User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
Everything surrounding the process of making the graph was straightforward and I knew already what kind of graph would best summarize my data, so all of this was smooth sailing. However, I was rather surprised when I saw the final result of my graph. I had an idea of what I thought the pattern should look like from the assignment earlier on in the course, but when I collected my data I thought there was no way my graph would even come close to replicating my prediction. I was ready to reject my hypothesis and was gearing up to take my study in the direction of exploring the other variables of why this hypothesis had no effect. However, upon seeing the final result of my graph I noticed that it was not anywhere to a close replicate, but the data did somewhat behave as I thought it would. Rather that moving in a smooth bell shape, it spikes up and down a little more than I thought, and I would love to find out what other variables were causing that reaction among my quadrats. And although it was a little more rigid, it does more or less follow the predicted pattern of starting moderately, rising and then descending to the lowest part of the graph. That realization was quite exciting for me! It made me really want to dive deeper into the other factors at play on this species in this ecosystem, as well as made me more fascinated by the cattails themselves.
All in all, I’m feeling very grateful for this class and this project for giving me a new curiosity in this field, and I’m very eager to finish the rest of the project and the class.
Glad to hear it, good luck with the final paper!