1. The Big Question Are the organisms found in pond water the same all over the world?

2. Hypothesis No way! The climate is different in various parts of the world, so you will find different organisms in different places. An animal that can survive in a cold climate will be unable to survive in a very hot climate. Also rainfall is different. An organism that can survive in a very wet climate won’t be able to live in a desert.

3. THIS IS WHAT WE DID Our teacher brought in some pond water from the man-made pond in a near by park We worked in five groups of 6 to identify pond life with and without legs Each group took samples from the sample Ms. Forrest collected We recorded our findings on identification keys Then we shared our findings with Ms. Forrest to find out how many of each organism we found as a class

4. Check out the organisms with legs Six LegsNo. More Than Six LegsNo. Damselfy Nymph1Water Spider5 Mayfly Nymph1Water Mite3 Water Scorpion2Water Louse4 Water Beetle1 Saucer Bug3 Greater Water Boatman 6 Lesser Water Boatman2 Water Stick Insect14 Pond Skater4 Beetle Larva1 Caddis Fly Nymph1

5. Organisms Without Legs Animals With ShellsNo.Animals Without ShellsNo. Rams Horn Snail12Midge Eggs2 Pond Snail4Phantom Midge5 Pea-shell Cockle1Midge Pupa4 Blood Worm10 Leech16 Water Worm6 PlantsNo.Insect Larva4 AlgaeToo many to count Water Flea5 Cyclops4 Flatworm7 Rat tailed maggot15

6. Excerpts From Our Reflections I think today’s activity was nasty, but somehow fun and interesting. It was interesting finding bugs and insects in a bowl. Some water flew in my mouth. Yuck! I spat out a beetle larva. It swam a little then died… by Calvin I thought the water sample lesson was fun, but the water was dirty. My spoon kept falling in the water. That was really disgusting, but I found a lot of things… by Faye

7. Adam’s Reflection Today we did an observing activity. The activity was fun, but messy. We got water samples from the pond, and observed the water to find creatures. The organism that I thought I would find was the blood worm. I did not find any, but I was able to find the water worm.

8. Pond Animals by Chrisann Today in class I had so much fun. I had so much fun because I got to see little tiny animals run around in the water. I actually go to see them with my own eyes! I thought I would have found a flatworm because I sometimes watch shows with animals in the wild and other places. I heard that most flatworms live in ponds so I thought I would have seen more of them, but I didn’t. I was able to find algae because they were the only plants in the water that were tiny and small to see. I also was able to identify bloodworms because they were skinny and had a figure like a stick. I couldn’t identify the ram horn snail because it was gooey and slimy.

9. Sammie’s Thoughts Today my teammates and I were looking for bugs and animals in pond water. It was kind of disgusting and fun. The disgusting part was the jumping spider. The fun part was seeing animals like the water stick insect, pond skater and more.

10. What is it? There was a dead toad looking thing. It was wrapped in seaweed. We looked close and it had a leg. So w dropped it in the bowl.