NAME:_______________________________ CLASS:_________________

Sampling a lawn
Apparatus
• Worksheet
• One small square formed from a paper clip (1 cm by 1 cm)

Method
1 Read the information below before you start.
2 Hold the square 30 cm above the lawn on Worksheet. With your eyes shut, drop the
square. The area where it lands is a sample. The square is acting as a quadrat.
3 Count the number of each different type of plant inside the square. Any plant that is
more than half-way into the square is counted; any plant that is less than half-way in
is not counted. Write down the number of plants that you have counted. Take 10
samples.

Recording your results

1 Draw a table to show how many plants you counted in each quadrat. Write down the
total number of plants that you counted.

2 Work out the mean (average) number of plants per quadrat.

3 Work out the area of your quadrat and the total area of the lawn. Then calculate how
many quadrats would fit on the lawn.
4 Now you can work out an estimate for the total number of plants on the lawn.

average number of ´ number of quadrats = total number of

plants per quadrat that fit on the lawn plants on the lawn
Considering your results/conclusions

5 Each cm of the lawn and each cm of the quadrat square represents 1 m in real life.
What area would they be if they were life size?

_____________________________________________________________________

6 Work out the total population in the lawn of:

a daisy plants

b dandelion plants.

**Show all your sample measurements and all your working.

7. Calculate the species density of the dandelions.

8. Which of the named plants in the lawn do you think is the most successful? Explain
your reasoning.

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
The lawn