Your first step to completing your research project is to form a question.  This question will guide your literature research and ultimately lead to your hypothesis.  You need to keep the following in mind as you formulate your hypothesis and project:

1.  You will have a limited amount of time to perform your experiment/procedure.  

2.  All your data will need to be analyzed using statistics and properly presented using table(s) and graphs.

3.  You will need time after completing the above to write your findings in a formal report that is in a publishable format.

4.  Your instructor will help you in formulating your hypothesis correctly and designing your project.  

Research Project Topics

The following are merely suggestions, you are welcome to use one of these or to come up with another topic.

Ecology

1.  Choose a relatively “natural” or unaltered area and an area that is modified for recreational or agricultural use. Stake out an equivalent area in each and identify/record both number of species of plants, insects, animals, etc) and the quantity of each. Compare these two sites, and apply your findings to the relationship between habitat and biodiversity.
2.  Examine the relationship between water availability and biodiversity in an ecosystem.
3. Examine the relationship between water quality and biodiversity in an ecosystem.
4. Determine whether competitive exclusion is occurring in specific area.
5. Examine the process of plant succession in a series of areas.

Feel free to discuss other ideas with your instructor!

Plant biology

1.  Allelopathy
2. Examine the effects of a pollutant OR temperature OR water availability on seed germination.
3. Examine the effects of a pollutant OR temperature OR water availability on plant growth.
4. Test whether certain plants are indicative of specific soil types.

Feel free to discuss other ideas with your instructor!

Animal Biology

Note: You CANNOT use vertebrates in your study unless it is indirectly (observation in wild/legal habitat such as a zoo/through footprints or scat). Vertebrates such as mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians are regulated and there are many ethical considerations.

1.  Evaluate biodiversity of insect larvae in soil OR aquatic system(s) OR decaying logs, etc.
2. Identify and evaluate quantity and diversity of animal prints in various ecosystems. What does this tell you about ecosystem characteristics and biodiversity?
3. Look at correlation of fly larvae numbers and specific environmental conditions (dry, moist, wet, hot, cool, etc)

Feel free to discuss other ideas with your instructor!

Mycology

NOTE: Some fungi are poisonous or toxic. Therefore, use gloves when handling mushrooms or other fungi in the wild.

1.  Diversity of fungi in relation to different environmental conditions (moist wood, dry sand, moist sand, etc)
2. Competitive exclusion amongst fungi and plants

Submission status

Gang,

   I have been fielding a lot of questions about the research assignment and its parts. All parts are due at different times, but the crucial thing to remember is this: you don't actually "do" the work; its just proposed and teaches you how to form hypotheses and general ideas about how to carry out a project. If you take bio 212, the follow-up to this course, you WILL do the what you propose in this course. So it needs to be feasible and doable with local materials or objects. So keep that in mind. But for this course, its just the hypothesis, lit review, introduction and methods. Please follow the examples in Moodle, and if you have further questions, let me know and I will send you an additional example of whichever part you might have questions about so you can follow it as a guide.

-JAMIL