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The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment, Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness; Knowledge of speech, but not of silence; Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word. All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance. ~T.S. Eliot, U.S.-born, British poet, critic "Well, that's pretty cool...but now what?" you might say. Now what indeed. There's obviously a lot of questions we haven't fully answered: Is there a
positive correlation between density and size for mussels at Nahant? Look familiar? We're back to asking questions, ready to look for more answers. This is how science works. It goes around and around in a cycle of questioning, exploring, experimenting, and then more questioning. And the wonderful thing about it is that the more answers you find, the more questions you seem to have, and the more you realize there is so much we don't know. If I had it to do over again, knowing what I know now, what would I do differently? Not all science experiments turn out exactly as planned or expected, but that's ok; we have to make mistakes before we can learn from them. It's all part of the cycle. Figuring out what we would change is a way to reflect on what we learned in the experimentation process, and provides the opportunity to start again, so we can strive to find out more. For this experiment I'd really like to have re-located all of my quadrats. Something as simple as tying a piece of bright flagging tape to some ascophyllum probably would have helped, even if only one remained attached for two whole weeks. I would also like to have a larger sample size. Remember, we just looked at nine quadrats, moving down one vertical transect. That is a tiny, tiny survey of the coastline at Nahant. There is no way my data represents what is going on in the whole system. At the same time, it's not feasible to sample the entire system (this is why we have sampling techniques like quadrats) but I certainly need more than one transect. If I had multiple transects, I could look at variation across horizontal zones. I also wish that I had gotten the second data set analyzed to compare with the first. I still know very little about the survivorship of mussels at Nahant. I have learned that digital cameras are amazing and that the more pictures you take, the better. And most critical, I have learned that when doing field work in New England in the fall you should always, always, always carry extra pocket warmers and extra batteries. The Cycle of Science home ask questions read design it do it look at it ask more questions about me Information for educational purposes
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