This course will become read-only in the near future. Tell us at community.p2pu.org if that is a problem.
This is a course for anyone who wants to get involved in developing a citizen science research project.
Using off the shelf equipment, and free software, course participants will learn how to go from constructing a research question, to analyzing data, to communicating their findings.
This course follows the scientific method through a series of questions. In addressing these questions participants will develop and run their project.
This course seeks to both increase the scientific literacy skills of its participants, as well as increase their level of civic engagement through science.
Given all of the questions you've listed you will get an idea of what you will ultimately want to test. At this point in your project you will want to create a question, possibly one of the ones you already wrote in the previous step, which will be your hypothesis.
A hypothesis, in its simplest form, is a prediction on how two variables are related. This can be a causal prediction: if X occurs then Y will occur. Or it can be a prediction of a correlation: both X and Y will be observed concurrently. Note that a correlation is far easier to test for than a causal relationship.
An example of a causal hypothesis could be:
"IF the median income of a country increases then the per capita production of carbon dioxide should also increase."
An example of a prediction of correlation would be:
"The median total earned income for a country will tend to be larger in countries which are less biodiverse."
For a causal hypothesis you will need to construct a series of tests which establish how the occurrence of X, the increase in the median income of a country, will precede Y, the increase in the per capita production of carbon dioxide. For a hypothesis focused on correlation the prediction is just that X and Y, high median total earned income and low biodiversity, will tend to be found in levels which fit a well-defined function (e.g. a linear or inverse function).
At this point you will want to create a hypothess. Make sure it is testable given the equipment and information you will have access to.
When we use blue and UV lights it occursb to bring more insects.So I think we shoul just focuse on UV and Blue lights so we may catch more insects.
Tristian,
I think our data is starting to show that.
from the results we have gotten back from the traps, my hypothisis is that the insects are most attracted to UV LED'S. I also predict that the more UV lights we put in the traps the more insects it will attract. http://scienceland.wikispaces.com/file/view/Cohnstaedt%20et%20al.%20-%202008%20-%20Light-emitting%20diode%20technology%20improves%20insect%20tr.pdf/431855476
Stephanie,
Flies, and anything else under the order of Diptera too it seems.
Diptera covers the following: http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent425/library/compendium/diptera.html
The amount of insects we collect will increase if we use UV LED's.
With the data we collected, I noticed UV LED's attract more insects.
I agree with both Cleoh & BusoniG.
My hypothesis would be that the orange UV light will attract more insects because of the radioactive cells http://www.extertronic.com/gb/exterminator-insects-light.htm
Pamela,
From the article it states the following:
"In the study of biology is called compound eyes, the organ that has some insects, including flies, consist of hundreds the units responsive, called ommatidos with sensory cells that distinguish individually between light and darkness or any colour, Begins at strip ultraviolet reaching orange. The image receiving flies are sets of multiple ommatidos oriented in different directions. The compound eye can detect fast movements and elementary principles of vision."
What this means is that flies will see everything from orange to UV, not that they'll necessarily be attracted to all of those colors.
I agree with Chloe; the UV LED's will attract the most insects.
Seeing, some of our results now, are hypothesis will probably be correct.
So far our data seems to support that:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Au-S-0MXXLYddEc3SVZUYmQ4ck40aVJyeS1pdjVtQUE#gid=0
The amount of hymenoptera and diptera insects we collect with increase with UV colored LEDs.
http://scienceland.wikispaces.com/file/view/Allan%20et%20al.%20-%201987%20-%20Visual%20ecology%20of%20biting%20flies.pdf/431854522/Allan%20et%20al.%20-%201987%20-%20Visual%20ecology%20of%20biting%20flies.pdf
Cleoh,
Thanks. Let's see what the data bears out.
