Hello River Detectives !
We are nearly half way through the year and each region / each school / each teacher will be experiencing a different River Detectives journey. We hope you are finding your feet with the program and adapting it to your unique needs. Please reach out to your regional coordinator if we can support you in any way.
Water Quality Testing: If possible we would love schools to be testing their nominated site and entering data on the River Detectives website a minimum of 4 times per year. If your site is an intermittent waterway, taking a photo and entering data (even if it’s to say there is no water) is still highly valuable to help tell your waterway’s story and help measure impacts of climate change.
We have just added a great little video to our Resources of Frank Steele’s Waterwatch story where he speaks of the important role he plays monitoring an intermittent creek. Check it out here.
Entering your data: Provided you have login details and have confirmed a test site with your coordinator, entering data should be straightforward. It can be done on a device as you test or can be a job delegated to a trusted student to save you time.
If you are holding onto any data, please ensure it is entered before June 30 so we can capture an accurate picture of school activity. We have developed a data entry guide to help you and are planning to distribute a short instructional video soon.
Sharing the good news: Coordinators Nicole, Anna, Jane, Jeanie, Kristen and Deirdre from all five participating River Detectives regions come together every few months to share, learn and plan. It’s great to hear wonderful stories from across the state and we’d love to share some of them with you:
- Schools in the Wimmera CMA region have been learning about salinity during May and testing extra samples from their home / property for testing
- Students of Timboon P-12 School in the Corangamite CMA region enjoyed a River Detectives incursion to value add to their agricultural program and learn about how land use impacts the Curdies River catchment. They wrote a great article on their blog
- White Hills PS in the North Central CMA region have used waterway health issues as inspiration for a student-led Maths inquiry project they’ll be entering into a competition. A small group of maths extension students enjoyed an incursion about Urban Stormwater and have chosen a maths investigation. For example; How many tonnes of autumn leaves could end up in Bendigo Creek at this time of year and impact dissolved oxygen levels ? How many packets could potentially end up in Bendigo Creek from lunchboxes of students in schools along the waterway ? How is the waterproofing qualities of waterbirds impacted by detergents that may end up in Bendigo Creek ?
How great to see River Detectives being embedded across the curriculum and encompassing family, school and community life !
