Assignment task: According to the FEDER article (#1 in the Smith Transformations Reader), there is a real and knowable universe which science can study. Develop a hypothesis to explain the DATA below, and then describe a methodology for testing it. If you want to provide information you researched that would be fine.
DATA: Over the past 20 years diagnoses of food allergies of any kind in California have risen significantly. This is a fact.
NOW EXPLAIN WHY IS THIS THE CASE? What is your hypothesis, why is this happening, and how would you test it? [Don't just say DNA, there must be a reason this trait is developing in children -- come up with an idea for why it is occurring and then explain how you would test that idea - that is what science is -- simply a method for testing]