User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
I had no prior post-secondary background in ecology and this course has given me a good glimpse into this field. Conducting the experiment enabled me to see the work that ecologists have to undergo in order to form ecological theories. Performing the field work myself makes me more appreciative of what ecologists do.
The implementation of my research project was pretty straightforward but I did have to slightly modify my experimental design to work more cohesively with my particular research topic. Simply going out to count flowers in the park was not enough. I had to take into account different factors that I hadn’t considered before this project, including the fact that flowers can “migrate” by attaching to humans and animals and by being deposited in other areas (whether within the park or not). Lastly, because this is scientific research, I cannot assume anything is just the way it is based on what I have observed, but rather, I must investigate why things are the way they are.
