Pond & River Dipping

Source:

• Second Nature - Environmental Studies Pack (5-14) available from the RSPB
• Craigellachie National Nature Reserve, Education Pack produced by SNH
• Schools Out - Fieldwork made easy: A teacher's pack for 5-14 Environmental Studies produced by Highland Environmental Network School Group

Time

20-60 minutes

You will need

• wellies
• fine mesh pond net per group
• white tray per group
• magnifying glasses
• white plastic spoons & clear plastic pots (optional)
• minibeast keys (see downloads and additional information below)
• Worksheets (see downloads) or note books

Did you know?

Ranger services are often able to provide dipping equipment and help on the day to school groups. Your local ranger may also be able to help with the risk assessment and in choosing a safe place to go.  See 'Where to go' for information on the support available at each site.   

Schools in Deeside and Speyside have access to the Riverbank Boxes, which contain dipping equipment, keys and many other river related resources. Ask your local SNH office or Council Ranger Service about borrowing the boxes.

Before the activity

Liaise with your ranger service.  Decide on a safe place to river or pond dip and have a fall back plan if the burn or river is in spate.

Show the children the river dipping equipment and the keys and ensure that they understand what they are to do. Explain the importance of returning all their catches back to where they were caught. Remind them about bringing wellies to school on the day!

Copy the Pondwatch bug dial onto card. Get the children to cut out, stick together, and laminate if possible, their own bug dial for identification. They can use this on the trip and also take home afterwards.

The activity

Have a look at the water and choose an easy and safe place for dipping.

Demonstrate the following:

1. Find a level bit of ground and half fill the tray with clear water.
2. Gently swish the net through the water, nudge water plants and the side of the bank.
3. Be careful not to fill your net with sludge from the bottom!
4. Place the net quickly into the tray and turn it inside out to let the creatures swim out into the tray.
5. To get a closer look at the very small minibeasts, catch them in a plastic spoon with some water and use the magnifying glasses.
6. Try and identify the minibeasts with the keys.
7. Half fill the pots with water and place important finds into the pot, to share with the class or ask what it is.
8. Carefully return all the creatures in the tray to the water and have another go.
9. Also try gently lifting and replacing stones to see and catch other minibeasts.
10. For river dipping, go into the river about ankle deep, gently stir up the gravel and stones with your feet and hold the net downstream to catch the minibeasts. 
11. Take particular care releasing the creatures from the net as river minibeasts are adapted to cling onto things in fast water. 

Younger children do not need to identify the minibeasts. They can invent names for them and will get a lot of pleasure from just looking at all the different types of creatures.

Older children can use the keys for identification and consider:

• species comparisons between polluted and non-polluted water and the use of 'indicator' species and diversity of species to help grade water pollution
• adaptations by the creatures to fast or slow flowing water
• different methods of locomotion shown by the range of minibeasts they have encountered
• design and carry out a fair sampling test to compare biodiversity in a river or burn with that in still water, in a pond or lochan.

Suggested Follow up

• Learn about 'indicator' species and find out which of the fresh water minibeast are indicators of clean water.
• Get each child to focus in on a selected  minibeast with the aquatic detectives activity
• Do the activity  Minibeast Detectives adjacent to the riverbank or pond where you are sampling
• Do the activity Responding to Rivers in this section
• Read poems and stories about Rivers
• Make a class display of a river/pond with drawings of all the creatures which the children discovered. Place the creatures in their appropriate part of the pond river. Use the keys and the downloads to help with this and add in any birds seen.
• Research, write and draw an aquatic food chain.  

Downloads

• Water creatures. Illustrations of commonly found aquatic minibeasts, plus general information on the creature - including what they eat! (great for follow up food chain work)
• he pond educational resource pack on the Cornwall wildlife Trust web site includes identification guides
• The Pondwatch Bug Dial
• See the pond explorer on the Naturegrid web site to explore pond habitats and their inhabitants, do a virtual pond dip and identify and find out about small pond creatures
• Aquatic Detectives recording sheet
• Minibeast Detectives recording sheet

Additional Information

• The Second Nature pack has stories and poems about rivers and also worksheets and keys for river creatures. It is available from the RSPB
• The Field Studies Council have a series of colour, laminated, fold-out guides. Their Fresh water name trail guide would be useful for this activity. 

Curriculum Links

• Science - main
• Expressive Arts (associated)

Age Range

1,2,3,4,5 - suitable for all