Your assignment is to go outside and find a spot in your yard, on campus, in the
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Your assignment is to go outside and find a spot in your yard, on campus, in the woods, or anywhere you want. You will then take large steps (around 3 feet) in one direction away from that spot. Make sure you can move at least 20 steps (please don’t fall off a cliff or have to go swimming in a lake!). At each step, I want you to take a picture of the vegetation at your feet. If you run into a tree, do your best to still keep the approximate 3 foot distance in the same direction as you move around the tree. I am hoping for as close to a straight line running 60 feet (20 steps of about 3 feet) in one direction. Approximately every three feet, you will have a data point. The data point is the type of plant closest to your spot. It might be good to have a pencil to have an exact spot and try and determine the plant closest to it. You will be creating a transect line and it is a way to document species diversity. You will have twenty different data points and each of them will be a type of plant. Each spot does not need to have a different type of plant; however, you cannot count the same exact plant twice. If you run into a large tree and it is the closest to your spot for two or even three times, you will count it once and then count the next closest plant the other time(s). You will need to use one of the many plant identification guides available online or from your local library. I want you to try and be as specific as you can when identifying the plants. There should be leaves on many of the shrubs and trees that will make identification a little easier. You will then need to create a data table presenting your results. The data table will include the types of plants and the number of data points that particular plant was present at. If you were to do this in a field, you might have 15 clover points, 3 fescue grass, and 2 dandelions. In a wooded area, you might have 4 moss, 5 pine trees, 4 sweetgum trees, 3 green briars, 1 white oak, 1 red maple, 1 holly, and 1 hickory. You will also have a paragraph of text in the results section where you say the number of different species you identified and the most common species. The text should be a summary and you then refer to the table (See Table 1) for the reader to see the raw data. The conclusion section will then provide any reasoning behind what you saw. You will be able to talk about the species diversity being high if there are many species present or low diversity if you only have a couple different plant types. You will need to have at least two references which you use with in text citations following APA guidelines. The references might provide information on normal diversity in different ecosystems. It might be a reference that explains why certain environments have low diversity. The references need to have an author and a year of publication. Wikipedia is not a trusted resource, but it might lead you to a trusted resource. The lab manual text I provided to you covering Ecology is Explorations in Basic Biology (2012) 12th edition by Stanley Gunstream. Pearson Benjamin Cummings, New York.
Grading for this assignment will be as follows:
Results (8 pts):
properly formatted data table with title at top table present (2 pts)
detailed title at top of table (1 pt)
twenty data points (1 pt)
paragraph with text summary and refers to tabletext with summary (2 pts)
refer to table (1 pt)
no reasoning present, only data (1 pt)
Discussion/Conclusion (8 pts):
text providing reasoning of data (4 pts)
at least two in text citations formatted properly (4 pts)
References cited (4 pts):
all references cited in text present (2 pts)
listed alphabetically by first word (1 pt)
proper formatting (1 pt)
Miscellaneous items that can lead to deductions in each section:
Inclusion of any material that is not part of the results or conclusions (e.g. introduction or methods) (-1 pt)
Spelling mistakes (-0.2 per word up to 2 pts)
Grammar mistakes (-0.2 per mistake up to 2 pts)
Punctuation mistakes (-0.2 per mistake up to 2 pts)
Scientific names properly written (-0.2 per mistake up to 2 pts)
Incorrect information (-1 per occurrence)
Use of direct quotes as opposed to paraphrasing (-1 per occurrence)
