 essential activity experimental design overview students develop a plan for their research project getting ready materials students will need to assemble their hypotheses questions background information and notes about the field site it would be better yet to have students keep these documents together in a folder for the project list on the board web site or handout the materials that are available to the students see the extensive list of equipment in activity b preparing for sampling   time needed activity procedure   thinking about samples things we can sample  invertebrates insects worms snails etc fish muscle or other tissue with permission plants floating or submerged things we can measure about those samples  mass or weight size length other measures number of things collected species abundance species richness species or type eg deciduous versus coniferous plants species of insects mercury in the substance organism s higher trophic level organisms in the study area bird surveys mammal tracking  doing the activity finalize the research plan by answering the questions who what where when why and how the why is the hypothesis the guiding question for this activity is how would you go about collecting evidence to support or refute your hypothesis each group should reiterate its hypothesis answer the question in a general sense if a hypothesis is aquatic invertebrates that live in sediments have greater mercury than those that are suspended in water then they might answer find some invertebrates that live in each place and test them for mercury craft that general approach into a workable study plan iron out all the details some questions to start with are how will you find out how which fish live where will smaller fish live near larger fish what else would you need to know about the fish their size their species what they eat what eats them how will you group fish once you find them who will collect the samples how will they be collected will you have the whole fish analyzed for mercury or do you want to know how much is in different parts of the fish does that matter in answering your specific hypothesis  there are more questions many more will arise during the process and will need to be addressed students should take notes and keep track of how they will address all of the issues reflection assessment ideas peer review  have each group present its research plan to the class and encourage feedback and questions from the other groups if the project is going to be a class project follow with a discussion of pros and cons of each group s presentation and formulate a coordinated plan for sampling using a collaborative approach where the best of each group s methods are combined extension ideas  the information the students have put together to this point can be called a research proposal students can now be asked to put together a more formal proposal a research proposal is a document that describes the plan for the project it makes the case for the proposed study and approach scientists frequently write research proposals and other groups of scientists or people from science agencies judge those proposals to decide which ones deserve funding once the proposals are completed students will then have the opportunity to review their peers proposals with the goal of making constructive collaborative improvements remember  there s no right or wrong approach to a research project but the choices students make will determine how they can interpret their results  alternatively the teacher or the cooperating scientist can review and make comments on everyone s proposal the following are the general sections that should be included in a research proposal and some questions to answer in each secton here you ll think about collect and enter information about your project research project title  give your project a name introduction   34 sentences  why do we care about mercury in the environment in organisms how does mercury get into the environment at your study site how does it get into organisms and move through food webs  hypothesis   12 sentences   we hypothesize that  methods  this section summarizes all the decisions made above who what when where how  results and discussion   23 sentences  what do you think you might find maybe you have some ideas because you already have some data what will your data mean two sentences start with if the hypothesis is supported then start with if the hypothesis is not supported then  references  if you cite or mention in your proposal any web sites or articles where you found information such as your statements about how mercury gets into people or if you re using someone else s methods you need to list them here  experimental design experimental design   mercury in watersheds  