Post 5: Design Reflections

For the initial collection of data I used what I initially thought was a systematic sampling technique because I walked a certain number of paces to get to certain areas of each corner of the field. However, I realised that I was not actually using a systematic sampling technique because the sample taken in the middle of the field was not able to be measured by a certain number of paces equally from each “edge” of the field. This was due to the field not being uniform. Hence, I determined that I used a simple random sampling technique for the initial collection of data. This was not so much a difficulty but more of a misunderstanding on my part for sampling.

My initial hypothesis stated that there would be more dandelions towards the northern and eastern perimeters of the field because I had typically observed less prolonged human activity in those areas in the field whereas the southern and western parts of the field had benches, a playground, and a street hockey area. The data from the replicate in the southwest corner of the field surprised me because it had the greatest number of dandelions in the quadrat I set. However, I did not initially consider whether I would count flattened (versus upright) dandelions in my counts.

I still intend to use the random sampling technique for future data collection although I may consider adding more replicates to get a better idea of the abundance of dandelions in different parts of the field. One thing I may have to consider is that the park is maintained every so often and the dandelions may be mowed down during subsequent samplings.