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Independent Study
Be a citizen scientist! Design and conduct your own Vital Signs investigation. Join students, educators, citizen scientists,
and researchers to better understand native and invasive species across Maine.
STEP 1: Choose your question
Scientific investigations are driven by questions. Scientists tackle questions on their own or in collaboration with others.
Start by coming up with your own research question! Choose one of the Vital Signs Field Missions
(http://vitalsignsme.org/field-missions) or Analysis Missions (http://vitalsignsme.org/analysis-missions) –or come up
with your own question! If you choose a Mission, you may need to change the question to fit your specific research
interests.
Follow this path to come up with a Mission-inspired question:
1. Look through the Field Missions and Analysis Missions. Choose 2-3 you really like.
2. Which of these 2-3 questions would be possible for you to investigate?
3. Choose your final question. Include the species you will look for and the place you will be looking.
Tip: Make your question specific, manageable, and focused for this project. For example:
 “How has purple loosestrife affected the state of Maine?” will be tough to answer on your own.
 “How has purple loosestrife affected my backyard?” is more specific and focused.
4. Make a prediction/hypothesis. What do you think the answer to your research question will be?
STEP 2: Design your investigation
Do you need to do fieldwork or additional research to answer your question? Field Missions, Analysis Missions, or even
research around your own question usually require doing fieldwork (collecting VS species observations) and using data
that is already online.
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In which ecosystem is your species typically found? Where will you go to look for your species?
What equipment do you need to bring with you? (http://vitalsignsme.org/toolkit)
What data will you collect while you outside? (http://vitalsignsme.org/datasheets)
What data do you need to search for on the Vital Signs website? (http://vitalsignsme.org/explore/search)
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Plan to post at least 2 species observations on the Vital Signs website. If your question is best answered by only
using data that is already in the Vital Signs database, just plan to explain WHY you chose to not make new
species observations to answer your question.
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Plan to post a comment on at least 2 observations from the Vital Signs database that you are using in your
investigation. Explain why you are using the observation in your investigation!
STEP 3: Do your investigation!
Get out in the field and do Vital Signs!
STEP 4: Answer your question
Now that you have finished your own investigation and collected your own data, it’s time to try to answer your question.
It’s typical for scientists to come up with more questions than answers during this step. Keep track of your new questions
and curiosities!
A conclusion that could come from the example loosestrife question posed above would be: The introduction of
purple loosestrife into my backyard looks like it has resulted in a decrease in the number of native flowering
plants in the wet, shaded areas. The number of forbs in that are dropped from 20, last summer, to 10, this
summer.
STEP 5: Share your conclusions with the scientific community
When scientists finish investigations, they share their findings with the scientific community. The best way for a scientist
to research the other researchers is by writing a formal scientific report that would then be published in a science
journal. Write a concise report discussing your findings!
Use this outline to organize your conclusion before you create your project:
 Question: Clearly state the research question you were investigating.
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Prediction/Hypothesis: Explain what you expected your research to show and your conclusions to be. Why did
you think that?
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Investigation Design: Provide specific steps somebody could follow to replicate your investigation.
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Reflect on your investigation:
o Did the process go as you expected it would?
o Were there any specific or surprising observations you made while out in the field?
o Were there any errors that may influence your results? Describe them.
o Were you curious about anything else during your investigation? What new questions came up?
o How did “acting like a scientist” change the way you look at science and the scientific process?
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Results: Display your results. You might include a data table, a graph, or a map.
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Conclusion: Reflect upon your investigation and the process.
o Was your prediction supported or refuted? Explain your reasoning and draw upon your evidence.
o Are you surprised by the results/findings?
o Are there any outliers or oddities in your data?
o Use evidence you obtained in your research to support your conclusions.
o HOW could your findings influence others in the state of Maine? I
o If you were to conduct this experiment again, what changes would you make?
o If you were to conduct a follow-up experiment, what would it be?
STEP 6: Share your conclusion with the public (OPTIONAL)
Now that you have created a report to share your finding with other scientists, create an exciting book, podcast, video or
other multimedia project to share your findings with the general public! Get creative and have fun! Make your
investigation exciting for people to learn more!
Post your project AND formal report to the Vital Signs project bank: http://vitalsignsme.org/project-bank
Vital Signs Independent Study – Suggested Assessment Guidelines for Teachers
Introduction
___ Two sources included
___ Discusses appropriate species and how they were introduced, moved around, or removed from
Maine;
Information about species ecology
___ References at least one bit of prior
Question
___ Open-ended, not Yes/No
___ Specific and focused
Hypothesis
___ Appropriate if-then
___ Appropriate independent variable
___ Appropriate dependent variable
___ A prediction is given
Procedure
___ Detailed
___ Easy to follow to replicate experiment
___ Includes measurement details where appropriate
___ Diagrams, if included, enhance the procedure; if not used, they were not needed
Research notes
___ References to the “five senses” and things/experiences “sensed”
___ What was observed?
___ Did everything go as expected?
___ Any surprises?
___ Any errors? If so, descriptions were included. If not, it must be stated there were no errors.
Results
___ Three (High School) or Two (Middle School) personal observations
___ Use of a previous VS dataset
___ Two comments left on observations used
___ Two different ways to display data (High School) or One display of data (Middle School)
___ Each display is clear and easy to understand
___ Each display has a short description
Conclusion
___ Was the hypothesis supported or refuted?
___ Was the experimenter surprised by the findings?
___ Any outliers discussed?
___ Why these findings?
___ How could these findings influence at least two different interest groups in Maine?
___ Changes to improve the experiment
___ Follow-up experiment
___ Conclusion was written in the third person without any opinion interjected