My Web Page! FERMI QUADRANT PRAIRIE STUDY 2006

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GPS LOCATION: N:__________    W:___________

STUDENT RESEARCHER:_J.Dunham__________

DATA:

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GRAPHS OF DOMINANCE AND IMPORTANCE VALUE:

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COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS:

Justin Dunham

Biology 2Honors

Mr. Cwik

Prairie Analysis

      I would like to start this off by thanking Mr. Cwik for taking us to the prairie

Part 1. Background Information- What is a prairie? For those who don’t know, a prairie is not a cornfield. A prairie is an extensive area of flat or rolling, mostly treeless grasslands. Illinois is the prairie state, but it only has 1 percent prairie in the state. Scientists are trying to restore the prairie that is 1 percent. The prairie consists of 3 very important plots. Those plots are the dominance, the importance value and its diversity. The dominance is important because it shows what prairie plant has most of its same name plants in the one percent quadrant. The importance value sees how each prairie plant or weed is important and contributes to the prairie itself. And finally, diversity deals with how many different types of prairie plants and weeds are in the prairie. In 2004 to 2006 there have been a lot of changes in the importance value and dominance

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Part 2. Comparison-   The things that are being compared and contrasted are the importance value and the dominance of the years 2005 and 2006, and my quadrant. The comparisons between the importance value of 2005 and 2006 are, they both have the same prairie plant names listed in the top ten and have some of the same weed plant names. The differences between the importance value of the prairie plants of 2005 and 2006 are that even though they have the same prairie plant name listed in the top ten, they have them in different order. Also in 2006, the importance value is lower than the one in 2005. The smallest importance value in 2005 is 10.54, and in 2006 it is 0.8. The weed plants are different on the other hand. In 2006, the importance value is higher than the importance value in 2005. For dominance, the comparisons between those two years for the prairie plants is they have some same prairie plant names listed and the top ten. The similarity in the weed plants is the same thing as the prairie plant. The difference between the dominances of the prairie plants is that 2006’s dominance is much higher than 2005’s. And last but not least, the difference between the dominance for the weed plants is the dominance for weed plants for 2005’s look like it kind of doubles the dominance of 2006’s. With my quadrant, for the comparison with the importance value for 2006, the listing was very similar. The difference between my quadrant and the 2005 and 2006 quadrant is that the numbers of both the dominance and importance value are very different.

Part 3. Prediction- I predict in 10 years the importance value for the prairie plant will be similar to 2005’s and for the weed plants the importance value will be similar to the one in 2006. For the dominance, my prediction everything will be similar to 2006’s. I based my prediction on the 1992 plot.

Part 4. Reflection-What I learned out of this paper is that the prairie is growing but the important prairies are having lesser value. I also learned that the weed plants are dominating the prairie and are going to in the future. Prairie is very important because it is a major biome, and if we loose the biome we loose one of God’s creation.

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COPYRIGHT:

© Copyright 2006, L&T Natural Images and Madison Jr. High, all rights reserved. Contact information: email at lccwik@Comcast.net or tcoutts@naperville203.org

ACKNOWLEDGMENT:
This project was created by the Honors Biology ll  students of Seton Academy in South Holland, Illinois with the help of their teacher Mr. Cwik. Support for the project came from Principal Ms. Ingia Jackson and the other dedicated and cooperative faculty and staff of Seton Academy.

 

REFERENCES:
Fermilab Education Department particularly the SIMply Prairie Project. Authors: Bill Fraccaro, formerly of Johnson School, Wheaton, IL; Lawrence Cwik, Seton Academy and Pat Franzen, formerly Madison Jr. High Naperville, IL; and Bernie Jokiel, formerly from Gary D, Jewel Middle School, North Aurora, IL.
Created for the NTEP II Fermilab LInC program sponsored by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Education Office and Friends of Fermilab, and funded by United States Department of Energy, Illinois State Board of Education, North Central Regional Technology in Education Consortium which is operated by North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL), and the National Science Foundation.