User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
This was my first time conducting a field research project. As I anticipated, it was quite challenging to conduct field experiments through correspondence studies. With no previous knowledge in research methods, when it came to analyzing and discussing my data, I felt unprepared and lost but I did learn so much and appreciate the process.
My challenges were more based on trying to figure out what I wanted to research and how I was going to develop it. Accumulating the data was easy for me but to analyze it without any background in research methods was where I lacked insight.
From the start, seasonal and climatic variables affected my data collection; it rained most of the summer, and at the peak of vegetation cover, it was difficult to see ant activity. In the spring, I couldn’t identify the vegetation so I decided that I wouldn’t keep track of identifying shrubs, grasses, and trees. I did, however, have a good idea of the general species community of my site.
There was very little research supporting my hypothesis, and that was another challenge. There was no mound in my study which was a bit frustrating because I initially wanted to study correlation of mound presence, soil type and vegetation cover. I soon realized that my topic was quite complex and that ideally this study would be more successful if it was conducted over a longer time frame.
