News

Return to the Burn

09 May 2011

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Tyne Rivers Trust have been working at Newbrough CofE First School on a project to allow the children participate in the science and engineering aspects of restoring healthy rivers, with the focus being their local burn, currently of 'moderate' ecological quality under European legislation. The pupils, from Years 3 and 4, aged between 7 and 9 have followed TRT's improvements to fish passage at the mill weir. For their part the pupils learnt about Newbrough burn as part of the Tyne system within the context of the 'Raging Rivers' topic lead by their class teacher. TRT staff showed the children how to sample and recognise invertebrates towards assessing the qualty of the water and habitat of the burn. Possibly the most exciting part of the project was receiving salmon eggs from Kielder Hatchery. The classroom was equipped with a temperature regulated fish tank to which 100 salmon fish eggs were added for the children to observe and 'look after'. Once the eggs developed into alevins and fry TRT staff helped the children release them safely back into the river system at Newbrough burn where improvements have been made to the burn as part of TRT's obstructions project.

This project has offered young people the chance to meet and work with local scientists to build and develop their scientific understanding in a way that is exciting, original and relevant to their lives.