A teacher suspects that her students are unusually quiet during her Monday morning classes because they stay up late on Sunday nights. She believes that if she monitored the times they went to bed, she would find that the sleepy ones went to bed later than the more alert ones. In scientific terms, her hunch, or suspicion of what she would find if she monitored her students, is called a ________.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

A hypothesis is an educated guess or prediction about what will happen. In this case, the teacher has a hypothesis that the sleepy students stay up later on Sunday nights, which she can test by monitoring their bedtimes. The other options, postulate, theory, and prognosis, do not accurately describe the teacher's situation or the nature of her prediction.

A Teacher Suspects That Her Students Are Unusually Quiet During