On October 8th, 2015 our class took a field trip to the Conodoguinet Creek to test the water quality. We did 3 experiments to help us conclude the quality. During the first experiment we observed the different types of organisms in the creek. We also took tests for eutrophication in the water. Another experiment we performed were acidity tests. The trip was very informational and educational. The first experiment we did was critter count. We got into groups of 4 or 5 and one person from each group went into the the creek and got a rock and brought it back to the group. Then we looked at the bottom of the rock and observed the organisms. We classified them into group one, two, or three animals. Group one animals are pollution sensitive, which means if there was pollution there wouldn’t be any. Group two animals are somewhat pollution sensitive, which …show more content…
Eutrophication is the excessive nutrients in a lake or body of water, frequently due to runoff from the land, which causes a dense growth of a plant life and death of animal life from lack of oxygen. We tested for phosphate, nitrate, and dissolved oxygen. Phosphates and Nitrates are found in fertilizers, laundry detergents, and sewage treatments. Dissolved oxygen is microscopic bubbles of gaseous oxygen that are mixed in water and aailable to aquatic organisms for respiration. We found that there was a phosphate average of 0.1 parts per million (ppm). The nirtate average was 0.9 ppm. For dissolved oxygen we found the average of 9.8 ppm. The dissolved oxygen average is significantly more than the other two averages, but that’s okay because you want to have a lot of dissolved oxygen in the water. A high dissolved oxygen rate means there is more air available to the fish and other organisms in the water. These tests concluded that there was no pollution in the creek, but we still wanted to support this conclusion, so we did our final