The Virtue School Project

How to perform an investigation.

		The rack can be put into fresh water, brackish water or sea water. It can be set out from a quay or simply placed on the bottom in a shallow river. Where the differences between high and low tides are large, the rack can be attached to a bouy with an anchor weight at the bottom (see the drawing). The racks can be hauled at regular time intervals. The attached animals and algae can be examined by microscope, binocular or magnifying glass. The organisms can be identified to group, family, genus or species. Biodiversity can be calculated from the collected data.
The participants can also measure several physical and chemical parameters in the water (such as temperature, salinity, current speed etc.). You can print the dataform on your printer and use it when you are working in the field. The database input pages are based on this dataform and when the students have collected data, the data can be registered in the database.
The photographs above show the same disc on the same rack from Osterfjord, Western Norway in May, June and October. The discs were initially put into the sea in the middle of March 2000. See also: How to build a rack