Abstract Draft

To determine whether a student would be able to replicate a multi figure panel based on descriptive scientific writing alone we assigned the Methods Project. The Methods Project required that the student locate evidence of phytophagy on the campus of University of Massachusetts Amherst and take photos of that evidence. We took photos that included a close-up image of the evidence, then a image of the object from farther away to show location, and then a map of where that evidence was on the campus.  We found that with descriptive scientific writing in the form of a methods section of a scientific article the student was able to create a multi panel figure that closely resembled the original multi panel figure created by another student. Although they were similar there were some striking difference in the figures. Some of those differences included the orientation of the hand holding the leaf that displayed evidence of phytophagy, the absence of a ruler to show scale, and some difference in the time of day the photos were taken which resulted in a change in the shadows cast by the trees that showed the evidence. We concluded that with using descriptive scientific writing that the multi panel figures were close but not the same. These results suggest that the students could improve on their scientific writing skills.