Students will use a spreadsheet program to analyze individual and class data. They will use Clarisworks (Macintosh Platform) because it is readily available at our school. Each group will make two spreadsheets. The first spreadsheet will be one of their plot by itself. This can be done by opening the spreadsheet program to a new document and following the directions in the lab procedure for calculating individual plots. At the bottom of the spreadsheet, the computer is programmed to give the total centimeters of native coverage and non-native coverage. The computer will also calculate the percent coverage by each. A second spreadsheet will be made to pool the class data. This one will contain the plot numbers, the percentage native coverage and the percentage non-native coverage for each plot. At the bottom of this spreadsheet the students should have the computer calculate the average native versus non-native coverage.

Directions for both procedures are found in the student handouts: