 key ideas prerequisites and misconceptions key ideas introduced in this unit research project design material preparation sampling techniques and protocols concepts and relationship  there is a relationship between the organisms collected and the collection sites why are we looking here for dragonfly larvae there is a reason for keeping tools materials and hands clean when gathering specimens why keeping accurate field data is important why proper labeling is important it is important to take only the organisms needed for a meaningful sample  vocabulary  hypothesis an educated guess at the answer to a research question research project design the outline of how an experiment will be conducted sampling the collection of a few specimens of one specific type of organism student prerequisites  what students need to know to complete this unit what their hypothesis is where they might expect to find the organisms they are sampling misconceptions about mercury  it doesn t matter how the samples are collected it doesn t matter how many organisms we kill  mercury in watersheds  