probe

Justified List

Related Concepts

hypothesis, nature of science, scientific inquiry, scientific method

Explanation

The best choices are A, B, G, K, L, and M. However, other possible answers open up discussions to contrast with the provided definition. A hypothesis is a tentative explanation that can be tested and is based on observation and/or scientific knowledge such as that that has been gained from doing background research. Hypotheses are used to investigate a scientific question. Hypotheses can be tested through experimentation or further observation, but contrary to how some students are taught to use the “scientific method,” hypotheses are not proved true or correct. Students will often state their conclusions as “My hypothesis is correct because my data prove…,” thereby equating positive results with proof (McLaughlin 2006, p. 61). In essence, experimentation as well as other means of scientific investigation never prove a hypothesis—the hypothesis gains credibility from the evidence obtained from data that support it. Data either support or negate a hypothesis but never prove something to be 100% true or correct.

Hypotheses are often confused with questions. A hypothesis is not framed as a question but rather provides a tentative explanation in response to the scientific question that leads the investigation. Sometimes the word hypothesis is oversimplified by being defined as “an educated guess.” This terminology fails to convey the explanatory or predictive nature of scientific hypotheses and omits what is most important about hypotheses: their purpose. Hypotheses are developed to explain observations, such as notable patterns in nature; predict the outcome of an experiment based on observations or prior scientific knowledge; and guide the investigator in seeking and paying attention to the right data. Calling a hypothesis a “guess” undermines the explanation that underscores a hypothesis.

Predictions and hypotheses are not the same. A hypothesis, which is a tentative explanation, can lead to a prediction. Predictions forecast the outcome of an experiment but do not include an explanation. Predictions often use if-then statements, just as hypotheses do, but this does not make a prediction a hypothesis. For example, a prediction might take the form of, “If I do [X], then [Y] will happen.” The prediction describes the outcome but it does not provide an explanation of why that outcome might result or describe any relationship between variables.

Sometimes the words hypothesis , theory , and law are inaccurately portrayed in science textbooks as a hierarchy of scientific knowledge, with the hypothesis being the first step on the way to becoming a theory and then a law. These concepts do not form a sequence for the development of scientific knowledge because each represents a different type of knowledge.

Not every investigation requires a hypothesis. Some types of investigations do not lend themselves to hypothesis testing through experimentation. A good deal of science is observational and descriptive—the study of biodiversity, for example, usually involves looking at a wide variety of specimens and maybe sketching and recording their unique characteristics. A biologist studying biodiversity might wonder, “What types of birds are found on island X?” The biologist would observe sightings of birds and perhaps sketch them and record their bird calls but would not be guided by a specific hypothesis. Many of the great discoveries in science did not begin with a hypothesis in mind. For example, Charles Darwin did not begin his observations of species in the Galapagos with a hypothesis in mind.

Contrary to the way hypotheses are often stated by students as an unimaginative response to a question posed at the beginning of an experiment, particularly those of the “cookbook” type, the generation of hypotheses by scientists is actually a creative and imaginative process, combined with the logic of scientific thought. “The process of formulating and testing hypotheses is one of the core activities of scientists. To be useful, a hypothesis should suggest what evidence would support it and what evidence would refute it. A hypothesis that cannot in principle be put to the test of evidence may be interesting, but it is not likely to be scientifically useful” (AAAS 1988, p. 5).

Curricular and Instructional Considerations

Elementary Students

In the elementary school grades, students typically engage in inquiry to begin to construct an understanding of the natural world. Their inquiries are initiated by a question. If students have a great deal of knowledge or have made prior observations, they might propose a hypothesis; in most cases, however, their knowledge and observations are too incomplete for them to hypothesize. If elementary school students are required to develop a hypothesis, it is often just a guess, which does little to contribute to an understanding of the purpose of a hypothesis. At this grade level, it is usually sufficient for students to focus on their questions, instead of hypotheses (Pine 1999).

Middle School Students

At the middle school level, students develop an understanding of what a hypothesis is and when one is used. The notion of a testable hypothesis through experimentation that involves variables is introduced and practiced at this grade level. However, there is a danger that students will think every investigation must include a hypothesis. Hypothesizing as a skill is important to develop at this grade level but it is also important to develop the understandings of what a hypothesis is and why and how it is developed.

High School Students

At this level, students have acquired more scientific knowledge and experiences and so are able to propose tentative explanations. They can formulate a testable hypothesis and demonstrate the logical connections between the scientific concepts guiding a hypothesis and the design of an experiment (NRC 1996).

Administering the Probe

This probe is best used as is at the middle school and high school levels, particularly if students have been previously exposed to the word hypothesis or its use. Remove any answer choices students might not be familiar with. For example, if they have not encountered if-then reasoning, eliminate this distracter. The probe can also be modified as a simpler version for students in grades 3–5 by leaving out some of the choices and simplifying the descriptions.

K–4 Understandings About Scientific Inquiry

• Scientific investigations involve asking and answering a question and comparing the answer with what scientists already know about the world.
• Scientists develop explanations using observations (evidence) and what they already know about the world (scientific knowledge).

5–8 Understandings About Scientific Inquiry

• Different kinds of questions suggest different kinds of investigations. Some investigations involve observing and describing objects, organisms, or events; some involve collecting specimens; some involve experiments; some involve seeking more information; some involve discovery of new objects and phenomena; and some involve making models.
• Current scientific knowledge and understanding guide scientific investigations. Different scientific domains employ different methods, core theories, and standards to advance scientific knowledge and understanding.

5–8 Science as a Human Endeavor

• Science is very much a human endeavor, and the work of science relies on basic human qualities such as reasoning, insight, energy, skill, and creativity.

9–12 Abilities Necessary to Do Scientific Inquiry

• Identify questions and concepts that guide scientific investigations.*

9–12 Understandings About Scientific Inquiry

• Scientists usually inquire about how physical, living, or designed systems function. Conceptual principles and knowledge guide scientific inquiries. Historical and current scientific knowledge influence the design and interpretation of investigations and the evaluation of proposed explanations made by other scientists.

*Indicates a strong match between the ideas elicited by the probe and a national standard’s learning goal.

K–2 Scientific Inquiry

• People can often learn about things around them by just observing those things carefully, but sometimes they can learn more by doing something to the things and noting what happens.

3–5 Scientific Inquiry

• Scientists’ explanations about what happens in the world come partly from what they observe and partly from what they think. Sometimes scientists have different explanations for the same set of observations. That usually leads to their making more observations to resolve the differences.

6–8 Scientific Inquiry

• Scientists differ greatly in what phenomena they study and how they go about their work. Although there is no fixed set of steps that all scientists follow, scientific investigations usually involve the collection of relevant evidence, the use of logical reasoning, and the application of imagination in devising hypotheses and explanations to make sense of the collected evidence.*

6–8 Values and Attitudes

• Even if they turn out not to be true, hypotheses are valuable if they lead to fruitful investigations.*

9–12 Scientific Inquiry

• Hypotheses are widely used in science for choosing what data to pay attention to and what additional data to seek and for guiding the interpretation of the data (both new and previously available).*

Related Research

• Students generally have difficulty with explaining how science is conducted because they have had little contact with real scientists. Their familiarity with doing science, even at older ages, is “school science,” which is often not how science is generally conducted in the scientific community (Driver et al. 1996).
• Despite over 10 years of reform efforts in science education, research still shows that students typically have inadequate conceptions of what science is and what scientists do (Schwartz 2007).
• Upper elementary school and middle school students may not understand experimentation as a method of testing ideas, but rather as a method of trying things out or producing a desired outcome (AAAS 1993).
• Middle school students tend to invoke personal experiences as evidence to justify their hypothesis. They seem to think of evidence as selected from what is already known or from personal experience or secondhand sources, not as information produced through experiment (AAAS 1993).

Related NSTA Resources

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). 1993. Benchmarks for science literacy. New York: Oxford University Press.

Keeley, P. 2005. Science curriculum topic study: Bridging the gap between standards and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

McLaughlin, J. 2006. A gentle reminder that a hypothesis is never proven correct, nor is a theory ever proven true. Journal of College Science Teaching 36 (1): 60–62.

National Research Council (NRC). 1996. National science education standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Schwartz, R. 2007. What’s in a word? How word choice can develop (mis)conceptions about the nature of science. Science Scope 31 (2): 42–47.

VanDorn, K., M. Mavita, L. Montes, B. Ackerson, and M. Rockley. 2004. Hypothesis-based learning. Science Scope 27: 24–25.

Suggestions for Instruction and Assessment

• The “scientific method” is often the first topic students encounter when using textbooks and this can erroneously imply that there is a rigid set of steps that all scientists follow, including the development of a hypothesis. Often the scientific method described in textbooks applies to experimentation, which is only one of many ways scientists conduct their work. Embedding explicit instruction of the various ways to do science in the actual investigations students do throughout the year as well as in their studies of investigations done by scientists is a better approach to understanding how science is done than starting off the year with the scientific method in a way that is devoid of a context through which students can learn the content and process of science.
• Students often participate in science fairs that may follow a textbook scientific method of posing a question, developing a hypothesis, and so on, that incorrectly results in students “proving” their hypothesis. Make sure students understand that a hypothesis can be disproven, but it is never proven, which implies 100% certainty.
• Help students understand that science begins with a question. The structure of some school lab reports may lead students to believe that all investigations begin with a hypothesis. While some investigations do begin with a hypothesis, in most cases, they begin with a question. Sometimes it is just a general question.
• A technique to help students maintain a consistent image of science as inquiry throughout the year by paying more careful attention to the words they use is to create a “caution words” poster or bulletin board (Schwartz 2007). Important words that have specific meanings in science but are often used inappropriately in the science classroom and through everyday language can be posted in the room as a reminder to pay careful attention to how students are using these words. For example, words like hypothesis and scientific method can be posted here. Words that are banned when referring to hypotheses include prove, correct, and true.
• Use caution when asking students to write lab reports that use the same format regardless of the type of investigation conducted. The format used in writing about an investigation may imply a rigid, fixed process or erroneously misrepresent aspects of science, such as that hypotheses are developed for every scientific investigation.
• Avoid using hypotheses with younger children when they result in guesses. It is better to start with a question and have students make a prediction about what they think will happen and why. As they acquire more conceptual understanding and experience a variety of observations, they will be better prepared to develop hypotheses that reflect the way science is done.
• Avoid using “educated guess” as a description for hypothesis. The common meaning of the word guess implies no prior knowledge, experience, or observations.
• Scaffold hypothesis writing for students by initially having them use words like may in their statements and then formalizing them with if-then statements. For example, students may start with the statement, “The growth of algae may be affected by temperature.” The next step would be to extend this statement to include a testable relationship, such as, “If the temperature of the water increases, then the algae population will increase.” Encourage students to propose a tentative explanation and then consider how they would go about testing the statement.

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). 1988. Science for all Americans. New York: Oxford University Press.

Driver, R., J. Leach, R. Millar, and P. Scott. 1996. Young people’s images of science. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.

Pine, J. 1999. To hypothesize or not to hypothesize. In Foundations: A monograph for professionals in science, mathematics, and technology education. Vol. 2. Inquiry: Thoughts, views, and strategies for the K–5 classroom. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation.

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Developing a Hypothesis

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Learn what makes a good hypothesis, and how to develop one.

Developing a Scientific Hypothesis

After identifying a  testable question , it is important for students to research and or/review what they already know about the scientific principles involved in their experimental inquiries. After that, and before conducting the inquiry through testing and observation, students need to develop a scientific  hypothesis .

Is a hypothesis the same as a guess?

The short answer is no! Anyone can make a guess about anything. Guesses are not generally based on knowledge, but rather are rough estimates that people give when they don’t know the answer to a question. A scientific hypothesis, on the other hand, is not only based on prior knowledge and experiences but also on known factual information obtained through research.

Misconception Alert Like making an estimate in math, a hypothesis should be written before doing an inquiry, not after!

Is a hypothesis the same as a prediction? 

Again, the answer is no, although the distinction between these two terms is not always clear. A  prediction  is an estimate or forecast about something that might happen or the way that something will be based on prior knowledge and experience and known facts (e.g., I predict it will rain tomorrow, I predict that my plant will have two seed leaves, etc.).

Shown is a colour photograph of a boat near a beach in the rain. The camera lens is sprinkled with rain drops. These are in sharp focus, in the foreground. Most of the rest of the photograph is out of focus in the background.  There is a strip of dark green grass along the bottom of the frame. Above that is a strip of beige sand. The water is shaded from light grey at the bottom to medium grey at the top. A dark green hill rises up behind the water, to the left. The sky is mottled with grey, white and blueish grey clouds. A small, yellow wooden rowboat is in sharp focus. It is moored to the shore with a white rope, next to a round, orange float.

Like a prediction, a hypothesis forecasts what might happen, but a hypothesis goes beyond a prediction. It includes not only what might happen, but why something might happen. In other words, it explains the relationship between variables. The most significant difference between a prediction and an hypothesis is that a hypothesis is intended to lead to a testable investigation, whereas a prediction is not.

To put it in a different way, a prediction is an estimate of an end result (e.g., I predict that the plant will be tall) whereas a hypothesis is a statement that attempts to explain a phenomena by relating cause and effect (e.g., if we give plants more water, then they will grow taller).

Shown is a colour photograph of water falling from a blue watering can onto a pink flowering plant.  The frame is filled with green foliage. In the background, out of focus, is a row of pink, flowering plants in boxes along a wooden railing. In the foreground, a gloved hand tips a large, cornflower blue watering can over the first plant.

Misconception Alert Not every inquiry lends itself to the testing of a hypothesis. Many inquiries involve research questions that ask if relationships exist among variables or involve situations where testing is not possible, such as population inquiries, historical inquiries, etc. For example, you could never test a hypothesis about which type of food a given dinosaur preferred to eat!

Shown is a colour photograph of miniature plastic dinosaurs gathered around a piece of broccoli that resembles a tree.  A piece of broccoli stands upright in the middle of the photograph. It has a long, pale green stem and a full, dark green floret. It looks like a green tree with branches and tiny leaves. Five toy dinosaurs have been placed around the broccoli so they look like they're snacking it. They are a little bit shorter than the broccoli, so their mouths reach the bushiest parts of it.  The dinosaur in the foreground is dark reddish brown with scaly-looking skin and tiny arms. Behind it, a dark green dinosaur with a long neck stretches to the low branches. In the background, a dark brown triceratops looks on. The long neck of a black dinosaur reaches in from the left, to get the higher leaves. On the far left, a bright yellow dinosaur is about to join the meal.

How do you develop a scientific hypothesis?

In order to develop a hypothesis, one should have:

• A good  testable question
• Understanding of the dependent, independent and control  variables  of interest
• Some prior knowledge, such as from observations and research
• Thoughts about how the inquiry could be done (the method)

For example, students may begin with the question:

How does the duration of light exposure affect the surface area of tomato plant leaves?

The variables are:

• Independent = duration of light
• Dependent = surface area of plant leaves
• Controlled = water, soil, seed source, etc.

How then do we formulate a hypothesis from this testable question? A good hypothesis tends to follow the format:

If  we do/change this 

Then  this will happen/be observed, because  we know this., if  these changes are made to a certain independent variable,, then  will we observe a change in a specific dependent variable, because  of our prior knowledge and research..

In the example above, the students have identified that they are interested in exploring how the duration of light affects plants, perhaps exposing plants from the same batch of seeds to light for different numbers of hours (e.g., one hour, two hours, etc.). Knowing that plants need light to grow (from prior knowledge or research), then they may hypothesize that the leaves of a plant may be larger given a longer exposure to light. Knowing all of this, their hypothesis might be:

If  we expose plants to a greater number of hours of light,  then  the surface area of the tomato plant leaves will be larger  because  light affects plant growth.

What makes for a good hypothesis.

A good hypothesis is:

• A statement  The hypothesis is  not  the same as the testable question. The hypothesis is a tentative explanation of what is thought will happen during the inquiry.
• Testable  What is changed (independent variable) and what is affected by the change (dependent variable) should be measurable and observable.
• Falsifiable  A good hypothesis can be either supported or shown to be false by the data collected.
• Clear.  It should be obvious what will be tested, how it will be tested (what will be measured to prove or disprove the hypothesis), and what is expected to happen.

A good question and hypothesis should also help students find answers that are not obvious to them or generally known. For example, most students will know that if you do not water a plant, it will die, so developing a hypothesis such as:

If  we stop watering our plants  then  the plants will die  because  plants need water in order to live.

is overly simplistic and will not help students expand their knowledge. A good experimental inquiry will help students discover things they do not already know.

Misconception Alert The goal of a hypothesis is NOT for a student to be “right.” Having evidence that shows a hypothesis to be false is just as important as having evidence that shows it to be true. A hypothesis is NOT something you prove – it is something you test!

How to develop a Tomatosphere™ hypothesis 

In the Seed Investigation, a testable question is provided to the students:

How does exposure to the space environment or space-like conditions affect the number of tomato seeds that germinate?

In the  variables  section, the dependent and independent variables were identified.

Independent variable :  Seed treatment – Some seeds have been to space or are exposed to space-like conditions in years when seeds do not go to space, while some seeds have not been to space or exposed to space-like conditions.

Dependent variable : Number of seeds that germinate.

What is not provided to the students is a hypothesis to follow from this question. Using the “if…..then…because….” format, have the students develop their hypotheses for the Tomatosphere™ testable question. For example:

If  tomato plant seeds are exposed to the conditions of space,  then  fewer ‘space’ seeds will germinate than non- ‘space’ seeds  because  radiation levels found in space may damage cells in the seeds.

This is not the only possible hypothesis, but it shows some understanding of how plants might be affected by space conditions (e.g., radiation affecting DNA in cells, microgravity affecting growth, etc.) which might be derived from prior knowledge or research.

Is this a good hypothesis? Yes

• It is a statement.
• It is testable.  What is changed (being in space or not) and what is affected by the change (number of seeds germinated) can be measured and observed.
• It is falsifiable.  The student can use the data collected to be able to decide if it supports their hypothesis or if it shows the hypothesis is false (statement is false – more ‘space’ seeds germinate or the germination rate is the same).
• It is clear.  It should be obvious what will be tested (seed germination), how it will be tested (seeds are grown to the point of germination), and what is expected to happen (fewer space seeds will germinate).

To assist with practicing writing a hypothesis, students could be provided with a checklist, such as this one, also available as a [ Google doc ] and [ PDF ].

Writing a Strong Hypothesis Checklist

Hypothesis is a statement that correctly follows the format:

"If _____ then ______ because _________

Hypothesis relates to the Testable Question

Hypothesis makes sense (based on observations and/or research)

Hypothesis can be falsified

Hypothesis includes a cause and effect relationship

Hypothesis could be tested with measurements

Hypothesis is easy to understand

Guided Practice

Have students read the following statements and determine if these are good, okay, or poor hypotheses and why.

Have students use the  Writing a Strong Hypothesis Checklist  for creating a Tomatosphere™ or other hypothesis.

Why is this a good hypothesis? ✓  It is a  statement  that follows the “if….then…because” format. ✓ It is testable.  What is changed (red light vs. green light) and what is affected by the change (size of leaves) is measurable and observable. ✓ It is falsifiable.  It can be supported by evidence (statement is true – leaves will be bigger, statement is untrue – leaves will be smaller or the same size). ✓ It is clear.  It is obvious what will be tested (two colours of light), how it will be tested (at six weeks of age the plant leaves will be measured), and what is expected to happen (plants grown in red light will have bigger leaves). B): 

Why is this a poor hypothesis? ✓  It is a  statement  that follows the “if….then…because” format. ✓ It is not testable.  The variables are very vague. What are the classroom conditions compared to the outdoor conditions? Is the interest in soil? Light? Temperature? What kinds of plants will be grown. ✗ It is not falsifiable.  It would be difficult to support or falsify with evidence because it is vague. ✗ It is not clear.  It is not obvious what will be tested (Soil? Temperature? Light?), how it will be tested and what is expected to happen (what does “better” mean? Taller? Bigger leaves? Flower sooner?). Have students work on changing this vague hypothesis into a more specific one by identifying variables to explore. C): 

Why is this just an “okay” hypothesis? ✓  It is a  statement  that follows the “if….then…because” format. ✗ It is somewhat testable.  What is changed (sugar water vs. regular water) is clear, but what is affected by the change (“better”) is vague. Will the plants be taller? Grow faster? ✗ It is not falsifiable.  It would be difficult to support or falsify with evidence because the “better” is vague. ✗ It is somewhat clear.   It is obvious what will be tested (maple syrup being added to the water) and how it will be tested, but what is expected to happen is not clear (what does “better” mean? Taller? Bigger leaves? Flower sooner?). Have students work on changing this somewhat vague hypothesis into a more specific one by identifying a dependent variable.

A Strong Hypothesis - Science Buddies  (2010) This blog post by Science Buddies explains the parts of a good hypothesis, and the role a hypothesis plays in the scientific process.

Theory vs. Hypothesis vs. Law… Explained!  (2015) This video (7:11 min.) from PBS Studios Be Smart explains how these words mean something totally different in science than in everyday speech, and how they all help us understand how the universe works.

Misconceptions about Science This page by Understanding Science at UC Berkeley gives a thorough definition of the word hypothesis, in a scientific context, as opposed to everyday language.

What is a Scientific Hypothesis?  (2022) This article by Alina Bradford at Live Science discusses what makes a hypothesis testable, the different types of hypotheses, and hypothesis vs. theory.

Writing a Hypothesis  (2013) This video (4:58 min.) by mreppsclassroom explains the purpose of a hypothesis and how to construct one.

HOW TO WRITE A HYPOTHESIS

Writing a hypothesis

Frequently, when we hear the word ‘hypothesis’, we immediately think of an investigation in the form of a science experiment. This is not surprising, as science is the subject area where we are usually first introduced to the term.

However, the term hypothesis also applies to investigations and research in many diverse areas and branches of learning, leaving us wondering how to write a hypothesis in statistics and how to write a hypothesis in sociology alongside how to write a hypothesis in a lab report.

We can find hypotheses at work in areas as wide-ranging as history, psychology, technology, engineering, literature, design, and economics. With such a vast array of uses, hypothesis writing is an essential skill for our students to develop.

What Is a Hypothesis?

A hypothesis is a proposed or predicted answer to a question. The purpose of writing a hypothesis is to follow it up by testing that answer. This test can take the form of an investigation, experiment, or writing a research paper that will ideally prove or disprove the hypothesis’s prediction.

Despite this element of the unknown, a hypothesis is not the same thing as a guess. Though the hypothesis writer typically has some uncertainty, the creation of the hypothesis is generally based on some background knowledge and research of the topic. The writer believes in the likelihood of a specific outcome, but further investigation will be required to validate or falsify the claim made in their hypothesis.

In this regard, a hypothesis is more along the lines of an ‘educated guess’ that has been based on observation and/or background knowledge.

A hypothesis should:

• Make a prediction
• Provide reasons for that prediction
• Specifies a relationship between two or more variables
• Be testable
• Be falsifiable
• Be expressed simply and concisely
• Serves as the starting point for an investigation, an experiment, or another form of testing

A COMPLETE TEACHING UNIT ON WRITING PROCEDURAL TEXTS

This HUGE BUNDLE  offers 97 PAGES of hands-on, printable, and digital media resources. Your students will be WRITING procedures with STRUCTURE, INSIGHT AND KNOWLEDGE like never before.

Hypothesis Examples for Students and Teachers

If students listen to classical music while studying, they will retain more information.

Mold growth is affected by the level of moisture in the air.

Students who sleep for longer at night retain more information at school.

Employees who work more than 40 hours per week show higher instances of clinical depression.

Time spent on social media is negatively correlated to the length of the average attention span.

People who spend time exercising regularly are less likely to develop a cardiovascular illness.

If people are shorter, then they are more likely to live longer.

What are Variables in a Hypothesis?

Variables are an essential aspect of any hypothesis. But what exactly do we mean by this term?

Variables are changeable factors or characteristics that may affect the outcome of an investigation. Things like age, weight, the height of participants, length of time, the difficulty of reading material, etc., could all be considered variables.

Usually, an investigation or experiment will focus on how different variables affect each other. So, it is vital to define the variables clearly if you are to measure the effect they have on each other accurately.

There are three main types of variables to consider in a hypothesis. These are:

• Independent Variables
• Dependent Variables

The Independent Variable

The independent variable is unaffected by any of the other variables in the hypothesis. We can think of the independent variable as the assumed cause .

The Dependent Variable

The dependent variable is affected by the other variables in the hypothesis. It is what is being tested or measured. We can think of the dependent variable as the assumed effect .

For example, let’s investigate the correlation between test scores across different age groups. The age groups will be the independent variable, and the test scores will be the dependent variable .

Now that we know what variables are let’s look at how they work in the various types of hypotheses.

Types of Hypotheses

There are many different types of hypotheses, and it is helpful to know the most common of these if the student selects the most suitable tool for their specific job.

The most frequently used types of hypotheses are:

The Simple Hypothesis

The complex hypothesis, the empirical hypothesis, the null hypothesis, the directional hypothesis, the non-directional hypothesis.

This straightforward hypothesis type predicts the relationship between an independent and dependent variable.

Example: Eating too much sugar causes weight gain.

This type of hypothesis is based on the relationship between multiple independent and/or dependent variables.

Example: Overeating sugar causes weight gain and poor cardiovascular health.

Also called a working hypothesis, an empirical hypothesis is tested through observation and experimentation. An empirical hypothesis is produced through investigation and trial and error. As a result, the empirical hypothesis may change its independent variables in the process.

Example: Exposure to sunlight helps lettuces grow faster.

This hypothesis states that there is no significant or meaningful relationship between specific variables.

Example: Exposure to sunlight does not affect the rate of a plant’s growth.

This type of hypothesis predicts the direction of an effect between variables, i.e., positive or negative.

Example: A high-quality education will result in a greater number of career opportunities.

Similar to the directional hypothesis, this type of hypothesis predicts the nature of the effect but not the direction that effect will go in.

Example: A high-quality education will affect the number of available career opportunities.

How to Write a Hypothesis : A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE

• Ask a Question

The starting point for any hypothesis is asking a question. This is often called the research question . The research question is the student’s jumping-off point to developing their hypothesis. This question should be specific and answerable. The hypothesis will be the point where the research question is transformed into a declarative statement.

Ideally, the questions the students develop should be relational, i.e., they should look at how two or more variables relate to each other as described above. For example, what effect does sunlight have on the growth rate of lettuce?

• Research the Question

The research is an essential part of the process of developing a hypothesis. Students will need to examine the ideas and studies that are out there on the topic already. By examining the literature already out there on their topic, they can begin to refine their questions on the subject and begin to form predictions based on their studies.

Remember, a hypothesis can be defined as an ‘educated’ guess. This is the part of the process where the student educates themself on the subject before making their ‘guess.’

• Define Your Variables

By now, your students should be ready to form their preliminary hypotheses. To do this, they should first focus on defining their independent and dependent variables. Now may be an excellent opportunity to remind students that the independent variables are the only variables that they have complete control over, while dependent variables are what is tested or measured.

• Develop Your Preliminary Hypotheses

With variables defined, students can now work on a draft of their hypothesis. To do this, they can begin by examining their variables and the available data and then making a statement about the relationship between these variables. Students must brainstorm and reflect on what they expect to happen in their investigation before making a prediction upon which to base their hypothesis. It’s worth noting, too, that hypotheses are typically, though not exclusively, written in the present tense.

Students revisit the different types of hypotheses described earlier in this article. Students select three types of hypotheses and frame their preliminary hypotheses according to each criteria. Which works best? Which type is the least suitable for the student’s hypothesis?

• Finalize the Phrasing

By now, students will have made a decision on which type of hypothesis suits their needs best, and it will now be time to finalize the wording of their hypotheses. There are various ways that students can choose to frame their hypothesis, but below, we will examine the three most common ways.

The If/Then Phrasing

This is the most common type of hypothesis and perhaps the easiest to write for students. It follows a simple ‘ If x, then y ’ formula that makes a prediction that forms the basis of a subsequent investigation.

If I eat more calories, then I will gain weight.

Correlation Phrasing

Another way to phrase a hypothesis is to focus on the correlation between the variables. This typically takes the form of a statement that defines that relationship positively or negatively.

The more calories that are eaten beyond the daily recommended requirements, the greater the weight gain will be.

Comparison Phrasing

This form of phrasing is applicable when comparing two groups and focuses on the differences that the investigation is expected to reveal between those two groups.

Those who eat more calories will gain more weight than those who eat fewer calories.

Questions to ask during this process include:

• What tense is the hypothesis written in?
• Does the hypothesis contain both independent and dependent variables?
• Is the hypothesis framed using the if/then, correlation, or comparison framework (or other similar suitable structure)?
• Is the hypothesis worded clearly and concisely?
• Does the hypothesis make a prediction?
• Is the prediction specific?
• Is the hypothesis testable?
• Gather Data to Support/Disprove Your Hypothesis

If the purpose of a hypothesis is to provide a reason to pursue an investigation, then the student will need to gather related information together to fuel that investigation.

While, by definition, a hypothesis leans towards a specific outcome, the student shouldn’t worry if their investigations or experiments ultimately disprove their hypothesis. The hypothesis is the starting point; the destination is not preordained. This is the very essence of the scientific method. Students should trust the results of their investigation to speak for themselves. Either way, the outcome is valuable information.

TOP 10 TIPS FOR WRITING A STRONG HYPOTHESIS

• Begin by asking a clear and compelling question. Your hypothesis is a response to the inquiry you are eager to explore.
• Keep it simple and straightforward. Avoid using complex phrases or making multiple predictions in one hypothesis.
• Use the right format. A strong hypothesis is often written in the form of an “if-then” statement.
• Ensure that your hypothesis is testable. Your hypothesis should be something that can be verified through experimentation or observation.
• Stay objective. Your hypothesis should be based on facts and evidence, not personal opinions or prejudices.
• Examine different possibilities. Don’t limit yourself to just one hypothesis. Consider alternative explanations for your observations.
• Stay open to the possibility of being wrong. Your hypothesis is just a prediction, and it may not always be correct.
• Search for evidence to support your hypothesis. Investigate existing literature and gather data that supports your hypothesis.
• Make sure that your hypothesis is pertinent. Your hypothesis should be relevant to the question you are trying to investigate.
• Revise your hypothesis as necessary. If new evidence arises that contradicts your hypothesis, you may need to adjust it accordingly.

HYPOTHESIS TEACHING STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES

When teaching young scientists and writers, it’s essential to remember that the process of formulating a hypothesis is not always straightforward. It’s easy to make mistakes along the way, but with a bit of guidance, you can ensure your students avoid some of the most common pitfalls like these.

• Don’t let your students be too vague. Remind them that when formulating a hypothesis, it’s essential to be specific and avoid using overly general language. Make sure their hypothesis is clear and easy to understand.
• Being swayed by personal biases will impact their hypothesis negatively. It’s important to stay objective when formulating a hypothesis, so avoid letting personal biases or opinions get in the way.
• Not starting with a clear question is the number one stumbling block for students, so before forming a hypothesis, you need to reinforce the need for a clear understanding of the question they’re trying to answer. Start with a question that is specific and relevant.

Hypothesis Warmup Activity: First, organize students into small working groups of four or five. Then, set each group to collect a list of hypotheses. They can find these by searching on the Internet or finding examples in textbooks . When students have gathered together a suitable list of hypotheses, have them identify the independent and dependent variables in each case. They can underline each of these in different colors.

It may be helpful for students to examine each hypothesis to identify the ‘cause’ elements and the ‘effect’ elements. When students have finished, they can present their findings to the class.

Task 1: Set your students the task of coming up with an investigation-worthy question on a topic that interests them. This activity works particularly well for groups.

Task 2: Students search for existing information and theories on their topic on the Internet or in the library. They should take notes where necessary and begin to form an assumption or prediction based on their reading and research that they can investigate further.

Task 3: When working with a talking partner, can students identify which of their partner’s independent and dependent variables? If not, then one partner will need to revisit the definitions for the two types of variables as outlined earlier.

Task 4: Organize students into smaller groups and task them with presenting their hypotheses to each other. Students can then provide feedback before the final wording of each hypothesis is finalized.

Perhaps due to their short length, learning how to create a well-written hypothesis is not typically afforded much time in the curriculum.

However, though they are brief in length, they are complex enough to warrant focused learning and practice in class, particularly given their importance across many curriculum areas.

Learning how to write a hypothesis works well as a standalone writing skill. It can also form part of a more comprehensive academic or scientific writing study that focuses on how to write a research question, develop a theory, etc.

As with any text type, practice improves performance. By following the processes outlined above, students will be well on their way to writing their own hypotheses competently in no time.

• Researching
• 7. Hypothesis

How to write a hypothesis

Once you have created your three topic sentences , you are ready to create your hypothesis.

What is a 'hypothesis'?

A hypothesis is a single sentence answer to the Key Inquiry Question  that clearly states what your entire essay is going to argue.

It contains both the argument and the main reasons in support of your argument. Each hypothesis should clearly state the ‘answer’ to the question, followed by a ‘why’.

For Example:  

The Indigenous people of Australia were treated as second-class citizens until the 1960’s (answer) by the denial of basic political rights by State and Federal governments (why) .

How do you create a hypothesis?

Back in Step 3 of the research process, you split your Key Inquiry Question into three sub-questions .

Then at Step 6 you used the quotes from your Source Research to create answers to each of the sub-questions. These answers became your three Topic Sentences .

To create your hypothesis, you need to combine the three Topic Sentences into a single sentence answer.

By combining your three answers to the sub-questions , you are ultimately providing a complete answer to the original Key Inquiry Question .

For example:

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• Knowing the subject
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Hypotheses are possible ideas about language rules that learners form as they receive information.

Learners test their hypotheses by using language and these ideas change as new information is received.

Example A learner has noticed that English often uses the suffix -ness to form a noun from an adjective and so develops a hypothesis that this is a rule. The teacher gives them more information and the learner adjusts the hypothesis accordingly.

In the classroom Learners often make systematic errors as they test hypotheses. For example, overuse of the past -ed may be due to an incorrect hypothesis about past forms in English. Teachers can find out a lot about learners' current understanding of the new language from noticing the errors learners make.

Further links:

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/integrating-pronunciation-classroom-activities

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/theories-reading

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/presenting-new-language

Research and insight

Browse fascinating case studies, research papers, publications and books by researchers and ELT experts from around the world.

See our publications, research and insight

Uncovering a Mystery: Making a Hypothesis

Students will imagine what it might be like to be an art historian or art collector by hypothesizing possible uses of a discovered wooden leg in a descriptive journal entry.

Students will be able to:

• describe activities and challenges of being an art historian or art collector;
• hypothesize possible original use(s) of the wooden Leg ; and
• create a written or illustrated journal entry from an art collector’s perspective that includes realistic, descriptive details.
• Warm-up: Give each student three copies of the handout that shows the shape of a leg. Have students design a background scene for the leg. Encourage them to be creative—they might want to draw the rest of a human being, turn the leg into a lamp, or create something new! Give them 2–3 minutes for each handout.
• Display the Polynesian Leg and ask students to look at it closely. Start by having them describe what they see.
• Have them brainstorm as a class what the Leg might have been used for. No idea is stupid! When they think they have exhausted the possibilities, encourage them to come up with three more ideas.
• Explain to students that archaeologists and art historians often have a general idea about what particular art objects were used for, but many times they do not know for certain. Even the Denver Art Museum isn’t sure why each piece of art was created!
• Have students pretend that they are art collectors who discover this wooden Leg in the Marquesas Islands. For older students, have them write a journal entry about the day they discover the Leg . Their entries should provide realistic, descriptive details that address “who, what, when, where, why, and how” questions. The students should also include some possible ideas about what the wooden Leg was originally used for and their reasons for thinking this way. Which possible use for the wooden Leg is the most likely given the relevant evidence?
• For younger students (and if time allows for older students), have them draw pictures in their journals of the Leg , illustrating different ways it might have been used.
• Encourage students to share their final writing pieces or show their drawings in small groups. Have students share one positive comment and one recommendation for improvement for each piece. You may want to make this a special occasion by bringing in snacks and hosting a writer’s breakfast or tea.
• Lined paper and pen/pencil for each student
• Handout with drawing of Leg , three copies for each student
• About the Art section on the Polynesian Leg
• One color copy of the Leg for every four students, or the ability to project the image onto a wall or screen
• Observe and Learn to Comprehend
• Relate and Connect to Transfer
• Oral Expression and Listening
• Research and Reasoning
• Writing and Composition
• Reading for All Purposes
• Collaboration
• Critical Thinking & Reasoning
• Information Literacy
• Self-Direction

Height: 22.625 in; Width: 5.38 in; Length of Foot: 7.75 in.

Native arts acquisition funds, 1948.795

Photograph © Denver Art Museum 2009. All Rights Reserved.

This wooden leg was carved by an artist from the Marquesas [mar-KAY-zas] Islands, a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, located in the Pacific Ocean. The Marquesas are the farthest group of islands from any continent. In terms of the arts, they are well-known for their tattoo art, as well as for their carvings in wood, bone, and shell. The process of tattooing in the Marquesas was treated as a ritual and the tattoo artist was a highly skilled artisan. Even today, many Marquesans beautify their bodies, proclaim their identities, and preserve their memories and experiences with tattoos.

We’re not sure why this particular object was created. It’s possible that it served as the leg for a specially constructed raised bed, made only for certain priests to lie on following the performance of important sacrifices. Tattoos were believed to protect a person’s body from harm and this belief applied to objects as well. Tattooing the bed’s leg may have served to protect these priests’ tapu , or sacred, state by preventing contact with the earth. This leg may also have been a model placed outside of a tattoo shop, advertising the services of the artist inside.

In the past, tattooing was a major art form in the Marquesas Islands and it inevitably influenced other art forms. The tattooing style of the Marquesas was the most elaborate in all of Polynesia. Tattoo images were marks of beauty as well as a reflection of knowledge and cultural beliefs. They also signaled a person’s social status—a higher ranking individual would have more tattoos than an individual of a lesser rank. All-over tattooing was a development unique to this area. Both males and females were tattooed, although only men covered their bodies from head to toe. Designs were also different for women and men.

Tattoo Imagery

Tattoo images have been carved all around the circumference of the wooden leg. The carving is particularly detailed on the foot.

The large crack down the front of the leg happened before the leg came into the Denver Art Museum’s possession. It is evidence of curing of the wood as it aged.

The peg, or wooden block at the top of the leg tells us that it may have been attached to something else.

Related Creativity Resources

Communication Through Clothing

In this lesson, students will explore the symbols, patterns, and colors that are important to the Osage people. Students will create a t-shirt design that expresses information about their own culture and personality, and reflect upon messages communicated by their clothing design.

Say It with Flowers

Students will examine the artistic characteristics of Three Young Girls ; explain the meaning and significance of the flowers in the painting and other well-known flowers.

A Triumphant Message

Students will examine the sequencing of events in the paintings and create a six-part story of sequential “triumphs” that ends with an important message.

Poetry with Natural Similes and Metaphors

Students will examine the artistic characteristics of Summer ; make comparisons between physical features of the figure portrayed in Summer with items from the natural world; and create poems using similes and metaphors comparing a person’s physical appearance with items from the natural world.

Making the Commonplace Distinguished and Beautiful

Students will learn how William Merritt Chase aimed to portray commonplace objects in ways that made them appear distinguished and beautiful. They will then create a written description of a commonplace object that makes it appear distinguished and beautiful.

Beyond First Impressions

Students will examine the visual tools used in the painting Road to Santa Fe and how those tools help the painter tell a particular story. They will then use the painting to explore storytelling and use brainstorming strategies to enrich the content and voice of stories they will write. Multiple drafts and peer-editing will help teach students how working and reworking a piece, much like painters do when planning a painting, will strengthen their finished product.

Funding for object education resources provided by a grant from the Morgridge Family Foundation. Additional funding provided by the William Randolph Hearst Endowment for Education Programs, and Xcel Energy Foundation. We thank our colleagues at the University of Denver Morgridge College of Education.

The images on this page are intended for classroom use only and may not be reproduced for other reasons without the permission of the Denver Art Museum. This object may not currently be on display at the museum.

There's a fascinating lesson hiding in Max Homa's silky golf swing

W hen golfers think about their swings, they tend to think about all the things they want to have, and the moves they wished they didn't.

What often goes overlooked is a more simple, but more important, lesson: Can you physically make the moves they're trying to make?

Often, when a golfer spots a move they don't like in their golf swing— the dreaded "early extension," for instance—they don't appreciate that the cause of that fault isn't the move itself. Rather, that fault is an effect. The true cause is a lack of flexibility, which prevents them from being able to rotate ( here are some good stretches to help with that , by the way).

Improving your body's ability to move won't automatically improve your golf swing, but it can help set the stage for a swing change. It's true for pros, too, and something I explored with Max Homa's golf swing in our most recent Film Study video, which you can watch below.

For Max, things started to change in a big way with Max when he linked up with Golf Digest No. 1-ranked Teacher, Mark Blackburn .

When Blackburn ran a Titleist Performance Institute physical screen on Homa during their first lesson, Mark found that Homa had slightly limited shoulder flexibility, and struggled to lift his shoulders above his head when sitting against a wall.

It's a test called the Lat Test , and one that a lot of golfers who sit at a desk all day struggle with.

Initially, Homa had worked hard on trying to lift his arms up on the backswing, which because of his slightly limited shoulder mobility, was hard for him to do.

In order to help him move his arms and shoulders up-and-down, Homa would tend to thrust his hips towards the ball, which would cost him consistency.

So, Max started working hard on this with highly-regarded tour fitness guru, Kolby Wayne. When it came to his golf swing, Max worked on getting his arms less up, and more around. Now, Max's left arm runs through his right shoulder and his club is more in line with his arms. As Blackburn points out below:

That put Max in a position where he could rotate powerfully through while remaining in posture. A more consistent move than rolling his wrists and thursting his hips towards the ball.

This helps Max take advantage of his powerful rotational muscles. Instead of trying to do something that didn't feel natural (getting up and down), the pair focused on building his swing around something he could (moving around).

And the results speak for themselves...

Great work from one of the smartest teams in the game.

You can watch the full video right here:

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Guest Essay

Art Isn’t Supposed to Make You Comfortable

By Jen Silverman

Mx. Silverman is a playwright and the author, most recently, of the novel “There’s Going to Be Trouble.”

When I was in college, I came across “The Sea and Poison,” a 1950s novel by Shusaku Endo. It tells the story of a doctor in postwar Japan who, as an intern years earlier, participated in a vivisection experiment on an American prisoner. Endo’s lens on the story is not the easiest one, ethically speaking; he doesn’t dwell on the suffering of the victim. Instead, he chooses to explore a more unsettling element: the humanity of the perpetrators.

When I say “humanity” I mean their confusion, self-justifications and willingness to lie to themselves. Atrocity doesn’t just come out of evil, Endo was saying, it emerges from self-interest, timidity, apathy and the desire for status. His novel showed me how, in the right crucible of social pressures, I, too, might delude myself into making a choice from which an atrocity results. Perhaps this is why the book has haunted me for nearly two decades, such that I’ve read it multiple times.

I was reminded of that novel at 2 o’clock in the morning recently as I scrolled through a social media account dedicated to collecting angry reader reviews. My attention was caught by someone named Nathan, whose take on “Paradise Lost” was: “Milton was a fascist turd.” But it was another reader, Ryan, who reeled me in with his response to John Updike’s “Rabbit, Run”: “This book made me oppose free speech.” From there, I hit the bank of “Lolita” reviews: Readers were appalled, frustrated, infuriated. What a disgusting man! How could Vladimir Nabokov have been permitted to write this book? Who let authors write such immoral, perverse characters anyway?

I was cackling as I scrolled but soon a realization struck me. Here on my screen was the distillation of a peculiar American illness: namely, that we have a profound and dangerous inclination to confuse art with moral instruction, and vice versa.

As someone who was born in the States but partially raised in a series of other countries, I’ve always found the sheer uncompromising force of American morality to be mesmerizing and terrifying. Despite our plurality of influences and beliefs, our national character seems inescapably informed by an Old Testament relationship to the notions of good and evil. This powerful construct infuses everything from our advertising campaigns to our political ones — and has now filtered into, and shifted, the function of our artistic works.

Maybe it’s because our political discourse swings between deranged and abhorrent on a daily basis and we would like to combat our feelings of powerlessness by insisting on moral simplicity in the stories we tell and receive. Or maybe it’s because many of the transgressions that flew under the radar in previous generations — acts of misogyny, racism and homophobia; abuses of power both macro and micro — are now being called out directly. We’re so intoxicated by openly naming these ills that we have begun operating under the misconception that to acknowledge each other’s complexity, in our communities as well as in our art, is to condone each other’s cruelties.

When I work with younger writers, I am frequently amazed by how quickly peer feedback sessions turn into a process of identifying which characters did or said insensitive things. Sometimes the writers rush to defend the character, but often they apologize shamefacedly for their own blind spot, and the discussion swerves into how to fix the morals of the piece. The suggestion that the values of a character can be neither the values of the writer nor the entire point of the piece seems more and more surprising — and apt to trigger discomfort.

While I typically share the progressive political views of my students, I’m troubled by their concern for righteousness over complexity. They do not want to be seen representing any values they do not personally hold. The result is that, in a moment in which our world has never felt so fast-changing and bewildering, our stories are getting simpler, less nuanced and less able to engage with the realities through which we’re living.

I can’t blame younger writers for believing that it is their job to convey a strenuously correct public morality. This same expectation filters into all the modes in which I work: novels, theater, TV and film. The demands of Internet Nathan and Internet Ryan — and the anxieties of my mentees — are not so different from those of the industry gatekeepers who work in the no-man’s land between art and money and whose job it is to strip stories of anything that could be ethically murky.

I have worked in TV writers’ rooms where “likability notes” came from on high as soon as a complex character was on the page — particularly when the character was female. Concern about her likability was most often a concern about her morals: Could she be perceived as promiscuous? Selfish? Aggressive? Was she a bad girlfriend or a bad wife? How quickly could she be rehabilitated into a model citizen for the viewers?

TV is not alone in this. A director I’m working with recently pitched our screenplay to a studio. When the executives passed, they told our team it was because the characters were too morally ambiguous and they’d been tasked with seeking material wherein the lesson was clear, so as not to unsettle their customer base. What they did not say, but did not need to, is that in the absence of adequate federal arts funding, American art is tied to the marketplace. Money is tight, and many corporations do not want to pay for stories that viewers might object to if they can buy something that plays blandly in the background of our lives.

But what art offers us is crucial precisely because it is not a bland backdrop or a platform for simple directives. Our books, plays, films and TV shows can do the most for us when they don’t serve as moral instruction manuals but allow us to glimpse our own hidden capacities, the slippery social contracts inside which we function, and the contradictions we all contain.

We need more narratives that tell us the truth about how complex our world is. We need stories that help us name and accept paradoxes, not ones that erase or ignore them. After all, our experience of living in communities with one another is often much more fluid and changeable than it is rigidly black and white. We have the audiences that we cultivate, and the more we cultivate audiences who believe that the job of art is to instruct instead of investigate, to judge instead of question, to seek easy clarity instead of holding multiple uncertainties, the more we will find ourselves inside a culture defined by rigidity, knee-jerk judgments and incuriosity. In our hair-trigger world of condemnation, division and isolation, art — not moralizing — has never been more crucial.

Jen Silverman is a playwright and the author of the novels “We Play Ourselves” and “There’s Going to Be Trouble.”

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Boston high schoolers get valuable lessons about budgeting, balancing finances.

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Students at one school in Boston learned the basics of budgeting on Wednesday and found out how far they could make their money go.

Students at Jeremiah Burke High School in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood got a priceless lesson at the fair, including how to manage their money once they're on their own. "I'm keeping track of my budget. I feel like I'm finally in touch with reality. I can’t afford anything," senior June Zaporojan said.

Before the workshop, students got some homework, including picking a career and finding out its salary.

"So, my profession is a teacher and I'm making $55,000," Zaporojan said.

At the real estate table, Zaporojan first picked a $1,800-a-month apartment in the Back Bay before realizing she couldn't afford it. "Now I'm getting a cheaper apartment for $1,100. It’s in a different area. I'm also getting a roommate," she said.

"We need to do more, especially as it relates to kids understanding just how money works," said Nislo Galvao, co-founder of Early Investors Inc. Early Investors runs the workshop at schools in Massachusetts. "They have to figure out what their net income is, and then once they derive from that net income, they go from booth to booth and each booth represents that financial decision," Galvao said. They also factor in how much a car and groceries cost.

"I feel it’s even more valuable than standard classes," Zaporojan said. "Certain demographics, certain geographic areas, they are hit hard by the economy and yet we are not doing our best to educate them on these important matters," Galvao said. "It’s not just finance, this is a life skill that everyone needs to master."

Ohio State University's leaders have a lesson to learn. Where would we be without protests?

No bombing of buildings, no sniping from rooftops, no vandalism, no looting, no abductions, and no bank heists. Students are merely exercising their right to protest.

You mean to tell me the only way highly educated people, some of whom are old enough to be the grandparents of many of our students, know how to deal with protesters is to arrest them?

Of the video footage of protests on campus I have seen over the past several days, I have yet to spot any activity on the part of the protesters that resembles anything close to what members of the Weather Underground, Symbionese Liberation Army , and the Black Liberation Army were engaging in during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The right to peaceful protest paramount at OSU

Where would this country be without protest?

Much of the progress this country has witnessed since its birth has resulted from protest. Without the protests of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Ohio State University would be a much different place.

Police confirm 36 arrested at Ohio State anti-Israel protest Thursday night

Those protests changed the landscape here at OSU for the better, and in ways that have been both enriching and long-lasting.

Sadly, students who protested back then were met with an even heavier hand, but then of course, that was the era of J. Edgar Hoover and President Richard M. Nixon and the short-lived vice presidency of Spiro Agnew. I would like to think that the nation has evolved since then. This is 2024; it is no longer J. Edgar Hoover’s and Richard Nixon’s America.

No longer a proud Buckeye. Ohio State president using dog whistle to muzzle free speech

Do student protesters warrant being placed in handcuffs and herded onto busses?

Ohio State students should not be penalized for making noise

I would much rather have a student body that is in tune and engaged with world developments than one that is detached from the international body politic.

As a supposed world-class university, we want our students to become citizens of the world. We want them to become thinkers. We want them to have a voice on matters of significance, especially those that have life and death consequences, but then we penalize them when the manner in which they choose to express their views make us feel uncomfortable, for whatever reason.

When they begin to make us feel uncomfortable then we are apt to put in place measures or what amounts to an ordinance that undermines dissent.

So, if students make too much noise during exam week, they may be subject to arrest, as being boisterous may interfere with students’ ability to study. Such things as microphones and loudspeakers are prohibited. Now, when have we ever been preoccupied with such things?

Do we tell the Marching Band to quiet down when it’s practicing? Do we monitor the loud music blaring from fraternity and sorority houses during the spring and summer months? Do we stop drivers and order them to lower the volume when they drive through campus with windows rolled down?

All of a sudden we’re concerned about noise and how it may adversely impact students’ ability to perform on exam day.

The late Kingman Brewster, served as president of Yale University during arguably the largest campus protest of the Vietnam War era called May Day and handled it beautifully. His is a case study in leadership that administrators of this generation might find instructive.

Judson L. Jeffries, PhD, is Professor of African American and African Studies at The Ohio State University and a regular contributor to the Columbus Dispatch.

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The Storm Brewing in Michigan

Are arabs in the state really prepared to hand the presidency back to donald trump in a word: yes..

With its rich, dark wood, golden décor, and an invigorating oud musk, the American Moslem Society on the south end of Dearborn, Michigan, masks its age well. Opened in 1937, it was the first mosque in America to broadcast the call to prayer through loudspeakers. It was founded by Arab immigrants who had initially been drawn by the promise of $5-a-day jobs at a nearby Ford plant, which laid the foundation for what is now America’s largest concentration of Arab Americans.

On a recent Friday there, an imam clad in a traditional white thobe and kufi delivered his sermon. Several hundred worshippers sat on the blue-patterned carpet stretching across the space and listened attentively as the imam evoked scenes of devastation from Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza. “True attachment to Allah is demonstrated beautifully by our brothers and sisters in Palestine and in Gaza,” he said. “When they see the dead bodies of family members and they are asked what their message is to the world, they reply, ‘We Belong to Allah, and to him we shall return.’ They know that whoever is truthful with Allah, Allah will never abandon them, even if they are betrayed by all of creation.”

The room was heavy, and clearly emotional. After the prayer, as people retrieved their shoes at the entrance, I overheard discussions of the bombardment of Gaza. I saw people scrolling for news, after earlier reports that Gazans scrambling for aid were shot by the Israeli military. When I spoke to the people around me, it was clear whom they blamed.

“If it came down to Trump and Joe Biden, I will vote for Trump. Because it doesn’t get worse than Joe Biden,” a man named Salah told me. His friend, Amad, added, “Biden was supposed to be the peacemaker. The comfort-maker. Instead, he became accessory to the biggest genocide in modern history.”

Biden had recently overcome an attempt to disrupt the Michigan Democratic primary with “ uncommitted ” votes tied to the United States’ support for Israel. But in Dearborn and nearby Hamtramck—home to large Arab populations that were part of a coalition that moved Michigan from Donald Trump to Biden in the 2020 presidential election— Biden lost . And the people here made clear they plan to bring the fight to November.

“We want to show a shift from the 2020 election to 2024. That they are not only losing the presidency, but they are losing the constituency,” Salah told me. Nearby, a man named Mohamed looked visibly distressed as he exited the mosque. “I’m ashamed to be American today,” he said, holding back his tears at the latest news out of Gaza, in which everyone I spoke to said the United States was complicit. Mohamed said he cast his ballot for Trump in the primary and would again in the general.

The anger toward Biden in Dearborn is intense and tangible . Though his administration and 2024 campaign seem to have begun to recognize the extent of the threat , they may be too late. Michigan is one of a handful of states likely to decide the U.S. presidential election , and it could be a crucial tipping point in Biden’s path to winning the Electoral College. The “uncommitted” campaign in the primary may have been a mere warning shot from the 300,000 Arab American voters here, who are far from a monolith but have been largely united on this issue, and who have considerable electoral power, especially given Biden’s weaknesses with other Michigan voters . In 2020, Biden surpassed Trump in Michigan by a margin of only 154,000 votes . He currently trails the former president in most polls.

You might wonder: How could an Arab American—much less a Muslim—not want to defeat Trump? Did they forget “ Islam hates us ”? Did they forget the Muslim ban , the mass deportations , the relentless bigotry ? I’ve asked this of myself and my own family, as when, in the course of my reporting this article, a relative made a startling admission at the dinner table. I’ve now come to understand the incandescent rage many feel toward Biden. And in Dearborn, I heard a lot more than distaste for him. I heard many who fully believe that Donald Trump will fight for them more than Joe Biden—and plan to take that belief to the ballot box in November.

“What do they say? ‘What are they going to do, vote for the guy that banned Arabs?’ And the answer is yes,” Amer Zahr, a Palestinian American comedian and Dearborn local, told me at one of the city’s many Yemeni cafés one afternoon. We had both arrived exactly 20 minutes late, matching each other’s tardiness, and he spent the early part of the meeting jokingly insulting the cuisine in Egypt, where my parents are from. Then he got down to it.

He noted with obvious disdain how Biden clumsily waved off dwindling support among Arab Americans, suggesting they will eventually be forced to rally behind him or otherwise risk helping Trump. “The former president wants to put a ban on Arabs coming into the country,” Biden had said. “We’ll make sure—we understand who cares about the Arab population.”

“Imagine thinking it’s a good argument to say to a community that has lost 30,000 people, ‘Watch out for the guy that’s going to ban you.’ You’re really asking me whether I’m going to take a ban or a genocide? I’ll take a ban,” Zahr told me. (The Biden campaign didn’t reply to a request for comment.)

Long before the “uncommitted” vote push, just weeks after Israel declared war in October, a poll conducted by the Arab American Institute showed Arab American support for Biden crater from 59 percent to just 17 percent. My conversation with Zahr got visceral as he explained why.

“I mean, we’ve literally seen our families and our people being thrown into mass graves. Babies blown to bits. It’s not some far-off thing to us,” he said. “It’s been a struggle to declare our own humanity while mourning for our people being massacred.”

In October, he and other local activists in Dearborn organized an emergency community rally for Palestine. That later became the centerpiece of a Wall Street Journal opinion article titled “ Welcome to Dearborn, America’s Jihad Capital .” Biden condemned the piece, calling it “exactly what can lead to Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate,” but Zahr told me it was clear from the early days that the United States would support Israel’s retaliation unfettered. Statements of support for the community did nothing.

By the time of the primary, Zahr was helping campaign against Biden. In collaboration with the Dearborn-based Arab American Political Action Committee, he helped send 15,000 mailers to homes in Dearborn requesting people vote anyone but Biden. He told me his principal goal this coming election is only to make sure Biden loses. The primary vote “was the beginning of a process that ends with him losing in November,” he said. “We’ve already cost the Democrats the White House. We know how to do it, OK? And we have a chance to do it this time around. And that’s all I’m interested in,” Zahr said, in reference to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 defeat to Trump. If punishing Biden means helping Trump win the next election, Zahr says, he can live with that.

“If Trump were president right now, this war might’ve been over, because there might have been enough uproar from rank-and-file Democrats,” he said. “I think we have a lot of power in not being wed to a party.”

“I’m anticipating a huge shift in our community switching back to the Republican Party,” said Abed Hammoud, a founding member of the Arab American Political Action Committee. He remembers feeling like a pariah for being a Democrat in the early 2000s, when an estimated 72 percent of the Arab American vote went to the Republican candidate, George W. Bush. But after 9/11, with the rise of the “war on terror” and the vilification of Arab American communities, Hammoud helped to shift the tide of voters away from Republicans. It was largely successful. Now, Hammoud says, the pendulum could swing again in favor of Republicans.

“They took us for granted,” Hammoud said. “The problem is the stand we are asking Biden to take is not even political. It’s humanitarian.” He lamented the irony of Democratic messaging on human rights next to the party’s policy appearing to be complicit in the destruction of civilian life in Gaza. “I try not to sound extreme when I talk about these things, but there’s no other way to describe it other than encouraging killing. There’s no way around it. You can’t say he’s just watching. He is encouraging it.”

But what about Trump? I asked Hammoud. How does he square support for someone who was widely seen as favorable to the Israeli government? “ Biden is deeply committed to Zionism , a true believer, not acting on the whims of some lobby. That scares me a lot more,” Hammoud said. On this front, he says, he prefers someone like Trump. “Let’s assume my nonvote for Biden is a vote for Trump automatically. That indirect vote for Trump brings a guy into office who I don’t know what he will do. At the worst, he will be nasty toward us here, like he was in the past. And we can fight him within the law. I cannot fight Joe Biden when he stands with Israel,” he said.

In Hammoud’s view, Biden’s chance to win Michigan has evaporated. Though he is a lifelong Democrat, he said there’s no chance he will go back. “I’ll take my chances with Trump, hoping that something is going to give and something will go sideways and then all of a sudden Trump, Trump will fight Netanyahu. That’s why I am willing to take that risk today. Trump doesn’t scare me,” he said.

Dearborn is run by a Democrat. Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, the son of Lebanese immigrants, only just turned 34. He is the first Muslim leader of the city. Not long ago, he went on television and said , “We have survived the Trump presidency four years ago, and I’m not blind to what is being said by Trump and other Republican candidates at the podium. But as it pertains to the decisions being made overseas, it seems like there is no real difference between former President Trump and current President Biden.”

He is a quintessential local son. Inside his office, he has displayed little tokens like an encased Detroit Lions–branded football, a lacrosse helmet, a folded and framed American flag, and a few keepsakes from his historic campaign in 2022. When we met, Hammoud seemed a little exhausted at the media crush that had led up to the Michigan primary. But he also did not hold back. “The president should withdraw his support from the war tyrant and war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu if he wants to save our American democracy from unraveling with a reelection of Donald Trump,” he told me. “This is not a Muslim issue. This is an American issue.” Hammoud has not decided whether to support Biden in the fall.

He reclined in his chair, fingers touching his chin, as he described why this distant war had become so impossible for people here to ignore. “I have a resident who lost over 80 family members, all killed by American-made bombs and weapons,” he said. “There’s no way [Biden] is going to win back this individual in November.”

How does that stance work for a hopeful rising star in the Democratic Party? “Trump is an atrocity himself. And if you look at Trump’s foreign policy decisionmaking, it’s just as disastrous as Joe Biden’s,” Hammoud conceded. “Trump recognized illegal settlements in the West Bank, moved and recognized the embassy in Jerusalem, and provided Saudi Arabia with weaponry resulting in the deaths of over 30,000 innocent Yemenis. These are all things people tend to forget about.” Even still, he said, he hears daily from people here who cannot fathom what the government is doing now. “We’re witnessing the loss of two mothers every single hour in Gaza. That’s the reality I’m dealing with. I’m not concerned with the Democratic Party establishment. I’m concerned with my constituents. I have the audacity to put my community first.”

He was more measured about what might be in store for November. “I don’t believe you’re witnessing a mass exodus to the Republican Party,” he said. “It’s more likely a repeat of 2016, where Trump’s victory wasn’t just about the votes he gained but also about the significant number of people who skipped the top of the ticket.

“There’s a segment of the constituency that with the adoption of a permanent cease-fire, a halt in unrestricted U.S. military aid, and steps toward establishing a Palestinian state might reconsider their support for Biden,” he said. “But there’s certainly a portion of the vote that might remain lost, and we should anticipate that.”

In our brief conversation, Hammoud seemed aware some people are ready to take advantage of this moment. I met several of them in Michigan. They all knew the area could be a potential tipping point in the election—if only local Republicans weren’t such a mess.

Stephanie Butler, a local Republican activist, wants to turn “uncommitted” votes into votes for Trump. She called those votes a “a waste.” “You guys are using it as political leverage and saying, ‘Let us show them the power of the Arab vote,’ ” she said. “You’re going to give this maniac two weeks before a general election to call for a cease-fire? Does that bring back the 30,000 lives that have been lost? Who are you proving a lesson to?”

Butler has been a fixture in the community since she successfully helped corral Arab Americans into protesting sexual material in public schools and libraries. But she admits that Republicans don’t have the greatest track record when it comes to courting Arab and Muslim votes, partly because in Michigan, they’ve been especially exclusionary. “It is literally religious fanatics. I’m Catholic Christian, and they don’t even like me. You have to be an evangelist, the crazy type, to fit into their clique. And I’m not that. They’re constantly quoting Bible verses and this and that. These people are insane,” she said, describing the Michigan Republican convention . But she said the power of some GOP messaging is evident in the book-ban fracas that briefly rocked Dearborn . She’s trying to convince more Republicans to take advantage of that.

Rola Makki, the first hijab-wearing elected Michigan GOP outreach official, blamed Dearborn itself for Republicans’ troubles there since 9/11. “The Republican presence is not that great in the city because they’re not welcoming to the Republican Party. It’s a two-way street. It feels like that could change in the near future. I believe it’s already changed.”

She downplayed the party’s obvious Islamophobia problem as exaggerated by the media: “Our enemy is not each other. It’s not Democrats vs. Republicans. It’s really the media at the end of the day because they are the ones that are spreading the hate and lies.”

Hassan Nehme, a Republican official running for Congress in Rashida Tlaib’s district, has also been working behind the scenes to move Arab voters to the right, as he himself had after joining the Army in 2012. He says Islamophobia has been an issue in the state’s Republican Party, and that at times he doesn’t feel welcome, but he chalks it up to an education issue. “It’s like they’ve never sat with an actual Muslim or an Arab American and actually had a conversation,” he said. But he quickly pointed to Trump’s appointment of him, a Muslim, as a state delegate as a sign of progress.

“A lot more people are switching sides now,” he said. “I’ve only spoken to three people in the last four or five months who still support Joe Biden. Honestly. Even with Democrats that I go back and forth with all the time. On Biden, everyone agrees.”

“It’s depressing to think of our community as being so selfish,” said Saladin Ahmed, 48, a well-known comic book artist who has seen Dearborn grow and change over the years. He was venting his frustrations not long after the “uncommitted” movement had its moment in the primary.

Ahmed is accomplished in his field, most known for his work with Marvel comics for big characters like Miles Morales: Spider-Man , The Magnificent Ms. Marvel , and Black Bolt . He was heavily influenced by his great-grandmother, who was part of Malcolm X’s spiritual journey and the spread of Islam in the country. His father, too, a local radio personality, instilled in him the importance of understanding various struggles, not just those of the Arab American community. “You’re willing to put someone who there’s no question will be a worse president for Black people than Joe Biden is. He is going to be worse for more people. Things are going to be worse for students, for workers, for gay people, for women—that difference matters,” he said.

We met for dinner, and he barely touched his food while he tried to explain exactly how worried he is about Trump. The small differences between candidates may seem insignificant to some, he said, but he believes four more years of Trump will have tangible consequences for real people. “One of their neighbors is going to not be able to make rent because of this fucking decision. Your kid’s art program at school is going to close because of this shit. And people feel so righteous. That’s the part that bothers me. The world as a whole matters,” he said. His children are half-Black, and one is trans; he doesn’t understand how no one can see what another Trump presidency would bring.

Few have seen Dearborn change like Ahmed. He was born in 1975 after his family had already been in America for several generations. They were among the first of Arab descent to settle in Michigan in the early 1900s. He remembers what it was like to grow up in a segregated Dearborn, in which an Arab minority lived in the more industrial south end. He recalls a time when a former mayor, Michael Guido, clashed with the growing Arab population and campaigned using anti-Arab stereotypes.

“Previous generations of Arab activists understood this. They didn’t see Palestine in a vacuum. They saw it as part of an international struggle. So, deciding everything else has to come to a stop to make this thing that isn’t going to change anything policy wise—it’s a literal objective fact that Donald Trump’s proposed notions for Palestine are worse than Biden’s. Which is hard to do,” he said.

Even so, he said the activism he has seen surge through Dearborn has been inspiring, in a way. “It’s surprising and impressive,” he said. “I think if it were handled differently, I’d say this is exactly the kind of thing Michigan needs. It’s one state where people who care about Palestinian lives can have a voice. But taking it far enough to support Trump to try and derail Biden in November is wild to me.”

The truth is Ahmed was one of the only Arabs I could find in Dearborn who openly admitted they actually planned to vote for Biden in November. I spent much of my time there immersed in the city’s café culture, and the more I talked to people, the more I saw the full extent of what was happening in Dearborn.

Qahwah House is one of the city’s jewels, open late and often packed. There I met Maryam, who was seated alone across a kettle filled with Turkish coffee. She told me she found the uncommitted voters “annoying”—but not because they voted against Biden. “If you can vote, you really should,” she said, noting she was a recent immigrant who couldn’t yet. I asked her whom she would be supporting if she could, and she confidently told me it would be Trump. “I don’t get why people hate him. My cousins say it’s because he hates Arabs. But nobody likes Arabs in this country.”

I heard a similar sentiment from another patron, Fares, a Palestinian man who became a U.S. citizen 20 years ago, and voted for Biden in 2020. “I feel like, whether Republicans or Democrats, it’s all the same,” he said. “I don’t think I’m going to vote for any because it doesn’t matter.” It’s a major shift for him. He was born in Syria to parents exiled in 1948 from what is now Haifa. He told me he hadn’t missed a presidential election before, but now he doesn’t see a point. “If 12,000 dead kids don’t change their hearts, you think you or I will?”

I did manage to find one person who voted for Biden in the primary, a student named Shreya. But she’s already starting to change her mind. “I’m thinking about it now, and I’m not sure I want to vote anymore,” she said. “We only have bad options. And now I’m thinking uncommitted is a better option too. I can’t support what’s going on with Palestine,” she said. “The easiest choice now feels like voting uncommitted.”

I began to think the Dearborn mayor was onto something. Most people I spoke to said they thought it was at least worth trying Trump again if Biden was the other option—but many said they simply wouldn’t vote for anyone at all.

The genesis of the grassroots “uncommitted” vote movement, which has since traveled to other states, was in Dearborn just weeks before the Michigan primary. In early February, the idea was sparked by a group of young activists determined to pressure Biden into changing course on Gaza. From these discussions emerged Listen to Michigan, a campaign aimed at diverting disillusioned voters away from Biden. At the forefront of this movement is Layla Elabed, the group’s campaign manager and the younger sister of Rep. Rashida Tlaib.

In a conversation at Qahwah House, Elabed seemed tired. It had become obvious to her she could no longer support Biden, and she didn’t see why that was so hard to understand. “It is hard for me to reconcile my core beliefs and morals to support a president that dehumanizes my people,” Elabed said. “This is a president that I met in person. That knows my sister. That met my mom, who wore a traditional Palestinian thobe at the White House.”

Nobody from Biden’s campaign has reached out to Listen to Michigan, Elabed said, but she believes she’s doing it a favor. “We are literally handing the Democratic Party and President Biden a gift to say we’re months away from November, and you have a chance to change course right now and stop the alienation of your core constituency,” Elabed said.

Back home in New Jersey, not long after my time in Dearborn, I confronted this head-on myself. “Under no circumstance could any of us vote for Joe Biden,” a relative suddenly said at dinner one night. “How could anyone vote for someone with this much blood on his hands?”

I posed the obvious question, asking if she thought Trump would be better. “What’s worse than genocide?” she retorted. “Maybe if the Democrats lose this election, they’ll learn their lesson. I’m happy to take several steps back if that’s what it takes to take a step forward.” When I argued, I got thousand-yard stares.

I thought back to my conversation with Elabed, who seemed a little horrified that many seemed content to restore Trump to the White House. “I tell people all the time, I’m like, ‘What are you guys talking about? There’s literally an illegal settlement called Trump Heights.’ Even my own family members. I have to remind them, because they’re like ‘Trump 2024!’ And I’m like, ‘Are you crazy?’ ” But she arrived back to the same place the conversation did at my dinner table that night with my relatives—that nothing can matter as much as what she believes America is enabling in Gaza. “Right now, it seems like it won’t matter if it’s Biden or Trump. We are going to have the same outcome when it comes to Palestine,” she said.