Discover a Dandelion's Habitat Outdoor Adventure

Discover a Dandelion’s Habitat for 5th Grade Life Science

This adventure will take place during an overnight stay at Devils Den State Park (50 miles from Greenwood Schools) in or around the month of May when Dandelion’s are in most likely to be in bloom.

This Adventure is a Fun, Engaging Activity for All Students.

A habitat is a place where an animal or plant lives. Some habitats are better suited than others for a particular organism. The habitat includes physical factors such as the soil and lighting, as well as other living things in the area.

In this activity, children play the role of an ecologist and take surveys of different areas to discover the best habitat for dandelions. They will set out quadrants, or a sample area in which to measure the abundance of a species, just as ecologists do, so that they can take a population count of the dandelions.

Materials Needed for Activity:
Printable Dandelion Data Sheets
Meter ruler
Paper
Pencil or pen
Four sticks to act as corner pegs
String

Step by Step Instructions for Students:

1. Choose four or five different areas in which to conduct a survey of the number of dandelions. Make sure the areas chosen are different. Examples might be a sunny place, a shady place, an area with sandy soil, an area with clay soil, a well-drained area or a waterlogged area.
2. After finding your area, mark out a 50 cm x 50 cm area. Put the pegs at each corner and then run a string around the pegs to make the border of your quadrant.
3. Now, fill in the data in your Dandelion Data Sheet.
4. When you are finished with one quadrant, go on to the next one.
5. When you have collected all of your data, take a look at what you've found. Which quadrant had the most dandelions? The least? What elements contributed to the differences between quadrants? What habitat is best suited for dandelions?

To clearly see which habitat is best suited for dandelions, show your data on a bar chart with the number of dandelions on the y-axis and a bar for each area along the x-axis. Compare with other students to determine accuracy and discuss results with everyone.

Dandelion Data Sheet

Student Name: ­­______________________

Quadrant #: _______

Date and Time: ___________________________

How much sunlight does the area get?

__________________________________________________________________

Where is the area ( i.e near the water, on a hillside, in the woods )?

__________________________________________________________________

Describe the soil. Is it sandy, clay, or loam? Does the area get a lot of water, or a little?

__________________________________________________________________

Mention a few of the other plants that you find in this quadrant:

__________________________________________________________________

Count the number of dandelions in this quadrant and record:

__________________________________________________________________