User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
April 1st, 2018
Performing a successful field research project in the fall/winter time in Canada was a challenging task. My decision to perform my experiment indoors proved to be extremely difficult in meeting some of the requirements of this course. Elements such as creating a gradient from which to observe and record changes in my study was impossible as my experiment was performed in potted soil in a greenhouse. I certainly learned a lot about improvising and overcoming obstacles when growing my plants.
The biggest challenges I faced were time constraints as I have been dealing with medical issues, moving to a new country, and being a full-time university student in addition to completing this course. Due to these obstacles I did not make any major changes to my experimental design. That being said, I felt as though I did not have to make any changes because my design was relatively simple and straightforward. There was literature that both supported and did not support my hypothesis, so I was not overly worried about the outcome. Additionally, my passion is for geology and so I found it somewhat difficult to completely immerse myself in the world of ecology – but I’m thankful that I did.
My appreciation for ecological theory has certainly skyrocketed as I realize how much time, effort and practice it takes to create a “successful” experiment. Especially in researching the scientific articles for the annotated bibliography I have realized the passion people must have for ecology to perform experiments. Clarity of design and writing is such an essential element of research that I realized I need to improve greatly if I was to perform another ecological experiment. I certainly did learn a lot about crop production and the competition between crop and weed species.
Thanks for your wisdom and guidance throughout the course, Percy!
