Pond Dipping
The aims of the Workshop are to:
- Learn and understand pond life
- Discover and identify different minibeasts and their habitats
- Identify causes of pollution and its effects on pond life
Activity:
Pond dipping is an excellent hands-on way to learn about pond life. Discussions about minibeasts and habitats will be supported by pictures. Children will participate in their own pond dip, using nets and buckets to collect their findings.
Link to National Curriculum:
- Citizenship – animals and us
- Science – plants and animals in the local environment, growing plants, helping plants grow well, habitats, life cycles, interdependence and adaptation
Background:
A habitat is a place that can sustain life by offering food, water and shelter. Pond habitats vary hugely from land habitats. Adaptations for life in water are very different to those for life on dry land.
Ponds are made up of five different areas, which are habitats within the pond.These areas are: the pond bottom, surface, mid water, above the surface and the pond margin. The wildlife differs hugely through each different section. There are the water voles, that occupy the muddy banks/margins of ponds or the whirligig beetle, that whirls around the surface of the pond.
Ponds offer an array of wildlife but only if the fine balance of nutrient levels within the water is correct. Pollution can upset this balance causing changes in oxygen and carbon dioxide levels. This can have profound effects on the plants and animals that live in these waters.