Lab Terrarium Writeup – Spring 2024
20 points
This assignment will not be a typical lab report – instead, you’ll be writing a blogor diary-style chronicle of the life of your terrarium over the course of ~4 weeks.
That is, your report should consist of dated entries (though the content of
those entries is open-ended). The purpose of this is to gain experience with
natural history, an “old way” of doing ecology that nevertheless provides an
important foundation to modern ecological research. Natural history is qualitative
rather than quantitative and observational rather than experimental.
The writeup should start with an initial photograph and description of your
terrarium setup (including where you put it). From then on, take photographs of
your terrarium and record observations at least once per week. Observations to
make could include (but aren’t limited to):
1. Moisture level (on the glass and/or vegetation)
2. Plant growth
3. Change in plant color or appearance
4. Animal activity, location, or behavior
5. Terrarium scent
Also record any manipulations you make to the terrarium (other than weekly
opening/misting if needed).
Observations may be qualitative but should still be thoughtful and wellstandardized. This means looking closely and being sure to continuously observe
the same things so that you have a baseline to note any changes against (that
said, an observation of something interesting/unexpected one week might inspire
another set of observations going forward, which is fine).
In addition to your observations, feel free to write any thoughts you have about
your terrarium or the experience of maintaining and observing it (again, think of
this as like a diary or field journal). A good question to ask yourself (and write
down the process of thinking through) is ‘why are any changes you observe
occurring?’. Researching the organisms in your terrarium (the species names are
in the lab slides PDF) could also inspire additional writing. Feel free to be
creative!
