BES Facebook groupA Beginner's Guide to Pond Dipping
Ponds are a fascinating habitat, containing a large number of different plants and animals. The invertebrates found vary from large airborne insects like dragonflies, down to small slimy flatworms and their comparatively alien nature makes them a source of fascination for children. They are also a major asset when it comes to teaching the primary curriculum, providing opportunities to teach most topics within SC2 (life processes and living things).
With many more schools now possessing a pond in their grounds, there is ample opportunity to get out there and find out what's lurking beneath the water. However, the prospect of taking an entire class out for a lesson may appear rather daunting for the uninitiated, so here is our guide to pond dipping - for beginners.
Before you start
Clothing and footwear
Pond dipping can be messy, so make sure your children are suitably attired for the task and the weather. It is recommended to wear old clothes and sensible shoes, be they trainers or wellies - especially if the edge of the pond is muddy. Make sure you have sun hats and cream if it's sunny, and waterproofs if it is wet.
Equipment
This needn't be expensive, or extensive, but there are a few key items you will need
Nets: These can be as cheap or expensive as you like - even nets with larger holes will catch smaller beasties as they get caught up in the jumble of the sweep. -
Containers: You can buy specialist trays for looking at what you catch, but a washing up bowl or old ice cream container will suffice. Light colours are preferable (white is perfect) for ease of spotting mini beasts. Ideally you should have these in two sizes, a large one for the initial catch, and a smaller one for things you want to look at more carefully.
Spoons and tea strainers: For fishing out mini beasts to look at more closely. These can be bought very inexpensively.
Other items which may be of use:
Identification sheets and keys: So the children can identify what they have caught.
Magnifying glass: To look at smaller animals. It is worth buying a decent one.
Pencil and paper: To record results, or draw animals
Camera: For taking pictures of minibeasts, and children at work.
Health and Safety
Pond dipping can be potentially hazardous, but this needn't be prohibitive provided that a few simple points are adhered to:
1. Have adequate supervision. A ratio of 1 adult to 6 children is recommended for infants, and 1:10 for juniors.
2. Don't fall in! Children should kneel down at the edge to keep their balance when dipping, and move 2 metres away to look at what they've found. No running, or standing near the edge.
3. Don't get water in your mouth. Pond water can carry Weil's disease, as well as any number of unpleasantries. This is not a problem if hands are kept away from mouths, eyes and noses until they have been washed when you are finished. It is worth carrying a tub of alcohol based hand wash just in case. Ensure cuts are securely covered up before you begin.
4. Treat the animals with respect. It is not just you that must be looked after during the pond dip. The animals you will catch are very small and delicate, so handle them carefully, don't pick them up using fingers, and return them safely to where they were found.
5. Be sensible. Make sure instructions are heard and understood before you start. Bring some towels just in case!
Further advice and specific guidance can be found on the health and safety pages of this section
How to Pond Dip
Pond dipping can be divided into three sections: the dipping itself, identification of organisms, and observations drawn from the experience. If the pond dipping is being done as an experiment e.g. "different animals live in different parts of the pond" make sure this has been prepared for in advance!
Pond dipping
Half fill your large and small containers with pond water, and set away from the pond.
Using the net, sweep a figure of 8 pattern in the water for about 10 seconds. Try to do this in the middle section of the water profile. Sweeps near sheltered spots (by plants or at the edge) will yield more minibeasts.
Avoid the sediment at the bottom, and pond weed at the top, as too much of either of these will make it difficult to see what has been caught when you come to look at it. The motion of the net in the water will stir up sufficient bottom-dwellers to catch in your net.
Bring the net smoothly out of the water and carry to the large container. Turn the net inside out into the water.
This will inevitably require some persuasion to remove stubborn bits from the bottom of the net, so you will have to swish the net under the water a little to remove everything you caught.
Put the net to one side, and use the spoons and tea strainers to move interesting minibeasts to the smaller container for closer examination.
If you are planning to use these in the classroom later, keep them cool, and in plenty of water or they will die.
Don't leave great diving beetle larvae or other carnivorous animals in with your selection for too long or there will be very little to return to!
Carry out further sweeps if you need to find more animals.
A few pointers
Have a go before you start the lesson to get used to the technique - this way you will be able to advise the best way to do it, and quickly pick up on any problems there might be.
Pond dipping is exciting, and children can get carried away with the dipping itself, not actually looking at what they have caught. They also tend to take more interest in big minibeasts, to the exclusion of the smaller (often more interesting) ones.
Many a tree bud or catkin will get misidentified as a minibeast.
Make sure they spend enough time looking at what they have found - at the very least factor in time to have a look at what everyone else caught, it may also be worth planning a follow-up lesson for more in-depth identification.
Identification
Identification of what has been found can be done in situ, or later on in the classroom where it can be investigated more thoroughly with microscopes and relevant books.
Observations
There are any number of ways in which you can use what has been found out. If you ran pond dipping as an experiment, now is the time to draw tables and charts and draw conclusions. Animals can be drawn and labelled, described e.g. hairy, tiny, fast; or categorised e.g. "no legs", "six legs", "more than six legs". The animals found can be sorted into food chains, their life cycles investigated, or stories created about where they live. You could try to estimate how much each animal might eat in a year based on its food chain, or how much water there is in your school pond.
Just about any subject can be incorporated - the possibilities really are endless.
