Many different activities occur each day in research laboratories around the world.
However, many of these activities alone do not constitute research. Research is more than learning how to operate sophisticated instruments, culture microorganisms, prepare slides, identify birds, follow recipes for biological techniques, and conduct complicated statistical analyses. These are all means of acquiring knowledge and data that can be used in the overall research process, but they are not research in themselves. Become familiar with the literature, especially the current and past literature related to your specific area of interest. Develop an experimental design that includes several independent and dependent variables .