Shenandoah K-8 School
Shenandoah, Iowa
 

Square of Life Comparisons

By

Rachel

      The square of life project is a project where you look at the contents of a meter square. We have a lot of interesting things in our square including a Mulberry tree, two sucker trees, sticky weed, horse weed, holes in the ground and evidence of squirrels We had no visible bugs though. Our square is north-west of our school in a small wooded area down a hill. It had rained the day before so it was a little damp. The tree in our square is a nature tree, probably a bird dropped the seed there years ago. Our tree has started to show the fruit and had a few flowers on it. We think the ground squirrels live around and under our tree. We saw eaten corn cobs as evidence oft the ground squirrels. We compared our square to other schools in other places to see how the climate changed the types of plants that grow there.

      I found out that the square in Tempe, Arizona has some of the same things that

we do. We both have at least 1 tree, dead grass, mud, and plants. Although, the other schools compared to us have differences. We heard birds, but we didn’t see any evidence. Another school has seen a feather and a nest. They have a pine tree we have a mulberry. We also have more weeds than them.

I compared with a school in New York too. They found a wasp, ants, spiders, worms, and larva. We don’t have any bugs yet. They have rocks, we don’t. We also have things in common. Like we Both have a tree, dead grass, mud, and sticks. I think we had the same kind of weather as they did.

 In Queen Creek, Arizona They have bugs, a cactus, and a creosote bush. We do have some things in common, even with the big change in weather and temperature. We both have mud, plants, and dead grass. We have a few more things than them. Like the ground squirrels, the sticky weed, the horse weed, and the sucker trees. 

I compared to one other school in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Just like most of the other schools I compared to they had bugs. They also have some very interesting trees, like a maple tree, a hemlock tree, a cherry tree, and saplings. There were only two things we have in common. We both have at least one tree and we have mud.

I have compared to four schools and I have found out that all of them, even though they are in different parts of the U.S, have plants, mud and dirt.    

Square of Life Comparisons
by Scott

       We found about the differences among  Shenandoah K-8 Schools in Iowa and McDonald Park at Mt. Gambier in Australia, and Indian Fields elementary Schools in Dayton in New Jersey. The Square of Life Project is a project where schools find a patch of land by their schools and study the life in a 1meter x 1meter area.

Shenandoah had grass, a tree (which was 27degrees in circumference) that was a red mulberry, 2 sucker,  and weeds (it was 65degrees outside when Shenandoah recorded.) While Australia. had everything Shenandoah had,  but they had  fungus and a bush ahead of  their tree which was  a eucalypt and they also had blackberry vines. NJ  had a boxwood bush; some of its leaves were green others were yellow and some branches were bare. NJ had crabgrass, scallions, and wheat grass (they were a mixture of tan, yellow, and green.) NJ. had lichen (which was whitish green) attached to their tree and  their tree’s bark was scaly and rough with buds on it that look like berries, there were no leaves on the tree. In. had white flowers with yellow centers and brown pink stems (2 in. tall.)

Shenandoah heard 4 birds and had ground squirrels (they didn’t see any, but they found ground squirrel holes.) Australia had lots of animals hiding or hibernating, a rat, (which ran away right away) slugs, a butterfly hiding in their tree, a bug larva, wood lice, a millipede, and magpies flew over their “square.” NJ had a black beetle the size of a pebble, and their moth had brown wings which were flapping. NJ had one dead unidentified flying bug which had two antennae, six legs, and was black and brown in color. In.’s spider was smaller than a pebble, moved slowly, black, and not fuzzy. NJ's worm was 4 in. long, pink, wriggly, and slimy.  
    Shenandoah had dirt and mud, clay was their primary soil. It was moist for Shenandoah because of recent rains. Before Shenandoah was having a mild drought and hadn’t had ran in half a year. Shenandoah didn’t have too much trash because their school set aside that land for animal habitats. NJ's dirt was compact, hard, and black and brown with some topsoil. In. had glass and their example of metal was a beer can. In. had many examples of paper including: paper towels, a napkin, straw wrapper, skittles wrapper, cardboard, and a styrofoam coffee cup. NJ's plastic was a water bottle and wrappers, their small rocks were ¼ of an in. in size with colors of brown, light brown, yellow, and white. Australia found limestone rocks big and small in their “square” because theirs used to be part of the sea. Australia had dirt and mud, an old tennis ball, a nest, spider webs, sap, glass, and take away food “rubbish.”

 .