The Methods Project was an activity assigned in the Writing in Biology class during the Spring 2019 semester at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The project aim was to produce a multi-panel scientific figure of an interspecific interaction and a set of methods for the reproduction of said scientific figure. The interaction displayed in my figure was between a fiddle-leaf ficus and a leafy vine plant which grows up its trunk. I needed to control for the day of the week and time of day due to Durfee Conservatory, which houses the aforementioned species, only being open during certain times, as well as the location of the photographer, orientation of the camera, and framing of the subject, the editing program used, and the the size, color, and placement of all of the components of the figure. I observed and documented the differences between the original and replicate figures and speculated as to reasons why these differences occurred. These differences could be categorized in five ways: as variations in color, framing, placement, size, and style of the components of each of the figures. The factors which likely contributed to the differences I observed between the figures were the lighting in the greenhouse, the position of the photographer, as well as the height and angle of the camera, unfamiliarity with the tools by which the components of the figures were sized and arranged, and lack of specificity in my methods. Through these activities, I learned about the necessity of clear communication in scientific writing to both convey the findings of a paper as well as allow for replicability.
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