User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
This experiment was a combination of stress and pride as it was my first time designing and carrying out an entire research project! It was an interesting journey filled will multiple challenges and resulted in a project that I am very proud of.
The major issue I ran into was weather changes. I was not prepared for how quickly the temperature declined this fall, and as a result, my variables may have been confounded. If I were to re-do this experiment, I would have began this as early as possible and completed my replicates while the temperatures were consistent. In addition to this, I would have adjusted how I approached my replicates. Instead of doing the replicates for each treatment on different days, I would have done them all in one day. This way, I would have had consistent temperature and weather, thus reducing confounding variables and improving the accuracy of my results. As a result of not doing both the the previously mentioned items, I had to change my second treatment from one flower to another. I chose to change the flower as my first choice was too withered to be considered viable for my experiment. Perhaps I will never know if this made a dramatic difference in my observations, but every consistent variable counts!
This course and experiment has given me a much more engaging perspective on the scientific method and ecological science as a whole. The final project in conjunction with the textbook readings has evolved my appreciation for environmental science and I look forward to furthering my knowledge in this with future schooling!
