User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
- There were some difficulties in implementing my sampling strategies. It is sometimes difficult to measure out transects if people are nearby, it was also not ideal to count individual bees as when many accumulated, it was hard to keep track. It is also hard to set a control as I would physically have to restrict a bush from any bee pollination and legally I am not allowed to do that. I think in modifying my approach I am also going to relocate my experiment to somewhere less busy where I can spend a significant amount of time without being disturbed. So in saying this, I am going to take my study into my backyard where I have an abundance of vegetation and animals. I am now going to study the effects of watering on fruit trees. My hypothesis is: Fruit trees with more watering of the soil will increase better fruit production.
ok. I understand the switch now.
remember also that in Discussion there is room to identify and discuss things that make this hard…and talk about how a future study that has a higher degree of manipulation might result in better results.
Also, studies or projects that work in ecology in the ‘great outdoors’ often have to contend with many factors – and there might not actually be a ‘control’.
You are right to note that when working with animals, we have to look at the ethics too, and in fact projects that require manipulation have to go through an Animal Ethics Board review (not part of this course because not allowed to manipulate to potentially harm)