Hypothesis help

[Jennwallace2]

I am helping my son formulate his hypothesis for his science fair project. He chose the M&M survival challenge from this site. He knows that the 100 M&Ms are the constant and the colored paper is the independent variable. But he can't decide how to phrase his hypothesis. If I change the background color, then...... Should he chose one color he thinks will most likely survive all colors or can he say that the amount of each color will change when he changes the background color. The latter seems too broad. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

[theborg]

Jennwallace2,

Thank you for your question. I hadn't seen this particular project on the Science Buddies site and so haven't performed it. However, in thinking about it, it is a test of the effects of camouflage on the survivability, that is an individuals ability to blend into the background. So my hypothesis would be something along the lines of this: "The less contrast difference there is between an individual and the background color it is against, the greater the probability that it will avoid being eaten and survive." Or inversly: "The greater the contrast difference between an individual and its background, the greater probability that it will be detected and eaten by a predator."

Those are my thoughts that lay out in the thesis that the contrast difference is the independant variable and the probability of detection or survivability is the dependant variable.

However, it is your students project, he should make his own guess and then test that hypothesis.