PROJECT DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

Data Collection Tips | Data Analysis Tips | Raw and Summarized Data

Data Collection Tips

DO A PILOT STUDY BEFORE YOU BEGIN.

• Make sure whatever you are going to study will work before you begin.
• 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. If you are going go do a bird feeder study, start feeding the birds real early so you know you will have plenty of birds coming before you begin.

Some equipment (e.g., 50 m tapes, meter sticks, compass) may be checked out for one week by coming to the West Campus, Science (K) Building, Room 132 (M-Th 8-8; F 8-4) and signing out the equipment. You will be held responsible for equipment not returned.

Make sure you write down any deviations from the proposal (for example maybe your dates or start/stop times changed or maybe you were able to do extra transects because they didn't take as long as you thought) so that you can include them in your report.

Some suggestions for conducting plant studies

• Use at least five 50 meter (m) transects in each of the two areas, for a total of 10 transects.
• Record the number of individuals of each species whose main stem lies within 5 meters of each side of the transect (use more than 5 meters if plant density is low). If you use 5 meters to each side of the transect, then each transect will create a sample area of 50 meters X 10 meters = 500 square meters (times 5 transects = 2500 square meters total each area).
• Please note that this is different than the vegetation analysis lab where we used plots because we were interested in getting frequency data (the system outlined above uses no plots; you just record every individual whose stem is within the specified distance away from the transect line).

Some suggestions for conducting bird studies

• Conduct at least four 1-hour bird observation periods in each of the two areas, for a total of 8 hours.
• Each area should be observed at the same times of day as the other area (for example, if your observation periods at site 1 are 8 am, 12 pm, and 4 pm then they should be the same times at site 2).
• You should try to cover about the same amount of area at both sites.
• It is best to use binoculars and a bird book

Data Analysis Tips

• The data you collect is called the raw data. Now you have to summarize those data. Most studies require you to calculate totals and/or averages. Then you need to see if the totals and/or averages are significantly different or not by performing one or more statistical tests (see Statistics PowerPoint).
• Use the Statistics Excel file for entering your data and determining the p value for your statistical tests. If the p value is 0.05 or more than you have to tentatively conclude that the totals and/or averages are not different (even though they may look different).

Raw and Summarized Data

You will turn in 4 things:

1. Your Research Question
2. Your Raw Data -- all the data you collected in the form of a table.
3. Your Summarized Data -- this is the table(s) (and graphs if necessary) that you will submit with the Project Report. The table(s)/graph(s) should include your totals and/or averages and your p values from the statistical tests (see sample table in the sample report). Make sure all tables and graphs are named (e.g., Table 1), have a complete caption (the description after the name of the table that completely describes what the data are, where they were collected, when they were collected, and what statistics were used to calculate the p value), and are fully labeled (row and column headings).
4. Your Tentative Conclusion. For example: Bird visitation was significantly greater (p<0.01) to a feeder with sunflower seeds (46 visits per hour) compared to a feeder with cracked corn (41 visits per hour).

See Sample below:

Research Question: How does bird visitation rate to a feeder with sunflower seeds differ from a feeder with cracked corn?

Raw Data:

Raw Data Table. Bird visitation rate (per hour) to a feeder with sunflower seeds and an identical feeder 1 meter away with cracked corn in Tucson, AZ as observed October 1-8, 2011 from 7:00-8:00 am.

	Sunflower Seeds	Cracked Corn
Oct. 1	46	41
Oct. 2	47	42
Oct. 3	48	43
Oct. 4	47	44
Oct. 5	46	40
Oct. 6	45	39
Oct. 7	44	38
Oct. 8	45	41

Summarized Data:

Table 1. Bird visitation rate (per hour) to a feeder with sunflower seeds and an identical feeder 1 meter away with cracked corn in Tucson, AZ as observed October 1-8, 2011 from 7:00-8:00 am. Significance (p<0.05) determined by paired t-test.

Sunflower Seeds	Cracked Corn	Significant?
46	41	yes: p<0.01

Tentative Conclusion:

Bird visitation rate (per hour) was significantly greater (p<0.01) to a feeder with sunflower seeds (46 visits/hour) compared to a feeder with cracked corn (41 visits/hour)(see Table 1).

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