Head's Newsletter 13 July 2018

BIOLOGY FIELD TRIP

From the 2 nd to the 6 th July, the Year 12 Biology students travelled to Orielton Field Centre in Pembrokeshire, Wales, on a field trip to study the Ecology of sand dunes, rocky shores, and freshwater streams. The centre was developed from a Georgian mansion, and is surrounded by 100 acres of woodland, perfect for studying the changes in ecosystems and habitats of different species in light and shade. Along with all the working spaces, there were also many places where we could all gather to enjoy ourselves at break times and in the evenings, like the Ein Geddi games room and our own common room.

out ecological succession on the Broomhill Burrows sand dune system. investigations into

On the final working day, we learned about freshwater ecology in the morning and then moved on to independent investigations in the afternoon and evening, which are part of the AQA A-Level Biology practical endorsement. This involved formulating a hypothesis and then constructing a valid method for collecting data to test the hypothesis. The investigation could be related to anything we had done over the course of the trip so there were a wide variety of different activities going on concurrently; for example, some students looked at species diversity in relation to the light intensity, and compared two sites to see if the data demonstrated any significant difference. These investigations would then be written up to be marked by the biology teachers, and potentially checked by members of the AQA board. We thank all the field centre staff and Tiffin teachers for a lovely 5 days.

On the first day, we travelled to Sawdern Point on the Pembrokeshire coast, to study zonation on a rocky shore. In the classroom we developed and consolidated the different key skills required, such as the sampling techniques and statistical tests that we could use to test our hypotheses. Then, in the field, we investigated the species diversity at different heights on shore by using these newly acquired skills and creating transects to sample the area. On the second day, we visited the well- known Freshwater West beach; the site of “Shell Cottage”, of Harry Potter fame, and where “Dobby the house elf” was buried (not in real life of course!). Here we carried

Mohammed Al-Dubooni & Ahmed Al-Muttalibi - Year 12