Methods Checkpoint #1
Field Biology
Last week, you turned in your Noyes Project Introduction. This document explained to me what you and your partner hoped to accomplish in your project. The next step in your study is to tell me exactly how you plan to make your measurements for each of the factors in your study. Your goal is to create a step-by-step list of instructions that contain all of the details that anyone would need to make the exact same measurements that you’re planning to make. This document is called your “methods” section.
The first steps in creating a Methods section are outlined below. You should complete all of these steps today. Please work on your own – you should use your own computer, and do your own research. You might need to consult with your partner, but your writing should be your own and should reflect your own individual ideas.
1. Find three websites for each factor you are studying. These websites should be affiliated with a university, government agency, or a private research organization. The websites should contain practical, scientific information that you can use to develop a list of instructions (a protocol) for collecting data. For example, if your question was “what is the relationship between soil moisture and plant growth?”, you would want to find three websites that would help you figure out how to measure soil moisture and three websites that would help you figure out how to measure plant growth. Type these websites into a Microsoft Word document.
2. Revise your WITRB question, if necessary, so
that it is practical and specific. In
the example question above, it might be important to specify which plant (or
which type of plant) you are planning to look at (e.g., “blue ryegrass” or
“shrubs”). You will need to talk with
your partner about this. Type your revised (or unrevised, if you
didn’t change it) WITRB question into your Word document.
3. You should now have found a total of six
different, useful web sites (three for each factor in your “What is the relationship
between” question) that you can use to build a step-by-step list of that explains exactly how to collect your data. The next step is to take the information in
these web pages and rewrite it in your own words, in a numbered list
format. After each step, make sure that
you identify the website or resource that step came from. You do not need to follow the formal in-text
citation format at this time; you will do this later as you refine your
methods. Type these instructions with their accompanying URL’s into your Word
document.
Imagine that your question is “What is the relationship between the number of students a dog eats and the bluntness of the dog’s teeth”. When you are done with this step, your instructions for one factor might look like this:
“Steps for measuring the change in bluntness of a dog’s teeth:
1. Identify six teeth to measure – two canines on the upper jaw, two canines on the lower jaw, and one back tooth from each jaw. (www.dogteeth.com/measuring)
2. Using calipers, measure a) the total length of each tooth, measured from the highest point of the arc along the gumline to the tip of the tooth and b) the total width of the tip of the tooth. Record this information on a data sheet. (www.teethmeasuring.gov)
3. Take a digital photo of each tooth. Name the digital photos with today’s date, the type of tooth, and which jaw it is in. (www.teethmeasuring.gov)”
4. Repeat Step 3 for the other factor you are measuring.
5. Save your work to your H: drive. You do not need to submit your work today – we will add on to this work in class tomorrow and you will submit it at that time.
Here are some
examples of Methods sections that previous Field Biology students have written:
“Methods
1. First we will gather soil from the Noyes property,
enough to fill 6 small plant pots. The soil will come from a wetland region
since snowberry is frequently found growing in a wetland system (http://www.sernw.org).
2. We will avoid soil that
is clay or too dry since snowberry will not perform well on clayey textured or
excessively drained soils. (http://www.mt.nrcs.usda.gov).
3. The soil will be split
into 6 different pots in which will be watered with different amounts of water
each day.
4. The pots will be about a
foot deep because snowberry’s root system is vigorous and deep enough to hold
most banks (http://www.laspilitas.com).
5. The pots will also have
holes in the bottom because the water needs to drain for
Snowberry to best thrive (http://www.laspilitas.com).
6. In each of the 6 pots
will be 1 bare root seedling of Symphoricarpos albus (http://www.sernw.org).
7. The amount of water for
the first 2 pots will be less than 10ml per day. We will water them this much
because Snowberry does not need regular watering and can survive in near drought
conditions
(http://www.oakpointnursery.com).
8. The second 2 pots will be
watered 20 ml per day and the third pot will be watered 50 ml per day since in
some cases snowberry receives a rainfall of 25 inches and up (http://www.laspilitas.com).
The second 2 pots will be watered 30 ml per day.
9. We will keep the pots
outside of Bregar’s room by the door because the
plant prefers dry to moist sun or partial shade (http://www.wnps.org).
10. After we are through
with the watering and the plants have sprouted significantly we will measure
each of the plants.
11. We will measure
according to diameter of the plant, weight of the plant, number of side
branches and vertical height (http://www.sernw.org).
12. Then according to which
of the plants has the highest number in each of
These criteria, we will
determine which of the plants have thrived the most from the amount of water it
has received.”
1. We take between 5-10 soil samples from each field/area.
2.
We mix the samples in a clean plastic bucket.
3.
We mix equal quantities of distilled water and soil from your
sample in a clean plastic container by shaking the container at least 25 times.
4.
We let the mixed solution stand for five minutes.
5. We measure the pH of the
solution. Turn on the pH meter, remove the cap to expose the sensor, and dip
the sensor completely in the solution.
6. We record the pH reading that is
displayed on the meter.