This semester, you will be creating, designing, and carrying out your own field project based on something that
interests you in the natural world around you. Keep it simple and approachable, you can always build on it, but
you will be working on it for most of this semester.
Does hand-pollinating a papaya tree flower produce fruit vs not pollinating at all? Hypothesis – if I transfer
pollen from hermaphrodite papaya tree to female papaya blooming flower, it will bear fruit – if nothing is done to
blooming flower on the female papaya tree, it will abort the fruit How: I will observe 4 flowers on my Female
papaya and hand pollinate 2 of them. Then I will see if it bears or aborts the fruit. Observation will be
conducted within 2 weeks. I will count how many days it takes to abort the fruit. Reflection: Challenges 1) wind
or bees might pollinate female papaya (there is a new hermaphrodite tree approximately 5 ft away and it has
male flowers). If that happens, my data won’t be accurate 2) wind might blow off forming fruits or flowers
Step 1: Observing
Step 2: Asking questions based on your observations
Step 3: Generating a hypothesis from the question you chose to study
Step 4: Designing a(n) project/experiment that will test your hypothesis
Step 5: Collecting Data or recording observations over a couple of weeks
Step 6: Interpreting that data and analyzing the results of your project
Step 7: Writing a written report presenting your findings
At the end of the project, you will be presenting your project both as a written paper/report and as a
presentation.
Journal Checkpoint 1: Observing the natural world around you
A critical skill for naturalists is observation. Observations of the world around us have inspired much research
and findings. This week, you’ll start your field journal with choosing at least two different areas to sit in and
observe for a period of time.
Choose two different areas, preferably favorite areas outside, and spend 20 minutes sitting and recording your
observations in your field journal.
Include:

1. The location you chose
2. Date and Time of day
3. Weather conditions (temp, precipitation, are you in full sun/full shade)
4. Draw and describe the terrain (elevated, flat, hills, rocky, sandy)
5. Note down organisms that you see (ex. birds, insects, grubs, plants, fungi, trees)
   Reflection/Discussion: Explain in a paragraph why you chose the organisms of interest, addressing each of
   them.