Australia's Science Forum

Hi

Does anyone out there have any quadrats? If so, did you purchase or make your own?

I have found 1 supplier of 50 x 50cm units but wonder if there is an alternative supplier, possibly selling 1m x 1m units.

We use hoola hoops... Not ideal but it's all we have (borrowed from the junior school). Each time they get requested I think to myself "I really must look up where to buy some real ones" and the bioilogy teacher has also mentioned that she doesn't like them because she has to teach the kids how to work out the area of a circle every time... but if you're after cheap, they work ok

I make mine with nylon rope knotted at 1m intervals and tied at the ends.
The wooden dowel ones I made were wrecked in no time by the little darlings.
They store easily as they are only used 3 times a year.

We made ours out of condiut with elbows at the corners.
Light wieght and easy to store at the end of a cupboard.

I made our quadrats out of small diameter conduit but threaded cord through and tied it off. 1m x 1m square and they fold up for easy storage.

I made ours out of PVC pipe & elbow joints too.
I glued the elbow joints on to 2 pieces of pipe, & left 2 with no joints. That way you can pull apart & store easily, & the kids just slot the bits together to use.
Here are ours apart & assembled....

What a great idea! Might have to make some

Ours are made from strong fencing wire. The ag assistant makes them for us. But they are only half metre x half metre. The metre ones were too wobbly and easily bent and a pest to store. Hence the half metre ones and they work well. Mind you quite a few have found their way into trees in the past.

The wood word dept. made ours, but they are not easy to carry or store as the ones made with the plastic pipes. Good idea!!!

Ours are home made, I presume by our manual arts people but were already here when I started. They are wood but held together at the corners by wingnuts and screws so they can be taken apart to store. We have 5 and each one has each piece of wood labelled so you know which ones go together, as because they were home made the holes only match up if you have the right ones together! Work well though. Pipes look good though.

Ours are the same as AnnNos. Easy to fold up and robust. Easy to store. Just some conduit and rope tied through them. We have 50cm and 1M quadrats.

I made circular ones, with a 500mm diameter. I made them from the black irrigation tubing, that you make gardening watering systems from. I just bought the little joiners and did the 2piR thingo to get the length. Yes the kids have to work out piRsquared but tough luck to them! They are lightweight, and fairly easy to store, and best of all, easy to carry on an excursion!

me too - conduit with elbows!
A friend set up his drop saw and cut the long lengths of conduit and I just swiped a spot of the pipe glue on them and put the corners on them.. we then use gaff tape to keep the 4 pieces together and when they are used I send out scissors, a plastic bag for rubbish and gaff tape for the students to put them all together again. The conduit is great because they can take them to the rock platform or onto mud or grass and I just hose them off.. cheap! easy! quick!

We have some here that were made by a previous technician. They are 0.5m square clear heavy plastic and are marked with permanent marker into gridlines. Easy to store and clean!

I replaced our crappy timber ones and string ones with knots every metre, with plastic pipe quadrats purchased from Southern Biological. They have an ocky type elastic to keep them together and fold down when not in use. They are light and easy to handle and I didn't have to make them.
Lyn.

I have used wooden dowel and drip irrigation elbow joints. Can be easily disassemblied.

Rosalie (another one)

We've got the home made wooden 1metre ones with wing nuts, these are just loosened a bit so I can fold them up. Some really good ideas in this thread.

THanks for your replies, I'll look at options for making some.

I've been here 12 years and only twice been asked for them (by the same teachers in separate years), and those times I just attached some 1m rulers together with wingnuts. Deconstructed them back to rulers again, but it seems and acceptable option. I loke the conduit/elbow idea as well, just don't think I'd bother to go to that much trouble if it is another 10 years before I'm asked again.

Our bunch take them on a field trip to the coast every year & fling them around on the dunes! They've lasted ages, only need a quick rinse on return, & only come back with an elbow missing every few years

Hi all
I have read the quadrant discussion and I got ours made.
They are 50cm sq in 10cm sqs and they can come in the colours you like! You can have 1M sq if you like.

Innovative Ideas is the name of the company. Peter can make, build, most things you want.
I have a very nice Glass cutter he built so that I can cut glass at the same length time after time. I just set the lenght and away I go.
His email address is ideas@dragnet.com.au
Glenis