• Biggest tip to success: TURN IN EACH ASSIGNMENT EARLY.
  • WHY? Because I will give you feedback (if turned in at least one week early), and then you can modify the assignment and resubmit it before the due date for a higher score potentially. Get it in early enough and you should get 100%.
  • Also, because NO EXCUSES ARE ACCEPTED FOR LATE WORK.
• Another huge tip: FOLLOW DIRECTIONS PRECISELY.
  • Follow the format and sample exactly for the proposal, data, and report (see links above).
• Another huge tip: DO A PILOT STUDY BEFORE YOU BEGIN.
  • Make sure whatever you are going to study will work before you begin by collecting preliminary data to see if it will work.
  • For example, if you are going to study a particular plant, then make sure it is numerous enough in the location(s) you are going to study and collect some preliminary data to see if it is going to work. If you are going to conduct a bird feeder study, start feeding the birds real early so you know you will have plenty of birds coming before you begin and try collecting some data to see if it is going to work and resolve issues up front.
• Let's get you started doing science:
  • First step: Ask a Research Question
  • Second step: go through the Statistics PowerPoint to learn which statistics test to use for writing the proposal.
  • Third step: Write a Proposal
  • Fourth step: Collect and Analyze Data
  • Fifth step: Submit Raw and Summarized Data and your Tentative Conclusion
  • Sixth step: Write a Report

OBJECTIVES: For you to practice science through conducting a hands-on, scientific investigation. For you to gain further experience and confidence in your ability to do science and to critically think. For you to gain experience in writing a scientific report.

BACKGROUND: Many factors affect where plants and animals occur and in what abundance. You likely will study either plants or birds (because they are animals that are relatively easy to see and identify) and collect data on their abundance or species variety in locations that differ in one or more factors (e.g., elevation). After you have collected, summarized, displayed, and analyzed your data, you will use your natural history knowledge from the class and your readings to come up with possible explanations (hypotheses) for your results. I hope you enjoy the opportunity to spend some time outside, focusing on either plants or birds, and practicing what you are learning in class.

RESEARCH QUESTION: Submit a research question that is one sentence long and contains a question mark at the end (in other words, it has to written in the form of a question rather than a statement). See samples. Make sure it hasn't been chosen by another student yet by looking at student projects.

PROPOSAL: Submit a Proposal (see Proposal). Please note that you should not begin data collection until you have received feedback on your proposal from me (otherwise, you risk having to collect the data again if I ask you to change something in your methods). Also, please aim for about 8 hours of data collection

DATA: Submit raw data, summarized data, and tentative conclusion.

REPORT: Submit a Report (see Report). The report must include at least 2 literature citations.

REVISED REPORT: Much is learned through revision, and this option provides an opportunity for those who submitted the Report to improve their grade by submitting a Revised Report based on my feedback. Points lost on Report for being late cannot be recovered (you can only earn points based on revisions). (Points awarded = 75% of difference between grades received on revision and report).

PRESENTATION: Present your major project findings (research question, results, hypotheses explaining your results) using PowerPoint, and then add additional information related to your project and Bio109 and of interest to the students in the class to equal 5-10 minutes.