Courtney Hitchen writes about the recent Geography fieldtrip:
Day 1 (14/10/15) – On Wednesday, 24 Geographers set off from school in the two school minibuses to North Wales. We were to complete the fieldwork section of the AS Geography course, accounting for 30% of our marks. During the first day we collected primary data on the sand dunes of Talacre, Flintshire. We would normally go to Anglesey but Mr Smith had spotted these whilst on holiday!! Over the course of the day we were to collect various data following a transect from the high tide mark inland. Data collected included cliff profile, species identification, pH, temperature. After completing the transect, all the way to the deciduous woodland, we headed to Pen-Y-Pass Youth Hostel in Snowdonia National Park. This was to be our home for the next two days and has been recently refurbished. Quite a lot of students were worried about the food being inedible however it was nicer than expected, therefore meaning the only downfall was there being no phone signal nor wi-fi!! How could we cope?
Day 2 (15/10/15) – This was dedicated to the investigation of the Afon Glaslyn, which was a 2.5km walk to the course of the stream from the youth hostel. After an introductory lesson we headed off on the Miner’s Track. During the walk a few students managed to regain mobile reception therefore halting the walk so that a few messages could be sent! Finally we arrived at the river to start our investigation. Unfortunately the river discharge was extremely low hampering the readings. Measurements included measuring the river velocity using flowmeters and dog biscuits, pebble analysis, width and depth of the stream. In the lower section ducks seemed to like the dog biscuits so ruining our experiment! After a few students had benignantly volunteered to wade across the river in the deeper lower sections of the river, we headed back to the youth hostel where we had a two-hour lesson in the classroom completing the fieldwork booklet, completing a lot of number crunching and graph drawing.
Day 3 (16/10/15) – This day started off as a tough one, no-one wanted to get up after the walk the day before but the promise of mobile phone signal returning, managed to rouse everyone from the depths of their bed. After a short lesson and full English breakfast, we all clambered back onto the minibuses for the two-hour journey back home. Before school though we had to complete some Human Geography fieldwork in Manchester, comparing the services provided in the areas of Hulme and Didsbury. After three long days of work we managed to return to Crompton House School just before the 3.30pm bell, despite the busy traffic in Oldham.
We all enjoyed the relaxed feel of the trip and hope to produce excellent fieldwork write-ups so we can gain excellent marks in the exam.
