Pond Ecosystem {Pond Study: Week 6}

Welcome to week 6 of our one year pond study when we will be studying the pond ecosystem. But first, I think this has to be one of my most favourite photos I’ve ever taken.  Isn’t he a beauty? 

Read More! If you’d like to read a bit more about how we came to the decision to carry out a post study for a whole year, this is the post for you!

Goals For This Week

• Understand pond ecology
• Be able to identify any elements of the pond ecosystem in plain sight to them whilst at the pond
• Be able to discuss the elements they were unable to see either because the season or because of their position ie under the water
• Be able to use our water periscope to view under the water
• Collect some water samples to view under our magnifier

Find Out More! One thing we want to do throughout this study is to watch a tree throughout the seasons and to study it in huge depth. Click on this post if you’d like to read more about our tree study (hint: we chose an Ash tree!)

Photos Taken This week

First some general pictures of our pond and wildlife:

Compare Seasons! I am going to record certain things at each season. The first record is about the spring fauna we found around the pond.

Observing and Investigating the Pond Ecosystem

We had done quite a lot of work last week with the ecosystem, so this was a week of admiring the surroundings and doing a bit of hands on study:

Whilst we wandered around the pond we discussed producers, consumers and decomposers.  These were all new terms and they did well pointing out those they could see and imagining and making suggestions of those they couldn’t.  Once we got home we looked at the water through our magnifier, not expecting to see much.  To our surprise there was lots of little wiggly things swimming about!

Next week we are going to revisit studying the pond water, as we did in week 2, when we looked at the pollution in the pond. This time we will attempt some identification of life in the water.  Given I know zip about pond life, this should be interesting.

Drama at the Pond! Take a look at how we helped an injured duck at our little village pond.

Just as a post script: I am enjoying this nature study so much.  Much, much more than I thought possible.  It moves me.  I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced such utter beauty and it’s all naturally stunning, with no modification to ‘improve’ by man.  Truly, such a gift from our Creator.