Pond Investigation

Pond Sampling
  • Safety first - Always make sure you have adequate supervision.
    For Key Stage 2 children, one adult to six children is sufficient.
  • Make sure there is only one set of equipment per group.
  • Operate the "Two Metre Rule": pupils should stay two metres from the edge of the water unless carrying out sampling.
  • Pupils should be taught to care for the creatures they are sampling, and always return them to the same type of place they were taken from.
  • In certain circumstances pond water can be hazardous. Cover any wounds and make sure you wash thoroughly after handling pond water.
For Key Stage 2 pupils at Canterbury Environmental Education Centre, we usually divide a pond investigation into three activities. The first involves making a hypothesis (a good guess) and then testing that guess, ensuring that it is a fair test. In this case by ensuring the sample size is the same in each of two areas.

Session One - The Experiment (30 mins)

Do different creatures live in different parts of the pond?

Equipment: Two trays, one bucket, one spoon, one pond net per group.

Activity

  1. Sweep the net four times in each place
  2. Put the sample into a tray and observe the contents
  3. Make up names for the creatures based on their colour, shape, movement etc.
  4. After sampling several places put all samples into a bucket. Bring the bucket and trays into the classroom.
At a simple level, the pupils note differences by visual inspection. At a more advanced level, they can count the numbers of each individual species and draw bar charts of the numbers of individuals of each species for each site.

We try to keep species identification as a separate investigation so that the pupils can concentrate on good scientific technique in the first investigation. However, species investigation is important, and this is carried out by the use of simple keys in the second investigation.

Site-specific keys for different ecosystems have been prepared by CEEC.

Session Two - Identification (45 mins)

Equipment: Plastic pots, spoons, pipettes, trays full of pond creatures

All of the equipment you need is in the labelled trays. Each room has its own equipment. Please do not move equipment from one room to another

Activity

  1. In the classroom, tip the bucket into trays.
  2. Catch the creatures using pipettes for small creatures and spoons for large ones.
  3. Put one sort of creature per pot.
  4. Sort the pots into those with creatures with legs and those without. Sort those with legs into six legs and more than six legs. Sort those without legs into those with shells and those without.
  5. Put the pots into the correct place on the laminated ID sheets.
Session Three - Observation (45 mins)

After identifying the organisms, we may record our data, either in the form of histograms as above, or by drawing and photography.

We may use hand lenses or simple microscopes to observe the creatures in more detail. At CEEC we use a video-microscope which is ideal for use with larger classes.

The images may also be digitised and stored in a computer, and possibly transferred to this Web site. Examples of such work are found in the gallery pages.

Activity

  1. Clear away buckets and trays. Retain the pots which contain sorted creatures.
  2. Choose one creature per child and complete a 'Passport to Pond World'.
  3. Take one pot at a time together with a completed passport to film the creatures.
  4. Creatures less than 1mm across can be viewed using the video microscope.
  5. The pupils can use resource sheets to find out the feeding relationships of the organisms. This helps to establish the food chain or web.