POND PREVIEW

[Sean Nash]

In the space below, reflect on and extend your learning from our last session. I thought we did a really nice job of connecting to the knowledge we already possess on this topic. Not only did we collaborate well in our immediate groups, but we learned other approaches from the other groups in the room. Today, we will take this experience and head into more specific and precise territory via the web.

In the space below, talk about our shared experience in connecting to the freshwater pond ecosystem. What did you learn that was completely new to you? What came up that reminded you of something that you already knew, but hadn't thought about in years?

Then, after diving into the web, and researching more specific characteristics of this ecosystem... what sort of things did you individually (as well as collectively) did you forget, or not think about at all? How accurate was your food web diagram for a pond in our area? Based on what you know about trophic pyramids, what do you expect to actually find in our pond, and it what numbers? What other information needs to be considered before heading to the actual pond to collect data?

How can you tell an ecologically healthy pond from one that isn't? Are there differences in natural vs. man-made ponds? What data do you think we will be able to collect in our lab next week? What other valuable ecological data might not be feasible for us to collect that day?

For the second part of your response, respond about your actual pond experience at Western.
How did actually visiting the pond create a different learning experience for you? What did your pond experience solidify or confirm about your prior expectations? What new learning did you experience? What did you think about the actual techniques we used to learn about the pond? What would you have liked to learn that you didn't get to experience? Remember...we would love to see any of the pictures that you took during our trip last time.

[Laci Shoemaker]

Since having our discussion on the whole pond thing, there were a few new things that I learned. When I was looking through the packet you gave to us, I seen some new animals, like a mollusk, I thought those only lived in the ocean since I seen something about a mollusk on Finding Nemo. :-P I didn't give a thought to it that maybe they lived in a pond too.

There were some things that I completely forgot about that lived in ponds like algae and snapping turtles and stuff like that. Our food diagram was a little off, or maybe a lot. I thought that there was only like one big, mean, huge, fighting monster (maybe not a monster, but yeah :-P) on the top of the food diagram, but there isn't really.

In our pond I expect to find out lots of new things, like maybe there are more types of water bugs than I though, or maybe there are more types or organisms, stuff like that. The number of organisms and water bugs are much greater than fish and turtles, I'm sure. :-)

[Laci Shoemaker]

Since we went to Missouri Western, I learned that there are far more species of organisms in a pond than I thought there were going to be. My group and I took samples of the water two different kinds of ways; the first way we took a net and sampled the edge of the pond, and got some mud, then dumped it into one bucket. The second way was that we threw a smaller net into the center of the pond a few times and dumped the water into a separate bucket. We went back into the classroom and looked at our mud and water underneath a microscope and I found that there were a bunch of little moving organisms in the water from the center of the pond (more than from the edge because we couldn't really see since the water was mostly mud). I thought it was really cool to see microscopic organisms go about their business. :-)

I liked that fact that we got to work hands on with the pond, I feel like I learned a lot more about the pond being there, rather than sitting in a classroom because with being at the pond we took samples and looked underneath a microscope and took lots of pictures (which I'll put on as soon as I find my cord. :-P) and if we were in a classroom we couldn't of taken as many pictures, or any at all, and we couldn't of taken samples. I'd much rather learn hands on than just in a class room. Working at the pond confirmed that there are more species of organisms living in the pond and if I were to just hear it in the classroom, I'd have a harder time believing it.

[Marcy Withrow]

I completely forgot the fact that there are two different types of ponds. One pond being man made and the other pond being naturally made. There's also the fact that these ponds are extremely different. I've never really seen a natural pond, so I don't really know what all would be in there. I'm guessing the population of species would be less than the population of a man made pond. I have seen a man made pond, because my Aunt Mary used to live on a farm and she owned about twelve of them. One time we pulled out a tub of tadpols. So, the population of a man made pond is pretty big. But, in a way you can maintain how many organism you put in at first, that is until they reproduce. I thought the lesson in class was a good way of putting our knowledge of a pond ecosystem on paper. It was neat to see what was in the other groups' minds, everyone was so creative!

I didn't think about toxic waste and it's effect on organisms. If the toxic waste were to harm the producers, then chances are the population would drop dramatically. When I was researching I didn't find much. Just the fact that man made ponds can be stocked with new organisms (such as fish). Which makes me believe that man made ponds can control the population as I mentioned above. When it comes to me making food webs, I am terrible! I forgot that each organism should be by itself and not grouped together. Our food web wasn't too accurate, food webs are hard to explain though; it's a confusing topic. I knew that the producers got their energy from the sun, then after that it all kind of went down hill. I expect at our pond there will be TONS of producers and as you go up the trophic pyramid numbers will decrease.
We should probably know what kind of organisms we will find there, but we already have most of those on the lab sheet we got. We got most of the information, so I don't know what else we might need.

A pretty good sign that the pond isn't healthy is when there are dead organisms floating on the water. Take Lake Contrary for example. A few years ago they had to clean out all the dead fish, something had to of gone wrong. That is a great example of an unhealthy pond. If you see a lot of debris and chemicals, chances are that isn't a healthy pond. Like I said, there are a lot of differences between natural and man made. I can't compare them that well, because I've never seen natural. But, i can infer that natural has less organisms and man made could have more depending on the pond size. Also, man made would have been created for a purpose, while natural is just simply there.

I think we will be able to determine an estimation of the population of organisms in the pond. We will also be able to tell how healthy the pond is. We could take a closer look at the organisms we found and put them into a trophic pyramid. When we put them into the trophic pyramid we will be able to tell how many producers we have compared to a primary consumers or secondary consumers. I can't wait!

[Marcy Withrow]

It was neat to see the conservation department. I never knew that Missouri Western had one. It's always great to have a hands-on learning activity. I enjoy seeing things in real life instead of just learning about them in a textbook or over the internet. I knew that the pond would contain Plankton, fish, and tad pols. Those are the main organisms. I pictured the pond more swampy. It was extremely pretty and in good condition. I couldn't tell if it was natural or man made, I'm kind of leaning more towards man made.

I learned that larvae live in ponds. I didn't think about it until it was up on our organism sheet. I found that interesting. I didn't know there was such a thing as a plankton net, to get samples of plankton. Techniques? All we really did was use nets. I found the "kit" thing hard to understand. But, other than that the nets weren't too unusual. I have no clue what the "kit" thing was used for. It was confusing. I would have liked to know exactly how many species of organisms live in the pond. That would be cool to see a chart and compare where they would go on a food chain.

This isn't the same pond, but it was one further back in the woods.

I didn't have any pics of the pond we visited. But, this is close enough :) Kind of

[Shandis Cruz]

During this activity I think it’s pretty safe to say that I have gained a whole new understanding for pond life. It wasn’t until we had to sit and think about all of the different organisms that live in ponds, did I realize that there is much, much more than fish that make up a good portion of their populations.

At times when our group was brainstorming I found it tough to come up with any organisms but the obvious- fish, frogs, ducks, ect. When we “finished” labeling our pond and received the pond life packet I was baffeled by some of the creatures that it showed. I had never heard of a Bosmina in my life!

Another creature that threw me for a loop was a Mollusc. Thanks to Nemos dad Marlin I only related Mollusc’s being sea creatures. It didn’t even cross my mind that they also inhabit ponds.

I think as a group we forgot to mention much of the smaller more complex life- certain parasites, ect. On that same note , they were organisms that don't necessarily pop right into your mind when labeling pond life.

Onto the matter of our food web, I think all in all we were fairly accurate with labeling based on the creatures we listed. Based on the Trophic Pyramid, I expect to find many different, smaller, microscopic organisms. I expect these organisms to contain the highs numbers because they tend to have a higher reproduction rate than that of other creatures.

A piece of very important information to consider before we head to our pond is whether or not it is man-made. When a pond is man-made, the "maker" gets an imput/ decides on certain animals that will inhabit it. With that said many have the misconception that all man-made ponds are healthy.

To me I think that a healthy pond is one that is flourishing with plants and animals-the typical view. When I think of unhealthy ponds I tend to vision eerie swamp-like waters. But I don't believe that either of these views have anything to do with whether or not they are considered healthy or unhealthy.

Next week I think that we will gain a great deal of knowledge regarding the water levels. I believe this to be one of the "easier" elements to test. The data that may not be as easy to discover will be the micro organisms in the water- depending on the microscopes that we are able to use.

[Shandis Cruz]

When we actually got to go to the pond and have the hands on experience I believe that I gained a whole new understanding. It wasn't anything comapred reading and looking at pond pictures to gain knowledge, we were actaually conducting experiments in order to understand! Prior to going to the pond I thought I would see quite a bit of animals such as rabbits, frogs, etc. but surprisingly I didn't. My initial thoughts were right, we discovered/viewed a ton of micro organisms!

Going back to the hands on expierence I thought it was totally awesome to be able to use the tools that we were given to conduct our experiments. I must admit that Taylor and I had experienced some difficulty with the net we used to scrape along the banks but in the end it made the whole experience more fun! Another thing that I loved about this lab was that it was student driven. The fact that we didn't have a teacher right over our shoulder telling us step by step what to do made me want to learn even more. I learn the most when I am given a task, materials and some background info and get the oppertunity to explore finding awesome biological organisms.

What I would like to learn is where does the water in the pond come from, is it just rain water? While conducting my experiments I noticed a rather large drain pipe leading into the pond...where does that water come from? That is probably the biggest question that I have in reguards to the pond.

[Kylie Warner]

In the class period about ponds I learned and was reminded of so much. When seeing other peoples' pictures and diagrams I felt a little under educated about life in ponds but then again I'm one of those people that have only been to a pond a handful of times in my life. I fogot even the obvious things like tad poles ;) And I don't want to sound silly but things like algae honestly never comes to my mind when I think about a pond.

After reserching and looking through that packet that we got, I forgot just how many types of species can live in a pond. As for my groups food web...let's just say that when Mrs. Nash said not all big animals were ath the top, I'm sure we all learned a thing or two. :) I think that using a pyramid is a really good way to look at the web because I see now that there really are not too many animals that eat smaller animals in a pond. Therefore they are the smallest part and so on. So in that section of class and research, I really did learn a lot.

I think any thing else that should be considered before going to a pond to do research is what kind a pond it actually is. I see a difference between a man-made pond and one that is natural. Of course there are always different kinds of animals and plants and things in every pond, but in a man-made pond, what percentage of the species got there naturally? I think that that should be taken into accout.

[Kylie Warner]

Doing the pond lab at MWSU was not only a fun way to learn, but it was a big eye opener for me. Going to the pond in the back of my mind the whole time I just pictured frogs, lily pads, fish. But when we got there and started looking and taking things out of the water, I was really surprised. First, it never came to me that tadpoles are on the shallow part of a pond. I just figured that they swam in the deeper parts. So after that I learned that there are many many animals and species all over the pond, not just in the "middle."

Back at the lab, when we looked at samples in the microscope, I learned that there is so much more than just what they see. Sometimes if you looked just right, you could see worms that looked huge under the glass but there was no way to see that without it. Overall, one of the biggest things that came to my mind was that there are so many species and living organisms in the water that so many people don't know about. Most of the organisms that live in a pond, are not what you can see but what you can't. I think that going to the pond and seeing what I saw makes me realize a lot of misconceptions that I had

[Kerstyn Bolton]

You said you pictured frogs, lily pads and fish, so were any of those animals in the pond? If so, what kind of fish and how big were they? And did you guys find the living organisms that you looked at with a microscope or were they already there for you? It seemed like it was fun though!

[Aziz Siddikov]

I find out a lot of things in our disscution. I remembered some thingswhen i was looking throught the packet you gave us. i foget that i the pond can live such animals as turtle, mollusk, and staff like this. I thing that this lesson was good chance to put our knowlige obout pond. One picture can say thousand of words, it is especcialy about the pictures that we draw in this lesson. It was interisting to see what was in the other groups mind, every group was so creative.

The staff like this i learned in Russia one year ago but i completly foget about this. So it was good review for me. That there isn't many in the top of food piramide. It was interistingto knew that only 10 pecent of energy go to upper level. Our food web wasn't so good, becous it had only few animals. But we tryed to draw as many producers as possible.

Next week i expect a lot of new knowlege and experiance to discovering. I tink that we will be able to tell what kinds of animals in this pond. Also we can put this organisims intothe piramide.

[Taylor Woodruff]

One thing that came up that I didn't really think about while our group drew the diagram of the pond was that there are a lot of different ponds. I completely forgot that depending on the area you were in depended on what species lived in the pond, and what kinds of things you would find there. Also, that there seems to be a lot more man-made ponds than natural ones. So, that kinda determines what things are in the ponds too.

As I started doing more research on the web, I couldn't really find much more information than what we talked about in class. But, one thing that I came across that I didn't really even think about while making the diagram (even though this might sound stupid hah) is that ponds are normally only about 12-15ft deep, so the sun can reach the bottom. Reading that reminded me that it allows a lot of plants to grow at the bottom of the pond.

So, knowing that plants can grow in ponds you can find a lot of bugs, snails, slugs, tadpole/frogs, fish, insects, duck/swans, birds, and of course humans.

Well, I'm going to state the obvious and say that you can tell that a pond isn't healthy if there's a lot of polution in the pond hah. Also, if there's a lot of dead things then I'm just going to say that something isn't right so it can't be too healthy. And I'm guessing healthy ponds are just filled with a lot more life, and not so nasty looking. :p

But, when we go to our lab next week I'm not exactly sure what we will be able to find, but I'm sure we will learn a lot more by seeing it and dealing with it first hand than just by looking up things on the internet.

[Taylor Woodruff]

Actually visiting the pond created a totally different learning experience for me in a couple of ways. For instance, actually experiencing everything in person made everything so much more realistic and it gave me a better understanding of what a pond actually looked like, instead of just looking at picture and not being able to see the different depths of a pond. Also, just being in the environment made me more excited to actually learn about ponds, because quit frankly ponds aren't really on the top of my list of things to learn about, so experiencing it first hand made it more interesting.

My pond experience confirmed my prior expectations by seeing all of the lily-pads and plant life surrounding the pond. Also, seeing all of the tadpoles that the other groups caught in their nets confirmed my expectations of seeing a lot of frogs and tadpoles. Another thing was that I expected to see was some fish, but sadly none of the groups caught any, so we weren't able to witness it first hand. Although, I'm pretty positive they were just hiding from us. :p

Some new things that I learned about was finding the different kinds of insects that live in the pond. Like Shandis and I found a water nimf (sorry I'm not sure if that's how you spell it, but you know what i mean hah), which I have never seen one of those that I know of in my life. Also, like Blayr, Ivory, and James' group found what we think is either synura or pandorina after looking into the microscope. I thought it was really cool to see because it was just like little algae that made circular motions all over the place, and I never even heard of that. It was really cool to see things that you could never see with the naked eye.

I really like the techniques that we used while learning about the pond. I especially liked using the thing that was like a net on a stick, (hah I can't remember what it's called?) my group along with a lot of the other groups caught a lot of interesting things with that thing! I couldn't believe how many tadpoles were caught just by using that one tool! Also, the thing that we threw out there was kinda cool too because we caught a lot of the littler things that we normally wouldn't be able to catch with the other thing.

But, honestly I don't think there is anything else that I would have liked to learn? hah learning about ponds isn't really all that interesting to me, even though it was cool to see things in a different perspective, I can't really think of anything else that I would like to learn about. But, this lab was really fun, we should do something like this again! :)