BioBlitz Research Project

Final Report DUE November 12:

Your BioBlitz final report should be uploaded using the form below with the following parts:

• Abstract (maximum 200 words)
• Question and Hypothesis
• Experiment and Methodology
• Observations
• Data Analysis (including data visualizations)
• Conclusion
• References

Below are some notes about each of these sections which you should pay attention to:

• Abstract
  • Remember to look through Jake’s tutorial on abstract writing
• Question and Hypothesis
  • These elements are part of an introductory essay to your experimental report. As such, don’t just write what the Question and Hypothesis are without any context. Explain why the question is important, why it needs to be answered, and explain the process of how your hypothesis came to be. Be brief and concise, this isn’t a personal essay but it should describe some of the process.
• Experiment and Methodology
  • This should be dry and written in passive tense (“data was examined” instead of “we examined data”). It it intended to be written in a very straightforward style so that others can replicate your experiment. Look through some of the experiment/methodology sections of the peer-reviewed literature you’re using for good models.
• Observations
  • These are just your results or observations with no analysis. Do not start trying to extract correlation, “meaning,” or making an argument in this section. Simply list the observations that resulted from your methodology. This section should be mostly data-driven (tables, charts, etc.)
• Data Analysis (including data visualizations)
  • Here is where you start making analytical observations about your data. What can you say about things like correlation, trends, degrees of certainty, etc.? Use lots of graphs, charts, or data visualizations. If you want to experiment with an infographic, I recommend easel.ly.
• Conclusion
  • Here is where you call back to your hypothesis and determine whether the observations that you just analyzed can tell you something about your hypothesis. This part should, again, be more like an essay, think of it like a bookend to your Question/Hypothesis section. You should also make sure to address flaws or ideas about your experimental design, or what other experiments need to be done to make better conclusions, or what the next step would be for your topic. In other words, allow this to open outward beyond the scope of just your experiment.
• References
  • This is just a list of your cited sources, in alphabetical order.
  • Remember, use (Author Date) parenthetical citations throughout your report.
    • If you are using a direct quotation, you can add a page number after the date like this: (Author Date, PageNumber).
    • If you are just referencing the work generally, you don’t need a page number
  • List all references using Chicago style where the year comes directly after the name. It looks like this:
    • Branislav, Igic, Valerie Nunez, Henning U. Voss, Rebecca Croston, Zachary Aidala, Analía V. López, Aimee Van Tatenhove, Mandë E. Holford, Matthew D. Shawkey, Mark E. Hauber. 2015. “Using 3D Printed Eggs to Examine the Egg-Rejection Behaviour of Wild Birds.” PeerJ 3 (May).
    • The citation for the above article would be (Branislav et al. 2015)

Previous Assignments

Data Analysis and Main Findings DUE November 5:

By Monday Nov. 5 at the start of class, upload a document (either Microsoft Word .doc/.docx or a PDF) using the form below. This document should contain two sections.

Section I: Data Analysis

Looking at the data that you have observed as part of your experimental procedure, answer the following questions in essay form (not bullet points!):

• Does my experiment answer the question I am trying to prove?
• Does my experiment adequately test my hypothesis?
• Can I make observations about the results of my procedure?
• Will I be able to analyze those results?

Section II: Main Findings

Produce at least 1 data visualization (graph, chart, infographic, etc.) that summarizes your findings. Additionally, reproduce the data in tabular form that was used to generate the visualization. Produce some kind of conclusion based on your data analysis, in essay form.

BioBlitz Worksheet DUE October 10:

Please create a new ePortfolios post with the category “BioBlitz Research Question” and answer the following questions. Please include each of the six questions in the post by placing the question text in bold in your post (you can just copy and paste from below). If you would like more help designing your experiment or have additional questions, please ask Dr. Greer.

1. What is the final version of the question you are interested in asking?
2. List some keywords to use when searching for related scientific literature. Be specific!
3. Where will your data come from? Do you need to collect new data? Please describe.
4. What will you be measuring or comparing? What are the dependent and independent variables?
5. Please make a list of your methods. If you are using existing BioBlitz data, you do not need to describe those data collection methods on this worksheet, but you do need to describe how you are extracting the relevant data from the entire BioBlitz data set.
6. Why is this question interesting to you? Why should others care about this topic?

Groups:

• Stella, Robert, Kiara
• Harmeet, Ayelet, Pabvitraa
• Mark, Karishma, AJ
• Justin, Demir, Weihang
• Natalie, Yina, Greg
• Rinni, Claire, Victor
• Felix, Dan, Mia

Submit your research question using the form below