Nature Study:One Year Pond Study - Week 2: Spring Pond Pollution

Welcome to week 2 of our pond study. For week 1 see here. This week we decided to concentrate on pond pollution to see if it changes over the year. Here was the pond that greeted us last Monday:

Grey, overcast with a sprinkling of snow. Still beautiful in my humble opinion!

Week two of our pond study saw daddy at home unwell, with B2 not feeling quite right. That and the fact it was freezing out and snowing, we made the decision to take the car. The littles stayed in the car with Gary, whilst the older three and I investigated our pond. This week I wanted to concentrate on the pollution levels found in the pond. I had done a bit of research on-line and we decided to look at the following:

Water clarity
Water pH
Bugs in the water
Insect life around the pond
General wildlife around the pond
Any outward signs of pollution/waste
Looking at the surrounding area. Were there any obvious things causing pollution

The children collected a sample of water from the deeper end and the muddy, shallow end of the pond. We used a simple jam jar and labeled each. The water was fairly clear in both jars:

Both shallow and deep water look clear, with algae and sediment at the bottom

T11 measured the pH of both water samples. They measured a pH of 8, which means the pond is slightly alkaline but within limits and therefore healthy enough to support life:

There was not much evidence at all of any insect life around the pond, but it was so cold, I think I would have been surprised if we had seen any. There was, however, much wildlife to be seen:

Mallard ducks: business as usual for them!

Our much coveted Manderin duck — Our much coveted Mandarin duck

And this week we managed to photo some moor hens, amoungst the trees — And this week we managed to photo some moor hens, amongst the trees

Irises popping throught he water at the first sign of spring — Irises popping through he water at the first sign of spring

Many types of grasses and reeds live on the side of the pond. We will be investigating them another week!

Spring flowers poking their heads through

The children concluded that even in late winter/early spring our pond supported a great variety of wildlife.

I then sent the children around the perimeter of the pond to discover if they could find evidence of any kind of pollution/ waste or rubbish. To be honest, given our village is quite a large village, there was very little:

And empty bottle. But that was all. — And empty bottle and tennis ball. But that was all.

I wonder if that will increase as the weather is warmer and more people are out and about? The last thing I took a photo of was the water level, measured by its level against a no fishing sign. Gary suggested this:

When we got back home we jotted down notes pertaining to the weather, observations etc ready to be stuck in our March page of our family notebooking (which I will take a photo of at the end of each month and post it) We also began a chart of water pH which we will keep at the back of our Nature notebook:

Share this: