Kia Ora Koutou!
Scientists use special tools to help them with their research.
This is a water current meter used to measure the velocity or speed of the water current.

You place the impellar in the water.  There is a tiny magnet inside which gets recorded everytime the impellor makes one complete circle or revolution. The NZ Standard is to time it for 40 seconds.  So you get a reading which tells you how many revs in 40 seconds.  If the flow is too slow the impellar doesn't spin so you have to resort to other ways of testing the water flow which is what happened to me at Nga Manu.  I use a float test method which is lots of fun!  We can do it next year in our school stream!













The stream bed was covered with tree roots and tree litter which was blocking the water flow so we had to dig out the roots and clear away the dead fern leaves and branches that had fallen in the stream.  Then we put in a 3meter by 1 meter frame and put sand bags at the sides to try to contain all the water.

  I fell in the stream!  I had a very wet bottom and my gumboots were full of muddy water! Yuck!