We divide up into the chemical group, the bug group, sediment group, and the stream capacity group. Each group becomes the subject matter expert on that part of water quality. The chemical group members mix river water with different solutions to find out the levels of certain chemicals in the river. For example, the Dissolved Oxygen test measures the amount of oxygen available for organisms that live in water. The more oxygen available the more sensitive organisms can be found in the stream.
Many factors influence the level of oxygen in a river.
The bug group is great fun, if you like wet, squiggly things. The main focus of this group is to determine the diversity of aquatic invertebrates that make their homes in the river bed. To get the bugs out from under the rocks we place a net down stream and dance upstream to unsettle the critters living under the rocks. After about three minutes of dancing around we take the net to shore and identify what we have caught in the net. The more different kinds of bugs we find, the higher the diversity, and usually the higher the diversity the better the water quality.