Stream Study - Trip Blog

So, on Wednesday the 17th, our class and the other ATP class went on an amazing trip! We went to Bonnie Brae to explore BMI's and the stream.

Once we got to our location, we started right away (since we were a bit late). We got into groups and headed down to the stream. My group was Kira, Jasjit, Navita, Urvi, Simar and me. Navita and Kira went into the stream first. Once they had collected the sample they had to put it through the sift (that way you could see if there were any BMI's). I had to clean the sift with water. The water was FREEZING cold, which did not make anything easier. On top of THAT, it started to HAIL. So now I was freezing cold with ice pouring onto of my head.

Anyways after that, we did some chemistry. Thankfully it stopped hailing so at least now there wasn't ice hitting my head. We had to figure out the turbidity, pH, temperature and the oxygen in the water. The results were pretty fair. The pH was an eight, the turbidity was 40 JSU, the oxygen level (of the water) was a 4 ppm and the temperature was 9.4℃.

Oxygen level - 4 ppm

Turbidity - 40 JSU

pH - 8

Sorting out the BMI's

Once our stream study was done, we went to different bins to sort out the different BMI’s and our group found a LOT of red worms. Later on, we figured out that these RED WORMS were called midges. We also found some beetles, sow bugs and some small clams. When Simar got up to stretch her legs there was a worm under her. I picked the worm up with my hands but everyone in my group started to scream and scared me so I threw the worm because everyone scared ME when they screamed.




Then, we finally got to eat! I was starving from all that work. I washed my hands from the water in my water bottle and it was so HOT! My hands felt so amazing when I poured it on my hands. While we were eating, we got to know what we were going to do next and how many BMI’s we caught, we caught 109 BMI's which was a LOT.

Planting trees

The last activity we did was TREE PLANTING! We got a quick lesson on how to plant the tree. It looked so easy but once we started digging it was hard to make sure the bottom of the hole was flat and not too deep. But, sooner or later we finished planting our first tree and went on the plant two more. A the end my shoes were FULL of dirt and so were my hands.

All and all, it was an amazing trip. I loved sorting out the BMI’s and learning how many we caught. Planting the trees was an amazing experience as well. The only thing I did not like was the weather. It was very cold and it also started hailing making it even more hard to work. But in the end I learned a LOT of new things and had some good laughs.