Blog Assignment #10: Research Project Reflection (individual)

The most interesting aspect of our project was seeing the difference in erosion with the different types of soil and how the different compositions either increased or decrease the amount of soil eroded. For example, the Eastern Washington soil was dryer and sandier and possibly inhibited the roots of the grass to hold and therefore there was more soil eroded from this sample. The sample from Martha Lake had the least amount of soil eroded, we concluded that this could be due to the source for this soil. The soil was collected near a lake and therefore is adapted to moisture allowing the roots to hold tight to the soil and prevent it from eroding. Difficulties in this experiment included time relative to the number of variables we wanted to test. I think we used our time wisely with the amount we were given but in the end we ran out of time and did not get to test the soil nutrients after the soil erosion simulation, which would have been an interesting factor to this research. I am proud of this experiment that we conducted and how it has an impact on the world and hopefully other people learned from our research and will apply it to their own lives to reduce this problem in the world. I would have liked to research more on how people study erosion to help improve the smoothness of our study. I was surprised most about the extensiveness of growth of the roots from the grass. With the bottle being clear, we could see the root growth, and with something that is generally planted in the ground, we don't normally know what grass roots look like. It was interesting to see how many grew even in the shallow depths of a 2L bottle. 

I think I will carry a lot with me that I learned from BIOL213. I was kind of frustrated that I had to take this class because I didn't think it had anything to do with what I want to go into, Physical Therapy. Although I still don't think it is very relevant to the field I want to go into, I appreciate nature and learned a lot in this class. I think I will remember how to identify plants, I've already found myself doing it now when I see plants I walk by every day.