Year 10 geographers have been out and about in town and country as they work towards their GCSE next summer.
Their AQA GCSE course requires two fieldwork trips in contrasting environments, so the boys headed to Epping Forest in Essex to study physical Geography and to East Village in the Olympic Park for their studies in human Geography.
Head of Geography Emily Parry, who was among teachers accompanying pupils for the trips, said: “The days were very successful in allowing the boys to become familiar with a wide range of fieldwork methods and they gave them the opportunity to consolidate and extend their geographical understanding by relating their class room learning to real-life experiences. “
During the visit to the Field Studies Centre (FSC) in Epping Forest, the boys conducted river fieldwork on Debden Brook and investigated how river channel characteristics change with distance downstream. In three locations, they measured the brook’s width, depth, ‘wetted perimeter’ (the part of the channel in contact with water), velocity and the size and roundness of the sediment.
The human Geography fieldwork was led by FSC London. The boys investigated the sustainability of the East Village development, which was formerly Athletes’ Village during the 2012 Olympics. Built on contaminated wasteland and industrial buildings, the development boasts London’s newest postcode, E20. Various investigation methods were deployed by the year 10 boys, including environmental quality surveys, questionnaires, service tallies and pedestrian counts. Their visit followed in the footsteps of QE’s Year 12 geographers, who visited East Village recently as part of a day trip to various areas of east London.
The boys are now writing up their fieldwork in class. Their understanding of fieldwork will be assessed in their 2018 GCSE examinations.