Sixth-graders at Oxford Middle School got a little wet and a little dirty last week trying to learn more about the retention pond in their backyard as part of the Clinton River Watershed Council’s stream monitoring program.
‘We couldn’t get all 350 sixth-graders to a river, so we decided to use the pond here, which is part of the Clinton River Watershed,? explained Science Teacher Jennifer Bennett.
Students spent three days testing, measuring, observing and recording data derived from numerous pond samples as part of a joint project between the school, CRWC, Assistance League of Southeastern Michigan and the Rotary Club of Oxford.
‘What we’re looking to see is how healthy the pond is,? said Bennett, noting they plan to share their findings with the CRWC.
A $1,000 grant from the Assistance League combined with a $1,500 donation from Oxford’s Rotarians helped purchase all the necessary equipment for the project such as waders, dipping nets, sample tubes and testing materials.
Sixth-graders spent the first day testing water samples for phosphates, nitrates and dissolved oxygen.
Oxygen gets into water by diffusion from the surrounding air, by aeration (rapid movement), and as a waste product of photosynthesis. Adequate dissolved oxygen is necessary for good water quality and aquatic life.
Phosphate and nitrate levels in the pond were found to be ‘excellent? (meaning they were very low or nonexistent) while the amount of dissolved oxygen was ‘poor.?
Bennett said the reason the dissolved oxygen level was so low is because unlike a river or stream, in which water is constantly ‘churned up? increasing the amount of oxygen in the water, a pond ‘doesn’t move.?
Low levels of dissolved oxygen explains why the pond has no ‘more complex organisms? such as fish and crayfish.
Increasing the dissolved oxygen ‘would bring (the pond) up to a whole new level,? in Bennett’s opinion.
Students also tested pond samples for temperature, pH levels and turbidity, which refers to how clear the water is.
The greater the amount of total suspended solids in the water, the murkier it appears and the higher the turbidity. Turbidity is considered a good measure of the quality of water.
Turbidity and pH levels were also found to be ‘excellent? in the OMS pond.
On the second day, the student scientists went in search of tiny life forms in the pond, specifically macroinvertebrates such as snails, mayflies, crayfish, caddisflies, leeches, aquatic worms and midges.
Organisms found by students were counted and scored by pollution tolerance and rarity. Those scores were then added together.
The pond scored a 79 in terms of its macroinvertebrate community. Anything over 49 is an indicator of good water quality, according to Bennett.
Day three of the project was spent surveying the land around the pond from the asphalt parking lot to the vegetation, both wild and landscaped.