I’ve read many scientific papers for class. I’ve searched for them endlessly on Web of Science, a database the UCLA libraries subscribe to. I’ve had to critique them with classmates and discuss how they could be better, how their methods weren’t exactly right, how their sample sizes could be larger or their collected data simply doesn’t answer the question they are asking. But what I’ve never discussed in class, what I had never previously really thought about, was how challenging the entire process of answering a scientific question can be. It is almost surreal being here in Nicaragua and having to come up with a question on my own, creating a set of methods that will answer that question precisely, and carrying out those methods while making sure to collect a large enough set of data. While sitting on the floor of a rainforest moving leaf cutter ants onto a section of trail I’ve cleared of other ants, squished between the fronds of a short palm tree, as it turns dusk and the playful noises of the day begin to sound eerie, I realize how very different an experience it is from reading a paper in the safety of a classroom critiquing what could have been better.

It was definitely difficult coming up with a question I found interesting and then proper methods to follow. There were many observations made, notes taken on random things I saw and where, ideas brought up and decided against. It was exciting then landing on an idea and deciding to stick with it. Although there were then endless obstacles while conducting pilot trials of issues I didn’t previously think about (like the difficulty of picking ants off the trail when most of them are 2 mm long). For my project that is not on leaf cutter ants, I’m studying the effects of hiker group size on strawberry poison dart frog calls. It is a simple concept, recording calls for two and a half minutes, having a group of hikers walk by while talking, and then recording the calls for another two and a half minutes after. What will not be included in the final paper though, is how difficult collecting that data can be. Although I know the frogs do not truly know that we are trying to find and study them, I am convinced they have some ulterior plan and choose to avoid us at all costs. We have wandered the rainforest for hours only to find two strawberry frogs in the midst of calling. We have set up our experimental stage (a 15m pink string laid out on the trail in front of the calling frog) only to wait for an indefinite amount of time before deciding the frog isn’t going to start calling again. And doing all of this while dragging around our very kind classmates that are helping us by being additional hikers for the experimental trials. I’m aware now of how much thought and effort goes into these projects, which I will forever think about while reading the endeavors of others in their published scientific papers.