Science Club took to the pond this afternoon following school, to do some work on understanding a little of the importance of biodiversity.  The area is an incredible asset to learning since its revamp, and it offers so much more to the school.  We were the first to use our new pond dipping equipment too, and it allowed us to catch a wide range of animals including: tadpoles, water louse, water fleas, fly larvae, worms, a very speedy crustacean and some slithery leeches.

A frog even popped his head up to see what we were  up to, although they couldn’t agree if it  should be called Fred or Bob.  I fished him out with a net for a short look, and Fredbob continued to keep an eye on us when returned – I think he liked us.

I linked the richness of diversity to the cleanliness of the environment, and talked about  how polluted systems usually support a narrower range of species that can tolerate unwanted toxicity.  After looking through the samples we took, the children judged our pond to be very clean and rich in biodiversity.