At the beginning of this course, I decided to research bee colonies in a trail I used to take my kids through on our way to their school. Unfortunately, their sickness gave me no options except my backyard, as we couldn’t leave the house to do my data collection. I ended up with two plots, each 1mx1m, one as a control and the other as an experimental. If I had the resources and time, I think I would change my study to the maturation of dandelions when mowing takes place and their abundance. Or the different mowing length relation with dandelion abundance. My experiment ended up studying the relationship between mowing frequency and dandelion abundance. Although it was not as I hoped it to be, this study was eye-opening on the benefits of such species, the dandelions. This small experiment gave me an insight into how we take everything for granted and don’t appreciate the facts we use in our daily lives. Ecological studies to reach a theory of the end is not an easy mission, and the scientific steps and verifications require patience and knowledge.
thank you for sharing the difficulties of doing research when life intervenes! hope all is well