This research plan should be about 1-2 pages in length. The project will be a research plan constructed for a specific issue related to the physical sciences.

You can find numerous ideas on the following website:

Part 1: Selection of a problem to study and an initial hypothesis.

· Select an issue/problem/topic from one of the physical sciences: physics, chemistry, earth science, or astronomy.

· Propose an initial hypothesis related to the issue.

Part 2: Review current research knowledge.

· Describe how you could perform a review of current research on the subject/issue. Identify which Library/database sources could be useful in your research review. What criteria will you use in the selection of review sources from the web?

· Do the results of your research review lead you to suspect that your initial hypothesis is correct, or does it suggest that you should modify your initial hypothesis in some way?

If so, restate or revise. Are there gaps in the current research that further research/experimentation/observation might fill and shed light on your hypothesis?

Part 3: Write a research plan based on the results of parts 1 and 2 above.

· Suggest a plan to test your hypothesis (initial or revised). What data will you study? How and where will you gather it? What equipment or resources will be needed?

How much time will be needed to gather the data? Are there any confounding issues that might affect/influence the quality of your data? If so, discuss how might you mitigate these unwanted effects/influences? Justify all of your statements.

· Provide a list of sources that could be used to review this issue. Include a citation of one article you read.

· Provide a list of web sources that could be used to review this issue. Discuss why these web sources would be trusted sources of information on the issue. Include a citation of one site you reviewed.

· Suggest how your data would be presented (chart, graph, or table).