The Sixth Form were eager to get their hands dirty and wade into the river, despite the chilly weather, when they visited Epping Forest Field Centre, a Special Area of Conservation for their Geography Field trip. Head of Geography, Miss Grant explained, “We practised working together in groups, learned about delegation of tasks, our role of responsibility to the group as a whole and how to sustain interest and high quality work in inhospitable surroundings, whilst also learning about the changing course of rivers”.
The young geographers were encouraged to get thoroughly muddy as they studied the source of Loughton Brook at the Essex centre. One Sixth Form child explained that the purpose of their visit was to, “Investigate the changes in the characteristics of a river” and this included getting to know how the geology of the area affects the Loughton drainage basin. The children also used the day to conduct some primary data collection and measured the width, depth and velocity of the river, as well as changes in the shape and size of its bedload.
Miss Grant commented, “The children did us proud and centre staff commented on the fact that their underlying knowledge of rivers and their processes were better than some GCSE pupils! It was fabulous to see our pupils working collaboratively and persevering when parts of their collection process became frustrating, and even better when they were actively problem solving.”