Our squares contained dirt and grass in all of them as well as weeds, twigs, and dead leaves.  Two of our four squares had trees in them.  The trees were tall and had flower or leaf buds on them.  Both trees had acorn seeds under them.  One tree had pink flowers.  One square had a bush in it.  It was an evergreen type and was small. Under the bush were wood chips that were brown.  One square contained a small pink rose that was dying.

    The animal life was not abundant in our four squares. Two of our squares had bugs which were gray and tiny and one had 5 black ants that were very small. There was evidence of animals having been there.  Bird dropping were found in two of our squares.

    Our squares had a few interesting items in them.  A filter from a cigarette, a crayon, a plastic game chip, a hairball of some kind,  gray in color, and a metal rod were all found in the squares. One square contained a plaque in honor of a teacher that worked here in the past.

    We compared our squares to Escuela Julio Alvarado in Ponce Puerto Rico. This school is in the central part of the Earth and has a warm climate and a tropical environment.  Their squares included animal life such as ants, lizards, caterpillars, and spiders.  Several birds were also found.  The lizards were brown and the caterpillars were yellow and black. We did not find caterpillars or lizards.  Bird evidence was present as were ants.  We believe they had lizards due to their climate. 

    The squares had  plant life that was also different then ours. They had a tree called a tamarind. Our trees were deciduous trees in the oak or maple family.  The grass and weeds were similar.  Their tree we found out was a warm climate tree.  This is the reason we do not have one. 

    Since our squares were in the front of our school they contained lots of grass and trees.  A few rocks were observed but not many.  The school in Puerto RIco had more rocks.  We are not sure why the difference.

    We also compared our squares to a school in Australia.  The school was Sawyers Valley Primary School in Sawyers Valley Australia.  They are located south of the equator and are in a warm almost desert like climate.  Animal life was present in the form of bugs and a cricket exoskeleton.  

    They had an abundance of plant life.  Jarrah trees and eucalyptus trees were present as well as the nuts from both trees.  Green leaves and agapanthus were also present.   We do not have similar plant life. Our climate is cooler and the same plants probably do not grow there.

    They found various sized rocks unlike our squares.  We had more trash then they did.  They did have a crayon like we did. 

    We determined that the differences were mostly due to climate in both areas.  The schools we chose were also more suburban than us.  This may be why we had more trash.