Resources for Educators

Macroinvertebrates: Canaries of the Creek

Coal miners used to take canaries into coal mines with them. Canaries are more sensitive to dangerous gases than humans are. If the canary died, the miners knew there were dangerous gases present and would leave the mine. Similarly, macroinvertebrates are a tell-tale sign of the health of our water.

Learn how to conduct a macroinvertebrate survey of a local creek and use your results to find out how healthy your stream is based on the critters living there. Learn how to perform the Save Our Streams method of collecting macroinvertebrates and their Pollution Tolerance Index (PTI) to rank the health of your stream.

Additional Resources for Canaries of the Creek

https://www.macroinvertebrates.org/key/ - dichotomous key to aquatic organisms

Macroinvertebrate ID resources https://www.nwnature.net/macros/resources.html – macroinvertebrate PowerPoint and practice ID sets of organisms
Macroinvertebrate Identification and Scoring PTI https://www.kentschools.net/ccarman/environmental-science/labs/stream-simulation/ - macro ID sets to ID and score that are graded automically
Stroud Water Research Center Leaf Pack Network STEMs Macroinvertebrate Project for Students - https://leafpacknetwork.org/