14 October 2008

Looking again at where plants grow

Way back in September (how odd it seems to be writing that; I can hardly believe it is already mid-October!) we did a bit of a survey around the school grounds.  We looked at four distinct areas and compared the types of plants that grew there.

Yesterday we went back to two of those places to do a different kind of survey.  This time we were interested in how many plants grew there.

Armed with the requisite clipboard, paper and pencil plus a hoop, we headed outside; first to the field. 

We were going to throw the hoop onto the ground three separate times in each place and try to count how many plants were growing in the space inside the hoop.

Now it's not all that easy to count plants when they are growing close together, especially with all those blades or leaves on each plant.....

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but we did our best!  Luckily (though some might think it unlucky!) there were a few barer patches.....

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where it was easier to be sure.

To the adventure playground next, where we had already seen that plants were fewer and further between.

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Sometimes we had to look really closely.....

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in order to spot the tiny plants.  Some we were not sure were even plants at all.....

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We recorded the number of plants using tally marks.....

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and our next task will be to count up the tallies and compare the results, so we can find out if more plants grow on the field or on the adventure playground.  What do you think we will find out?  And why?  Where do plants grow?

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