Tuesday July 9, Day 4 
Research/ Trust Workshop
Today in Biosphere 2, my research group and I had an eventful and exciting day of research in the savannah biome. We were approaching the question of which soil group would be the most ideal for growing serrano peppers. Our experiment placed each of the different soil types into core samples in which water was added to measure infiltration and retention capabilities. We kicked off right away getting knee deep into our research, mixing our soil compounds and preparing for experimentation. From the start, we were trying to be very organized, which ended up with us creating a table for each of our measurements. We started off with having 7 different measurements! Little did we know, we were straying away from the research question, and focusing more on obtaining data values for our research. 
Suddenly, a spark flew through our minds. We were noticing that the values obtained from all the different soil groups were not aligning. I had an idea. I thought that if the soil masses in each of the core samples are the same, the results would be more comparable. When this theory was proposed, we decided to give it a shot. However, our research mentor quickly made us understand that we were once again deviating from the research question. At this point, we reassessed our research question and decided that the controlling factor in our research was the height of the soil, not the mass of the soil. I found it really interesting how a couple of bumps along the road made us completely transform our mindset into creating a more efficient and comprehensive experiment. 

Earlier in the program, I was identified by the color green as my leadership color. I wanted to work on being more rational, and have a vision towards our experiment. Even though my vision of having equal soil masses didn’t work out, this helped us progress forward in our experiment and become more efficient in our techniques. Even though we stumbled the various personalities of our group brought us to collaborate even better, and we ended up having a very successful day of experimentation.






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