TheWillowSchool
Gladstone,NewJersey
GradeTwoClass–Mr.Mann
November,2014
The pond that we study is on the school property. Our pond is twelve years old.
Questions:
1) Whatkindsofanimals will we find?
2) Will we be able to catch them?
3) How many animals will we find?
4) What second grade class found the most in total?
5) What creatures changed from year to year?
Procedure:
What We Did:
1. First, we walked around the edge of the pond to inspect for bigger creatures. We walked around the narrow inner path to look at the creatures in the pond. We trampled a path.
2. Next time, we caught specimens from the pond using big and small nets. We put them in buckets and brought them back to the classroom.
3. We identified creatures by separating them into smaller bowls. We used field guides, macro invertebrate wheels, and experts to call them by name.
4. On our last visit, the teacher made two long dips at each end of the pond. He used the same net and dipped in the same place as last year.
5. We sorted, named, and counted the creatures that our teacher brought back to the classroom.
6. We added up the strings of numbers and made a bar graph to show how many creatures we counted this year. We compared them to other second grade classes in the past.
Results:
Our Count
Phantom Midge Larva / 5Tadpole / 24
Mayfly / 32
Giant Water Bug / 2
Water Boatman / 1
Cadisfly / 3
Backswimmer / 6
Diving Beetle / 19
Orb Snail / 3
Scud / 38
Stonefly / 2
Clams / 5
Dragonfly / 11
Leech / 1
Water Strider / 1
Our Bar Graph
Pond Macro Invertebrates / # caught / # caught / # caught / # caught / # caught / # caught / # caught / # caught / # caught / # caught / # caught / Totals
Backswimmer / 3 / 8 / 1 / 3 / 10 / 3 / 26 / 2 / 1 / 2 / 6 / 65
Bloodworm Midge / 103 / 13 / 1 / 117
Caddisfly / 2 / 7 / 4 / 1 / 3 / 2 / 3 / 3 / 25
Clam / 1 / 77 / 232 / 87 / 5 / 402
Damselfly / 17 / 1 / 18
Dobsonfly / 1 / 1 / 2
Dragonfly / 17 / 14 / 8 / 34 / 20 / 58 / 26 / 20 / 16 / 8 / 11 / 232
Fisher Spider / 2 / 14 / 5 / 1 / 5 / 6 / 3 / 2 / 2 / 40
Giant Water Bug / 1 / 1 / 1 / 5 / 1 / 2 / 11
Leech / 4 / 5 / 5 / 10 / 2 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 31
Mayfly / 16 / 14 / 21 / 26 / 1 / 16 / 35 / 21 / 12 / 18 / 32 / 212
Phantom Midge / 13 / 1 / 21 / 36 / 98 / 10 / 95 / 144 / 15 / 10 / 5 / 448
Pointy Pond Snail / 13 / 29 / 31 / 4 / 24 / 16 / 5 / 2 / 22 / 16 / 162
Predaceous Diving Beetle / 4 / 1 / 3 / 4 / 1 / 19 / 73 / 19 / 124
Ram's Horn Snail / 49 / 57 / 48 / 48 / 149 / 12 / 7 / 4 / 3 / 377
Scud / 1 / 11 / 64 / 123 / 167 / 123 / 48 / 83 / 47 / 149 / 38 / 854
Stonefly / 16 / 12 / 5 / 26 / 8 / 13 / 15 / 2 / 7 / 2 / 106
Tadpole / 26 / 33 / 44 / 41 / 34 / 63 / 49 / 11 / 13 / 21 / 24 / 359
Water Boatman / 1 / 6 / 1 / 8
Water Flea / 3 / 3
Water Mite / 6 / 6 / 1 / 13
Water Scavenger Beetle / 27 / 58 / 14 / 27 / 13 / 3 / 3 / 3 / 12 / 160
Water Scorpion / 1 / 1
Water Strider / 2 / 1 / 3
Whirligig Beetle / 56 / 56
TOTALS / 171 / 159 / 336 / 356 / 475 / 475 / 463 / 404 / 414 / 423 / 153 / 3829
Conclusions:
Based on the types of macro invertebrates found in the pond, we were able to determine the general health of our pond. We used the pond study results over the last 11 years to find sums for all types of macro invertebrates using the spreadsheet found on the following page. We determined that our water is a little bit polluted. There is an even mix among creatures found in less polluted waters and more polluted waters.
Now we have another question: How can we revive the water quality in the pond?
We found that the work of a scientist never ends.