I don't have an answer to your question and ended up doing the lesson with half a class (the ones who finished the regular work) and it motivated the ones who could only watch the "fun" activity.
Half of the class sat and did their backwork (lab report) while the other motivated students laid the transect lines and collected data. It took a few days but analyzing data was done with the whole class. The rest of my classes ended up doing this lesson as well. I realized I couldn't do this lesson in a "fast way"because the learning experience is a "process."

How long are your class periods? Our school has block periods, with 82 minutes. Even with that amount of time, I'm still unsure that we can finish this whole lesson in one period. This idea came from another teacher in our Kauai cohort. She had the students design their own intertidal zone, meaning that they chose what each "thing" represented (blue tickets = hermit crabs, popsicle sticks = sea urchins, etc.). Students setup the area based on their discussion, and also cleaned it up. I plan to use her idea and break up this lesson into several days. First day would be to go over various sampling strategies (using the TSI powerpoint slides). Then show students the materials they have to work with and have them determine what each "thing" will represent in the intertidal zone. If time allows, they will also draw out a map of the zone. Second day, students will immediately start class by setting up the intertidal zone. Hoping that they will remember the different sampling strategies, they'll delve right into collecting data. Another hope is that they finish with enough time to clean up the area before the next class. We'll see how it goes!

I taught this Activity to 5, 6, 7, 8th grade on a Tuesday and had to clean it up inbetween that week and the next Tuesday so that the classroom could be shared with other classes. We used 3 queen sized sheets and 18 shoe boxes. (Some were stacked by twos, a few by threes and the rest are single.) The students did a drawing of the 'fake reef' before we broke it down again-- divided by the sheet patterns which represented different depths. They were divided into 4 Table groups of 4 students each. Then each group had an "organism" that they named and staged themselves and counted so we could set it up again easily. It worked fine, but took 3 more classes (only on Tuesday) to do all of the recording! Each class had their own design and clean-up. They loved it and hopefully we can try it on a field trip.