Christleton High School Students

Biology field trip

Biology field trip

(Posted on 12/12/22)

Our Year 13 Biology students thoroughly enjoyed a residential field trip to the Rhyd-y-creuau field centre in Betws-y-Coed during October. The centre is set in the Snowdonia National Park and the views of mountains, fields and rivers from our base were stunning. The centre provided the perfect landscape for our biologists to carry out their independent field studies and an excellent backdrop for relaxation time in the grounds during the evening. Despite expectations of some potentially wet and windy Welsh weather, we were fortunate enough to have blue skies and autumnal sunshine for the entirety of our visit.

On the first day, the students got themselves set up with their waterproofs and collected their equipment. They wasted no time and got straight into some field work in a nearby stream measuring water velocity and oxygen content at various points before collecting samples. Laden with buckets of water, we made our way back to the centre to examine the samples for potential invertebrates. To the naked eye, it didn’t look like there was much life within the water but once we used some of the centre’s equipment, students spotted dozens of different invertebrates and used the comprehensive identification keys to name the various species. The students then spent time analysing their findings and used their statistical skills to assess the significance of their results. All of this hard work was rewarded with some well-earned downtime in the evening where students battled it out on the football pitch, got very competitive with some board games and made the most of the tuck shop.

 

On the second day, armed with clipboards, compasses, quadrats, pH metres and many more pieces of equipment, we headed into the woodland to investigate how various abiotic factors affect the distribution of woodland plants such as moss, grass, and ferns. We again spent some time back at the centre discussing and studying our results before writing up the investigations. Just before our journey home, we finished off with some quick inter-class orienteering challenges around the site. This became extremely competitive and tensions were running high as even the centre staff were totally invested in seeing which team would take the win. Despite some healthy rivalry between the two classes and demands for a rematch back at school, morale and spirits remained high and we made our way back to Christleton on the coach.

Myself and Dr Perkins were so impressed with the way that the students embraced the fieldwork and their work ethic, positive attitude and enthusiasm was outstanding from start to finish!

- Miss Maguire


View all news