Geography Field Visit
Milly Tobin, Lower IVA, reports on the Geography Field Visit Lower IV conducted last week:
‘On Friday 24th June Lower IV travelled to Brighton on a field trip. We were accompanied by Miss Keep, Ms Varrow, Mr Chappory and Mr Martin. The bus departed quite early (7.45am) to avoid heavy traffic. The weather was very kind to us.
When we arrived in Brighton we were divided into groups and given various activities to complete. This including using ‘Skitch’ an app on the tablets to complete a virtual fieldsketch of the sea defence systems in place on the coastline. Mr Chappory taught us about ‘wave cut platforms’ and the rate of erosion and how it affects the coastline. We were extremely fortunate because within 10 minutes of discovering what wave cut platforms were the tide had come in and they were no longer visible.
The coach then transported us a little past the pier and we walked along the beach in the sunshine testing the prevailing wind direction effecting longshore drift using tangerines. We threw the tangerines into the sea and recorded the direction they travelled in. Mr Chappory and Miss Keep then explained how to complete a beach profile, measuring the gradient of the beach which can portray the rate of erosion and the importance of coastal sea defence systems.
We were taught the importance of questioning Geography and using our own independent knowledge to come up with individual enquiry questions about Brighton by Miss Keep, using a technique she calls ‘What you saying’- made famous by Joey Essex. When we had created our own independent enquiry questions, we brainstormed different fieldwork techniques we could use for our methodology.
By now it was lunchtime so we headed up to the pier to purchase fish and chips and spend time enjoying what the pier had to offer – doughnuts, arcade games and souvenirs. Everyone enjoyed this very much.
We then headed down to The Lanes (a shopping area of Brighton). Here we conducted quantitative data in the form of photos to complete a land use survey of shops there, determining whether they were used for tourism or for the Brighton public. We then completed a Bi-Polar survey to measure how attractive the area is for tourists. We ended the day stopping at Cloud 9 – a dairy shop selling delicious ice-creams of immense proportions.
En route home we sang along to the radio. Traffic was quite terrible but all in all a good day was had by all. I am very happy we went and will treasure the memories.’
