Methods Introduction - Draft

One of the most important ways to credit a scientists work is through replication. Replicating a scientists’ work validates and reduces variability in experimental results. In this project, the process of replication was used to test observation and inference skills. The goal was to have a reader recreate a similar multi-panel scientific figure to the one that the writer had created, only using a description of the process used to develop it. The multi-panel figure contained at least three pictures: a close up picture of a spider web, a picture of the relative location and setting of the web, and a map of the area on campus that the spider web was found. Precise observations result in more accurate outcomes in an experiment. This project required proficient observation and writing skills in order to obtain a similar replicate of the original figure. A detailed procedure on how the pictures were taken and the development process of the figure were needed to obtain an accurate result. I chose the spiderweb I found in Morrill II because I believed it was a good location, it was a faint, complex web, and it obtained a spider on it. Choosing this web allowed me to give my reader an accessible location to find and take the same pictures and enabled me to elaborate on the fine details of the web itself and the process I used to create my figure. The groove in the wall I found my web gave me an opportunity to use the program, Inkscape, to enhance my figure inserting additional features such as arrows. Some of the controlled variables in this project include the location of the web, the types of pictures used in the figure, and some of the finalizing features on the figure. Every project must describe web that is on campus, consist of at least three pictures of the web and its location, and the finalized figure must include labels, be the sized to a sheet of paper, be 1200 pixels and be exported as a “png” file. Between detailed observations and specific controlled variables, the project should result in a similar replica of the original multi-panel scientific figure.