Our Award Journey By Primary 5

Discovery award The discovery award is an award which helps people enjoy and care for wild places. The award is open to all and is funded by John Muir trust. There are 4 parts that make up the discovery award. These are Discover, Explore, Conserve and Share

The discover part of the award is about choosing an area special to you. We chose the Lyne water and went for some walks to see it at different levels in different seasons. We also researched the wildlife in and around the river. Discover

Explore The explore part is about exploring the area and it’s wildlife. We’ve done things like going on riverside walks, scavenger hunts, map reading and looking for invertebrates in the rivers. We explored from the source of the Lyne at Baddinsgill all the way down to Broomlee.

Conserve The conserve part is about helping to look after and protect wildlife. We’ve done litter picks, helped to improve the environment and taken water samples from the river to make sure it’s clean and fish are able to live in it.

Share The share part is about sharing what we have learned through our John Muir Award... We took P3/4 out river dipping and we’re now doing this assembly!

So who was John Muir?

We started off the walk at Baddinsgill Reservoir, and then we headed to Baddinsgill house. When we were walking to Baddinsgill house we had a scavenger hunt. During the walk we found tadpoles in a puddle and saw deer. We stopped for lunch in West Linton and met Mrs. Hall there! The Riverside walk

Painting We painted the Lyne water with the p6/7s. We went down to the river with paints and water. Everybody painted a different part of the Lyne Water.

Electro Fishing The whole class went to the Lyne Water to electro fish with Kenny. Kenny did some electro fishing and put some of the different fish into jars for us to identify using a key. We went further down the Lyne Water to do more Electro fishing and found Lampreys and an eel !!!

Checking River Levels We checked the river levels in every season. In autumn the river burst it’s banks, because it rained so much. It had rained so much that it has flowed into the surrounding fields. The river was roughly 6ft tall. Checking River Levels

River Levels It was much lower in winter and was very cold and clear. In spring and early summer, there was very little rain. There was more weed than water in the river! River Levels

Invertebrates/ Trent biotic index An invertebrate is a species of animal which does not have a skeleton so instead it has an exoskeleton. An exoskeleton is just like a skeleton except it is on the outside of their body. There are more than one type of invertebrate like leeches, blood worm and pond snail.

This is the Trent biotic index -We use this to measure how clean the water is. -If we find some or all of the invertebrates in box A, we know there is no pollution!

Example Yesterday, we collected some examples of invertebrates from the Lyne. What pollution level do you think the river is now?

Testing PH levels

What are pH levels PH levels measure how acidic or alkaline something is. pH paper can measure how acidic or alkaline a liquid is. Polluted water is water that is too acidic or too alkaline.

PH levels The water we drink is just right for us. It has a pH level of 7, which is Neutral. Acidic liquids have a pH level of 0-6. Strong acids have a pH level of 0-3. Alkaline liquids have a pH level of 8-14. Strong alkaline are between the pH level 11-14

What are PH levels for PH levels can be used to show if lakes, streams, rivers and any other liquids are polluted. Polluted water Non polluted water

The Lyne Water Our water samples so far have shown that the water in the Lyne is not polluted. It has a pH level of around 7. We have taken one final sample to make sure it is still not polluted.

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Thanks for listening!!!