River Lab

For our river lab, we looked at three different kinds of measurements within the river system. Although we only got to two of them, we still know how the third one is done.
      So starting with flow rate, we measure this by using units of distance over units of time. We used an empty soda bottle that we found floating by one of the banks and started with the deeper channel. (the river was split into three channels due to two sand islands.) Here the bottle traveled from one group to the next taking a couple of minutes for a distance of about 50 yards. In the shallowest channel the bottle did not travel at all, but instead spun in circles. To see how the measurement looks when it's done, here's an example: The object travels 100ft in 1 minute = 100/1 = 100 ft/min. Only one person actually had the flow rate times so I don't know the actual numbers.
     The second measurement done was clam populations in different levels of sand, in water and out of water. The group that did this found that there were not as many clams in the sand islands as there were in the sand under the water level. (River bed) Again, only a few people have those numbers.
     Finally, the last measurement we were supposed to do was the transect line which measures the elevations across the river starting from one river bank and going straight across to the other side. For this you use two poles with measurements of about 6 inch increments marked on them, and a string with the length of 10 feet connecting the poles. Here's an example of how it looks when it's done

 

So now that you have a visual, what you do is you take the number on the first pole and subtract it from the number on the second pole and it gives you the elevation change within that 10 foot line. Here's a graph of the data from last year:

 



Sorry I could not put up a google earth shot of where we did this, my computer won't allow me too.