Ants, elephants, and experimental design: Understanding science and examining connections between species interactions and ecosystem processes

Abstract

The dynamic nature of science is important to understand when science is used to make decisions about complex issues involving the environment and sustainability. Therefore, it is important for students learning about these topics to understand the scientific process and be able to effectively critique different experimental designs, understand the strengths and limitations of any given study, and recognize the roles that incomplete information and uncertainty play in science. To address student understanding of the nature of science, an activity was developed using a video abstract from a peer-reviewed article (Goheen and Palmer, Curr Biol 20:1768-1772, 2010) that examines the role of mutualisms in shaping ecosystem properties. After completing this activity, students should be able to (1) interpret data from published graphs, (2) identify key components of experimental design, (3) discuss inferences that can be made from results generated by different experimental designs, (4) identify and describe interspecific interactions, and (5) explain how interactions at one level of ecological organization (e.g., communities) can influence processes at other levels (e.g., ecosystems).