From what I can remember I was in elementary school and we were asked to pick out a non-fiction book to read. It was about a young child who ventures into their neighbor’s backyard to find that they have sectioned it off into squares. The neighbor shows the child how to explore each square. All the details are very fuzzy but this is what I remember, hopefully it’s somewhat accurate.
Could it be Science in Your Own Back Yard by Elizabeth K. Cooper ? Published in 1958, I read it in the late 60’s. It had a project where you examine 1 square foot of your backyard to see the insect like, what was growing, the pebbles, etc, and compare it to another square foot.
It’s not non-fiction, but it sounds like “The 79 Squares” by Malcolm Bosse.