Week 6 Field Session [31
August; 10am -11am] [Emma]
Topic: Who
lives at the stream – plants and animals – continuation of last session
This was what we covered - finish our work from last session
on
Measuring
the stream – length and width
Plants –
how many and what species
Who lives
at the stream – indicator species – why? Overall question – how can we tell the
stream health? And what effect is our stream having on the stream?
Review of
safety; 3 main things to remember to keep safe
Review last session;
Why are butterflies bodies fluffy? – an ongoing question which seams to
have an answer but not the one we hoped for - this is what I found as the
general – butterflies have a slender abdomen with fine scales, but moths have short,
hairy or furry looking bodies with larger scales on their bodies which makes
them look heavier and fluffy – why? Moths come out at night = nocturnal and
therefore need to conserve heat at night = so using the extra fluffy stuff to
keep warm. But butterflies around during the day, absorb sunlight so keep warm
without the need for extra fluff on their bodies. The students were into this
discussion, Ryan and Tyler were on the ball thinking through this – this could
be extended looking into other animals that come out at night – do they appear
or behave differently and why? For example owls that hunt at night have silent
wings to catch their prey as they fly at night, or kiwi birds that have good
eye sight when in the bush at night.
We started
off measuring the stream the length of the stream using tape measures, 1 group
started at the road and a second group went down to the blue pipe mid way
through the stream. The groups calculated that the length was 180.34 meters. To
save time we decided to do the width at the end and subsequently forgot! So we
need to do this next time. We discussed Why do we need these measurements? What
would they help with? – why are they important for scientists studying an area?
Next we
looked at the plants on the stream banks – we reviewed last week dividing
things into non-living and living then looking at the living group there was
animals and plants, but last week we looked at just animals now we will look at
the plants. Note: plants includes trees too.
We saw flax
– harakeke, blackberry and deadly nightshade. We discussed that flax is native
and well adapted to live in this area. Some scientists believe that plants
adapt and change to their environment. What does adapt mean?
(we didn’t really discuss adaptation a lot
this could be something to focus on in class and find examples of adaptations
on the animals and plants at the stream – some other questions could be Have
a look and list the different plants and look for adaptations that they have to
help them live and survive – are there lots of plants? What does the presence
of these plants tell us about the health of the stream?)
We talked
around the idea of native versus introduced and endemic – do think it really
matters? Think about your school and the students who started at 5 or have
moved to the area since then? We also talked about the council spraying the
plants that are invasive and what that means – i.e. the poison sprayed on the
plants and will flow into the stream and end up in Tye Park.
We had
heaps of wonderings …
Tyler asked
about how plants grow in winter and summer?
Ethan asked
and thought about the poison going into the stream and whether it would kill
other plants too?
In the last
10 minutes we did a second search for any new invertebrates – I had changed 1
of the nets to make the holes smaller – the students were very keen to get in
the water and we can aim to do this next time if we bring a change of clothes and gumboots. We finished off with a
quick rubbish collection as we were surprised by the amount last time.
We forgot
to measure the width of the stream … next time. Emma left 2 good library books
with the teachers to look at in class with lots of invertebrate pictures. Also next time
we will look at abiotic factors like temperature, stream speed, depth of the
water, etc.
Debrief;
What was
interesting? What further questions do we have?
Length and
width of stream = figures at school to share
Plant
numbers and species = what does this also tell us about the health of the
stream?
Invertebrates
again – did we find any new species? – what research did you do in class?
What can we say about the health of our stream?
