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From Rosetta Stone:
Wir werden zum Arzt gehen, um herauszufinden, ob unser Baby ein Junge oder ein Mädchen wird.
Would it make sense if it was changed to one of the following?
Wir werden zum Arzt gehen, um herauszufinden, ob unser Baby ein Junge oder ein Mädchen ist.
Wir werden zum Arzt gehen, um herauszufinden, ob unser Baby ein Junge oder ein Mädchen sein wird.
Is there a specific rule that explains the use of werden?
All three are correct. There is little to no difference in meaning, unless we start nit-picking:
... ein Mädchen ist
is simply present tense ("... is a girl"). This is the most logical thing to say, since it accepts that the unborn already is a human being.
...ein Mädchen sein wird
is future I and the same as "... will be a girl" in English.
...es ein Mädchen wird
Here, "wird" is to be translated as "becomes", implying that the baby is neither boy nor girl until born, or incomplete. It is what I would call the traditional way to say it - not a grammatical rule, but an established phrase in everyday speech.
"Sein wird" is unnecessarily redundant; "ist" would work, but I imagine that there were pedagogical reasons involved in this choice -- they probably wanted to give the student an opportunity to practice "werden."
If we change the sentence just a bit, to
I hope the birth goes well and the baby is healthy
then "wird" is a more obvious best choice. Hope that helps!
