Milford Year 4 students inquire into the state of Lake Pupuke.

As part of their inquiries into the theme “How We Organise Ourselves”, Year 4 students wanted to learn what makes a thriving community. We inquired into what all communities need to possess so that all the members of the group have equal opportunity and access to resources. One of the resources we looked into was fresh water. Every community that is thriving, needs access to this precious resource.  Year 4 students looked to our own beautiful Lake Pupuke on the doorstep of our school. We learnt that Lake Pupuke once provided fresh water to the entire North Shore. We also learnt that water was once piped up directly from the lake into the playground water fountains. At times when lake levels fell, so did the availability of water from the fountain. We thought this was so interesting!

As kaitiaki of Pupuke Moana, Year 4 students asked the question “How clean is our lake today in 2019?”

We were wondering if  nearby buildings and commercial activities might be impacting the water quality of our lake. We borrowed a Waicare Water Testing Kit from North Shore Council and went down to the lake to start our testing. We carried out five separate chemistry tests for phosphate, nitrate, nitrite, PH and oxygen levels from samples taken by the Waterwise buildings beside our school. We were pleased that all tests results were in the “very good” to “excellent” range.  Our findings made us wonder “ Would the results be the same if taken from a deeper part of the lake?” we also wondered “ Would the results be the same after a day of heavy rain?”, “ What if we tested at a different time of the year?” These questions require further investigation and we intend to test again later this year to find out.

Clarity and PH testing taking place..

C. Barrance, C. Gilmore and G. Arendsa – Milford School Year 4 Team