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Online Prairie Data
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Student Site Index - Teacher Site Index
Online Quadrat Study
To review data collection and entry, look at:
To analyze your data, look at summaries and graphs for your study, other current studies, and studies from previous years.
- Directions for Looking at Summary Data
- Student Background on what to look for in your data.
- Current Studies
- Studies from Previous Years (starting in 1992)
- Graphs showing how the prairie changes over the years.
- Quadrat Study Poster for your classroom.
Search for studies of prairies whose characteristics interest you and find email addresses for student groups collecting data for those studies.
In addition, when students collect and enter data from a prairie other than the Fermilab prairie, you must:
- Complete step-by-step preparations for data collection and entry.
- Review the data your students entered by finding their quadrats and editing or adding any plant data.
Visualization Tools
Fermilab provides visualization tools to help students understand the data and create a virtual prairie. These tools require the Shockwave Plugin. Dragging and dropping icons of plants, students will see visual representations ofStudents may use the graphic representations to enhance their presentations. Instructions on how to save the images are included on the student page.
- Quadrats that model actual data obtained by students at Fermilab. The program will let the students know if they try to construct a prairie that does not conform to the data. Students can also construct their own virtual quadrats.
- Blooming times, the change in the diversity of prairie plants as they bloom over the entire growing season. By plotting blooming times, students will understand why the prairie may look quite different if they visit in May and then in October.
- Root systems vs. above ground growth of prairie plants. Students will understand the importance of the root systems of prairie plants.
Examples of some results of these activities:
