Environmental Experiment

For this assignment you will need to quantify something in the environment by designing and conducting an experiment.

Possible experiments for you to explore:

Carbon emissions, litter, animal populations, noise, public transit use, invasive plants, habitat connectivity, storm water runoff, etc.

It is up to you on what subject to choose and how to quantify the data.

The goal of this assignment is to quantify and assess something in nature or an interaction between the built environment and nature.

What to Measure: Environmental Science examines how human activity interacts with the environment and its effects. So, you have a wide range of choices. Most experiments will involve field work, but some experiments may not. This is where you can apply what you have learned in ESCI 1 lecture to the real world.

How to Measure: Most experiments use 3 basic methods to quantify observations, but many more exist. The common ways to quantify data is through point counts, transects, and area counts.

• Point counts are where you go to s specific point and conduct a time count. This is good for wildlife or moving subjects. Non animals are called non-point source because the subject moves.
• Transects are where you walk specific pathways for a pre-determined distance. Good for counting and identifying things that do not move like plants or litter, called point sources since they are found at a specific point.

Area counts are where you count everything within a pre-determined area and could be considered as an expansion of the point count. Good for counting things that do not move, called point sources