Stream+Water+Quality

Collecting Data to Assess Stream Health The health of a stream depends upon many factors but can be calcuated by collecting data both observational and measureable.

The first things your students might observe will be weather, wind speed, air and water temperature, stream water flow, or lack of it, as well as obvious sources of pollution and trash.

They might also observe wild life both footed and winged, and various plants growing near the stream in the riparian zone.

All of these can be indicative of stream health, and need to be collected before using probes.

Included on this page is a data form to submit your classes data to a data bank. To get a copy of the spreadsheet please contact me by email from your faculty email account and I will share the spreadsheet with you.

Stream Health Data Form

Here is a printable data sheet - it has the information on the Google Data sheet in case you do not have wifi connection at your stream site (under contruction)

Plant life can be an indicator of stream health because certain plants and macroinvertebrates are sensitive to pollutants and won't be in evidence if the stream is contaminated - Have students snap photos of flora and fawna in and around the riparian zone an submit the photos to you (properly titled with their last name and a photo number. Example gamble #1. Back in class, they can ID the organism and research how sensitive it is to pollution and toxins using the internet and/or resources in your classroom.

Here is a sample of this activity used for classification (no sensitivities to pollutants noted) by Susie Edens at Latta High School:

This presentation shows various organisms and how they indicate stream health. @http://bridgingthewatershed.org/btw/watchdogs.shtml

@http://www.weebly.com/weebly/main.php Website for collaboration