Group 4 Reflection

1. What was your hypothesis?
-Our hypothesis was basically developed as we went along. We created an idea as to what we were going to investigate ahead of time, because when we foudn a map where there was a straight line seperating two different colors of foliage. We marked this and went to investigate it when we arrived at the marsh. It turned out to be that there were these different colored pools of water, that were attached to eachother. So our hypothesis became an investigation into why the pools of water were different colors, specifically we focused on that the invasive species wouldn't grow near these pools of akward colored water for a specific reason, and we investigated that.

2. Explain your experience in gaining and testing evidence. Any issues? Samples? Equipment?
-We gained and tseted evidence using the probes that our school provided. Wecame into a few issues- we dind't bring any distilled water with us to rinse off the probes in between samples, however we had bottles of water for drinking that we used. We also didn't bring enough plastic bags with us to collect samples, so we all combined our cellphones into one bag and got three extra bags for samples. All our issues which we faced were basically resolved as we went along, so this allowed us to work better as a team.

3. How was working in a group? What went well? What didn't?
-I think that our group definitely bonded a lot and collaborated together. In order to get to our area that we wanted to test, we had to jump over a pretty wide stream of water, and get all our supplies over safetly. We collaborated by putting our supplies over by using a meter stick, and the person on the other end had to catch what we passed over. Also, while crossing the stream, I was nervous because I didn't want to jump. However, my group encouraged me that it would be okay, and that they would help me get across. I was still nervous, but not so much. I refused to jump though. Then, our group pointed out that there were some rocks which I could climb on to get across instead. I decided to do this instead. The rocks were slippery though, so they helped me get across. I know that this wouldn't have happened in any other school except for sturgis, where a group of people who weren't even friends would work so well together just to help each other out. It's kind of really amazing.

4. How do you know that you gained scientific knowledge?
-I guess that we are using knowledge by authority when we believe that we are gaining scientific knowledge. This is because an authority figure (our teachers) are telling us that the equipment we are using was expensive, and we trust them that it is accurate because it costs a lot of money. We also re-tested our data, so that we could prove that our equipment was at least reliable. We used knowledge by empiricism as well because when the temperature probes were read, we had the common sense that it was aroudn the temperature that the probe read. At one point, when we were testing for dissolved oxygen, we used our empiricism to say that it seemed to be way too high. So we then re-tested it, and it came out to be a more accurate reading.