I am conducting an on-going research study and I am evaluating the performance of consortium of bacteria as a biocatalyst in a microbial fuel cell. There's some misunderstanding between me and the panelist about what to call the subject the microbial fuel cell that we are assessing. Prior to our consultation, we called the MFC's as our participants. We were called out about this because according to the panelist, we cannot call the microbial fuel cell as participants because they are inanimate objects, thus, won't be able to answer the questionnaire in the pre-test and post test.
If that's the case, what is the right term to call the microbial fuel cell? And if it's not a questionnaire, what's the type of question should we ask to evaluate the performance of the MFC's?
The microbial fuel cell in its entirety might be called the test apparatus. The consortium of bacteria should just be called "the consortium of bacteria." There should be one or more objective, numerical measurements of performance of the apparatus and its bacterial contents. There is no need for a survey.
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