This section outlines the “how” of the study. Field methods, laboratory methods and data analysis techniques should be presented with sufficient detail for the reader to be able to duplicate the study. If standard methods are used, it is sufficient to cite the standard reference. Write this in the past tense, since you are describing what it is you have already done.
Here you should also summarize your experimental design. Clearly identify your experimental treatments and the number of independent observations you made under each of the treatments (“N,” sample size). Finally, explain how you analyzed your data in order to draw scientific inferences. The figures and tables that you present in the Results section will reflect this experimental design and analysis section (Kopinski, 2023).
If there is a formula involved in a calculation that is more complex than something like summary statistics (e.g. average, standard deviation), then you should also include the formula.
You can cite the lab manual in this section for procedures, but citations are not always needed in this section.
Make sure to include analysis as the last part of this section (this may be a place to mention the lab manual as students describe the procedures they used to analyze the data).
Be sure to connect the study itself to what you’re actually measuring and what the mechanisms are that you’re using to answer those questions.
Use past tense.
Methods should include all of the variables tested, even if you didn’t exactly test them in your specific lab section
For the first hypothesis, describe methods for how tree diversity was assessed.
For the second hypothesis, methods for all 4 factors of the lab need to be explained!
In EFB 102, students don’t personally test all variables in the forest lab, but they should introduce what everyone is doing on a larger scale and then state what their group specifically measured.