Students of Dr. Brewer’s Writing in Biology class were assigned to locate and photograph a spider web and its environment on the UMass Amherst campus. Students then created a multi panel figure including a photograph of the spider web with an object for scale, the environment the web was in, and a map showing the location of the web on campus. Once the multi-panel figure was completed, each student wrote a detailed methods that described the steps taken for capturing their photographs and creating the multi-panel figure. Finally, the methods written were given to another student and that student attempted to make the same multi-panel of the original student. The purpose of this experiment was to see how close the multi-panel figures were and observe the differences between the two.
There are several objectives for this activity. The main goal of this activity was to practice scientific writing, specifically the methods section. Especially in the world of science, it is important for students to have clear, detailed methods. This allows other people to replicate activities and experiments correctly. Additionally, this activity taught students how to make organized multi-panel figures. The overall aim of this exercise was to have students practice writing a clear and understanding scientific paper.
When choosing a spider web to photograph, there were many factors to consider for replicability. Things such as weather, time of day, and lightning had to be considered.
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