Published by Australian Academy of Science
Activities | Toxic algal blooms – a sign of rivers under stress

1. How to test the influence of various fertilisers on algal growth

2. Reducing water use at home

3. How household water pollutes waterways

Other activities

• Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, USA
  • Toxic and harmful algal blooms – students gain a better understanding of algal blooms from five activities.

• Catchment Boards of South Australia, Australia
  • Trial teacher resource unit on algal blooms – students investigate products and processes that may help to reduce human related impacts on the growth of algae.

• Waterwatch, South Australia
  • River Murray Waterwatch education program – provides activities covering a range of topics including monitoring of catchment health and issues such as salinity, biodiversity and human impacts on the catchment.

• Waterwatch Australia
  • Getting involved in waterwatch – provides information about joining a local Waterwatch monitoring program.

• National Institutes of Health, USA
  • Chemicals, the environment, and you – students explore the relationship between chemicals in the environment and human health, using the basic concepts of toxicology. Lesson plans are available.

• Science NetLinks (American Association for the Advancement of Science)
  • Toxicology and living systems – investigates in an introductory way how toxic chemicals affect biological systems.
  • Finding the toxic dose – students expose Brassica rapa seeds to a range of concentrations of a toxicant.
  • Toxicology and human health – examines the clinical effects of environmental toxicants on living organisms by collecting and analysing scientific data and identifying ways of detection and diagnosis.