Geography Field Trip To Algar Falls

On Friday 11 September, the Examination Class went on their first Geography Field Trip of the year.

Field work is an essential part of the IGCSE course, and so it was decided that the first Field Trip should be held during the first week of term. The destination was the Rio Algar, in Algar village, about 25 minutes from the School.

At the river, the Class worked in groups to measure the width and average depth of the river. This meant that everyone had to get into the river.....and there were screams of how cold the water was! Soon enough everyone was working away with ranging rods, tape measures and metre rules.

The next part of the exercise was to measure the surface speed of the water at each site. The students used oranges as their floats and timed their float over a distance of 10 metres. They took readings at the left bank, in the middle of the stream and at the right bank~and found the average speed, as this is more accurate. With this information they were able to calculate the discharge of the river, which is measured in cubic metres per second (cumecs).

Once the exercise had been carried out at two sites, we all made for the Restaurant Don Joan, where there were showers, and more importantly, a very inviting swimming pool and diving board!

There was a bit more work to do......drawing graphs of the cross sections of the river and checking of calculations and then lunch, followed by more fun in the pool.

Mrs Holmes, the geography teacher, was pleased with the attitude and application of the class. The Class thanked Mr Holmes, who had driven them to and from Algar in the School van. It was a perfect way to spend the first Friday of the new academic year!