• Sessile organisms: Don't move. Think of them like the grand old trees that have stood in one place forever.
• Examples: Conifer trees, corals.
• Motile organisms: The movers and shakers of the biological world. They can travel from point A to B.
• Examples: basking sharks (they don't just sunbathe 🦈), bees (buzzing around 🐝).

• For those chill organisms that don’t move (sessile), we use quadrat sampling. It's like playing tic-tac-toe with nature to estimate how many organisms are in a larger area.
• For the active travelers (motile), the quadrat sampling just won't cut it. Instead, we use the capture–mark–release–recapture method.

Imagine you’re trying to guess the number of M&Ms in a jar. You could try the Lincoln index method! It’s a bit more scientific though, and here’s how it would work with students (because why not?)

• Random Sampling: It's like grabbing a handful of M&Ms without looking! For students, maybe pull out a group from different classrooms or grades without a specific pattern.
• Marking: With our students, it’s a safety pin on their clothes or a tiny mark on their thumbnail. For M&Ms, maybe use a marker to dot some?
• Resampling: Grab another handful (or group of students) randomly again.
• Estimate with the Lincoln Index: It’s maths time! By looking at how many M&Ms (or students) are marked in your second sample, you can estimate the total number in the entire jar (or school).
• Reality Check: Count the actual M&Ms or ask the school's principal the exact number of students.
• Reflection: Discuss discrepancies! Were you close? Way off? Why? Perhaps sampling error played a role. Maybe some students hid from you, or the marked M&Ms dived deep into the jar.