I definitely took a few detours at the start of my project; changed my mind as to what I wanted to focus on, picked a direction but then based on feedback felt that it was too simple, changed to a more detailed idea and attempted to collect data, only to receive a suggestion to simplify and narrow in on one attribute, then final got rolling on investigating the effects of slope aspect on plant community structure. So it was a struggle to get going, but once I did, I feel like it went pretty smoothly. I had some challenges getting some of the data due to the type of vegetation and the terrain, but overall my sampling design actually worked pretty well considering I had two completely different plant communities to sample.
While I am used to implementing different types of ecological data collection, this was my first time developing a study and design from scratch, including developing a hypothesis. It was enlightening. I think I had more challenges deciding on what to investigate than I did with the actual design. I think this process will be useful for my final research paper (capstone course) I need to complete for my degree.