In Phase I, you determined what species you would target and what foods treatments you'd be offering (i.e. shelled vs unshelled peanuts). Now it's time to do it!
Individual Work
Goal: Collect Data
Components: Individual field work (2-3 hrs total, spread out over a few days)
Data collection in field book
Data entry into shared Google Sheet
Team Discussion (1 hr)
Goal: Combine all individual data into a single data set
Assignment: Data upload to Canvas
You should personally collect at least 3 replicates. A single replicate is a pair of feeding stations, as described below. You could do these one at a time. Or you could put all 3 pairs out at once (6 feeding stations total), and observe a different individual at each station. It’s up to you which option you prefer.
Prepare two feeding stations:
On one station, place the number of shelled nuts that you agreed to use, as a team (or whatever quantity you agreed to, if not using nuts).
On the other station, place an equal number of unshelled nuts (bear in mind, if using peanuts, that most peanut shells contain two nuts).
Place the stations outdoors, in a place where you could leave them overnight. They should be within a few feet of each other.
If putting out multiple replicates at once, make sure the replicates are separated by at least 20 ft or so
Write down the exact time that the feeders go out.
Walk away for an hour to let animals acclimate to the feeders.
Quietly take up a position about 20 ft from the feeders and begin your observations. You will need your binoculars, a timer, and a copy of the blank ethogram that your team made in Phase I. When you've completed the observation period for that animal at that pair of feeders, you are done with a single replicate.
If there are no animals, feel free to go away and try again later. Or feel free to bring other work along to occupy yourself until an animal appears
Before and after the ethography, challenge yourself to take notes about anything you see happening. Are there other animals around? Are they using your feeders? If so, which one? Any behaviors to note? Is your focal species doing anything new that you hadn't noticed before? Are animals interacting with each other, or responding to something in their environment? These observations could wind up providing the foundation for one of your team's main experiments. Or, they could give you ideas for things to bring up when you write your discussion section. So the more you spend time watching the animals and taking good notes, the better your paper will ultimately be.
When the feeder has been out for 3 hrs, count the remaining nuts to see what has been eaten, but do not clean up. Leave the feeders out overnight.
The next morning, visit the feeders again and count remaining peanuts. Then clean up.
use your phone to scan your field notes, and upload the resulting pdf to your team's shared drive
enter your data into your team’s shared Google Sheet
answer questions on Canvas (Pilot Wrap-up: Individual Assignment)
Arrange a time to meet face-to-face as team (your choice whether that’s in person, Zoom, Google Meet, conference call, or something else -- but IT CANNOT BE A TEXT CHAIN OR GROUP CHAT! You must actually be able to speak to each other!
At your meeting, you should accomplish the following things. You'll be uploading your notes and answering a few questions in the Pilot Wrap-up: Team Assignment in Canvas
Choose one person to take notes.
Verify that all students have added their data to the shared data sheet
Does anyone have questions about the data?
Did anyone encounter unexpected problems or challenges while collecting data?
Is there anything from this experience that will be especially valuable in planning your main experiments?
Upload your discussion notes to Canvas (if notes were handwritten, upload a photo)
Answer the Team Assignment questions in Canvas