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Stream Challenge

Source: 

Adapted from Schools Out - Fieldwork made easy  (Highland Environmental Network, school group)

OBJECTIVE

Time

30 minutes 

You will need


Before the Activity

Visit the stream or burn you are going to use with the group, before taking the children there, to carry out a risk assessment and chose an appropriate place. You could ask for help with this activity from your local ranger or nature reserve staff.

Discuss water safety with the class. There is a water safety fact sheet (see downloads) from Forest Education Initiative. Explain to the class that they will be going out to measure the flow rate of a burn and to find out whether flow rate increases or decreases when a burn becomes wider or narrower. Get the class to design the experiment and gather the equipment they will each need.

The activity

Measuring the flow rate
  1. Measure out an appropriate distance along the edge of the burn
  2. Drop the orange or natural object in at the start point
  3. Time how long it takes to cover the fixed distance and note it down each time
  4. Repeat 5 times to obtain an average result
  5. Convert the measurements into flow rate (metres / second)
Testing the hypothesis
  1. Write down an hypothesis about the width of the burn and the flow rate
  2. Measure the width of the burn
  3. Repeat the experiment at a wide and a narrow point along the burn
  4. Note down any problems which might have made the test 'unfair' (Were they able to recover the object and use the same one for each test? Did the object become damaged? Did the object get caught in an eddy or against the side?)
  5. Were there any other factors to take into account? (Was the depth of the burn constant?)
  6. Use the results to find out whether the width of the burn affects the flow rate and whether their hypothesis is true or false.

Downloads

Additional Information

Curriculum Links

Age Range

2, 3