Project ideas
In addition to the SITC project, there are a number of associated projects which you may wish to undertake with the schools now that you've got their interest:
Where are your nearest salmon?
Get the children to find out the whether other rivers in your area have salmon
in them. A useful resource could be the National Biodiversity Network website
(www.searchnbn.net).
Type in 'Atlantic salmon' to see its distribution and then use the interactive
map.
Looking at Invertebrates
Study aquatic invertebrates - when returning to electrofish your release site,
a study can be undertaken to capture and identify the invertebrates present.
You may want to visit the Virtual Pond Dip website (www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/ponddip/)
to prepare for the types of creatures you might see! By carefully lifting
rocks from the stream bed, invertebrates can be collected easily by hand.
If a suitable net is available then kick samples can also be easily collected.
Invertebrates are important as pollution indicators and a source of food for
fish.
Looking at your
River
The physical attributes of the river can be measured, in particular water flow, depths, gradient, substrates and width. It may be possible to collect measurements from a number of locations across the river catchment to show how a typical river changes from its headwaters down towards the estuary.
If you have any project ideas that you'd like to share with other facilitators using this site, please contact us and we'll post them here.