Holly Bamber is 10 years old. She has been a member of KCC’s South Canterbury Branch since 2010. She sent us a letter about what she’s been up to and how a KCC event inspired her to do science experiments in a local stream. She even got a special award for it!
Holly taking macro-invertebrate samples with her sister Josie.
When I was 5 our KCC Coordinator Win Parkes took our group to find the source of our drinking water and looked for macro-invertebrates to see how good the water quality was.
This year our class at school did Science Fair, and I got through to the regional fair with my project on reintroduction of native species and water quality in our region.
I tested water from six different sites on the Pareora and Opihi rivers to find which would be the best according to nitrate levels, oxygen levels and the number of macro-invertebrates.
When I got my results, I knew I needed to do something about the water quality so I took the experiment further. I put the plant Myriophyllum propinquum or native milfoil in another sample of the worst site to see if it improved the water.
After six weeks I found that the oxygen and phosphate levels were improved and think that planting native species in local rivers is a potential solution to improving water quality in the region.
I was very surprised and happy when I found out that I had won the overall First in Fair award, as well as a Gold and coming 3rd equal in the ECan awards. ( I also won about $400, but that’s beside the point.)
Win and Justine, another coordinator, have always taken us to interesting places and made conservation fun. If it wasn’t for them and the local KCC Branch taking us to the Pareora River and showing us how to look for macro-invertebrates I might not have studied what I did.
