Discovering the Douglas Water

Almost 60 children from South Lanarkshire have dipped into an exciting new project called ‘Discovering the Douglas Water’ to gain hands-on eco-experience of  their local river. The project is supported by the Hagshaw Hill Windfarm Trust and involves 3 Primary Schools from the Douglas Water catchment; Coalburn, Douglas and Rigside. The project will run from September 2014 to April 2015.

Phase 1: Meet Your River

During the first phase of the project children took part in ‘Meet Your River’ – an action-packed day involving a field trip to their stretch of the Douglas Water. Through a mixture of field and classroom-based studies, children investigated linkages in their local environment. They witnessed an electrofishing demonstration to show how scientists monitor fish populations, produced a site map, learned about fly fishing and kick-sampled for aquatic invertebrates. Back in class they identified invertebrates in a pop-up lab and calculated a river health score. It was a day of amazing discoveries!

Phase 2: Brown Trout Hatchery

In January 2015 the pupils will embark on the second phase of Discovering the Douglas Water. They will visit Glasgow Science Centre to learn more about the project before taking responsibility for raising brown trout from eggs to fry in a special classroom hatchery. The children will then revisit the Douglas Water to release their brown trout into the wild, leaving them with a real sense of environmental stewardship.

School pages

Coalburn Primary School
Douglas Primary School
Rigside Primary School

Teachers please click here for teaching materials