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SIMply Prairie Quadrat StudyNotes for Educators |
SIMply Prairie is a student research project that has the potential to link classrooms in areas where the prairie once flourished. We seek to establish a network of prairie sites where students can conduct quadrat studies and contribute their data online to an ongoing study of the prairie plant populations of native and reconstructed prairies.
Hints - Prairie Expert Notes - Educator NotesSIMply Prairie Student HomepageWhat does it take to join the research study beyond Internet access?Find a local prairie study site: In the fall, usually mid-September to mid-November, students will work in the prairie conducting quadrat studies. Depending on the number of students involved, the prairie will get more or less trampled. If you do not already have access to a student-friendly prairie, you need to find a prairie (could be a school prairie) that will allow students to do this kind of research. An expert from the prairie will have to provide information about the prairie. (See Notes for Prairie Experts).
Complete a one-time registration: In order for students to add data from your study site to the central plant database, you will need to register your class or student group. Send e-mail to prairie-data@fnal.gov to get a username and password.
Preparation for data collection and entry.Help your students conduct a research study: What you need to do depends on whether or not you already study the prairie and the nature of that unit. You can probably incorporate SIMply Prairie into an existing unit, and you might even use the research approach to drive your prairie study. There are a lot of instructional materials available for doing field studies such as a quadrat study. We are happy to share our materials. Contact Fermilab prairie-data@fnal.gov.
Important to SIMply Prairie is having a consistent method for conducting a quadrat study and working as carefully as you can with students so they identify the plants correctly.
Procedure used by students at Fermilab for taking data.Guidelines on how Fermilab students do percent cover.
Sample data sheet and grid used at Fermilab.
Samples of data taken at Fermilab.
Hints from Fermilab docents for the quadrat study.
