WEED IDENTIFICATION ON THE NILSSON'S GRASS LAWN
The biology field where biologists classify and name organisms is called Taxonomy. When animals are classified, biologists (taxonomists) must have a trained eye, so when they look they can find characteristics that are useful to group or separate species -- to "classify" them. It takes training to become a good taxonomist.
In this semester project you will go out in the fresh air (hopefully?) and train your eyes by collecting specific backyard plants. The exercise will be done over a longer period of the semester, and what you will do is explained below.
The plants you will collect are weeds, so you dont need to worry about killing useful plants or be sorry for them. 
In fact you will do the instructor of this science part of your 8th grade schooling a "little" favor by removing these nasty weeds for educational purposes. I am also sure that our dogs will appreciate it, since some of the plants you will collect have nasty things that may be caught in their little delicate paws... 
As we progress through the semester we will work with your instructor in an attempt to identify the plants, using online reseorces.
To help identify the plant we will use web sites like the ones below (will open in a separate window), and maybe we can find more and even better websites -- because most of these web sites are not really for this area near Mexico. There appear to be better weed identification sites outside of Texas? But some (all?) weeds used in this exercise might be found by clicking on the links -- or at least a very close species. As long as we can identify to the correct group we will be fine. At each web site you might be able to use the Macintost to zoom in and make the page/pictures larger...
Weed Identification Guide (Bayer)
12 Most Common Garden Weeds
Florida Weed Identification
Lawn Care Academy
ID Weeds (Missouri)
Common Weeds and their Control (Colorado)
Weed Identification Guide (Better Homes)
We might also just Google something like "south Texas weeds" and then see if we can find the weeds you collect in the Google image collection.
GETTING FAMILIAR WITH THE WEEDS
Exercise 1. To start, you will train your eyes to identify and collect only one plant (weed) at a time. You will go out in the garden and find the plant species in the photographs below. Fill a bucket ONLY with this plant. Don't collect anything else (you will collect other plants in other exercises).
Click on the image to to get a bigger picture. It will open in a new window. You can click on it again in the new window to make it even larger. Close the window when finished with the bigger picture...
(The photos will not be visible until you are finished with the weed exercise before this.)
Exercise 2. We are moving on to the second weed. You will continue to train your eyes to identify and collect only one plant (weed) at a time. You will go out in the garden and find the plant species in the photographs below. Fill a bucket ONLY with this plant. Don't collect anything else (you will collect other plants in other exercises).
(The photos will not be visible until you are finished with the weed exercise before this.)
Exercise 3. We are moving on to the third weed. You will continue to train your eyes to identify and collect only one plant (weed) at a time. You will go out in the garden and find the plant species in the photographs below. Fill a bucket ONLY with this plant. Don't collect anything else (you will collect other plants in other exercises).
(The photos will not be visible until you are finished with the weed exercise before this.)
Exercise 4. We are moving on to the fourth weed. You will continue to train your eyes to identify and collect only one plant (weed) at a time. You will go out in the garden and find the plant species in the photographs below. Fill a bucket ONLY with this plant. Don't collect anything else (you will collect other plants in other exercises).
(The photos will not be visible until you are finished with the weed exercise before this.)
Exercise 5. We are moving on to the fifth weed. You will continue to train your eyes to identify and collect only one plant (weed) at a time. You will go out in the garden and find the plant species in the photographs below. Fill a bucket ONLY with this plant. Don't collect anything else (you will collect other plants in other exercises).
Exercise 6. We are ready to make the assignment a little harder? You will go out in the garden and find TWO plant species, the plant species in the photographs below. Fill a bucket ONLY with these TWO plants.
Exercise 7. You will now go out in the garden and find these TWO OTHER plant species, the plant species in the photographs below. Fill a bucket ONLY with these TWO plants.
Exercise 8. Now you will go out in the garden and find these TWO plant species, the plant species in the photographs below. Fill a bucket ONLY with these TWO plants.
Exercise 9. Repetition is gooid. Fill a bucket ONLY with these THREE plants illustrated below.
Exercise 10. And finally fill a bucket ONLY with these THREE plants illustrated below.
IDENTIFYING THE WEEDS
We have ONE more thing to do, and that is to try to identify these plants. Now when you have spent time collecting these plants over a longer period of time, together with the instructor you might be able to identify them. Use the web sites above, or some other web site, to help identify the plants...
Weed 01: Common name: _______________________________ Scientific genus name: ___________________________
Weed 02: Common name: _______________________________ Scientific genus name: ___________________________
Weed 03: Common name: _______________________________ Scientific genus name: ___________________________
Weed 04: Common name: _______________________________ Scientific genus name: ___________________________
Weed 05: Common name: _______________________________ Scientific genus name: ___________________________
This is the end of the project. You are now a weedologist... 
Your parents might ask you to continue to collect these weeds, so that you will remain a weedologist, the dogs will be forever grateful, and the garden will not look like the picture below...
