Introduction

The methods project requires students to construct a multi-panel scientific figure of an interspecific interaction on the UMass Amherst campus and write a detailed methods section describing how it will be made. Another student will then follow those methods and try to recreate the original figure. Because a primary goal of science is replication, the goal of this project is to write a method section with enough detail to allow another student to reproduce the same results as the orignial. This project also promotes critical thinking skills as it requires students to distinguish differences in observations and inferences by comparing and contrasting the original figure to the replicate and by helping students to think about what potential factors need to be controlled in the expirement. 

The interspecific interaction in this project is a tree and moss. Because another student has to recreate it, the two organisms should be immobile in order to allow relocation of the same organisms. The location of the organisms are limited to the UMass Amherst campus, however it is also important to make the location of the interaction of the organisms accessible. Therefore, the interaction between the tree and the moss will be near the ground making it accessible to all heights. Specific distances, camera angles, and body positions will also be factors that need to remain constant to recreate the image. Controlling these variables will help allow for similar amounts and areas of background. It will also keep the proportions of the images similar.