In A-level Geography all students are currently studying the topic of Glacial and Periglacial Environments – put in simple terms, they’re studying the effects ice has had on the landscape.

It’s one thing to study how ice has shaped the landscape in class - through the usual methods of power-point lessons, DVD clips, work from textbooks and other classroom activities. It’s an entirely different (and much more effective) learning experience to actually visit these areas – seeing where glaciers have been, climbing through a glacial trough and standing in the deep basin of a corrie!

On Monday 3rd November both Year 13 classes visited the Mosedale Valley in north Cumbria with Mr Halewood, Mr Prentice and Mrs Hibberd. The purpose of the visit was to study the various glacial landforms in the area, gain an understanding of the chronology of their formation as well as doing some till fabric analysis (that’s looking at rocks for the non-geographers reading this!).

The group did a circular route around the valley, stopping for lunch at Bowscale Tarn (made famous by the poem by Wordsworth - 'Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle', written in 1807 where he wrote about two immortal fish living in the lake). There were various places where work was conducted and at two sites the students analysed the till (deposited rocks). This involved measuring their orientation, long axis and how rounded or angular they were. In the follow up lessons they’ll be later working out whether the till was deposited by ice, water or a combination of both.

The morning started off misty although the weather was kind to us and it was bright and sunny for the majority of the day. The students worked well and were a credit to the Geography Department and College.

When asked about the benefit of the trip later some of the students made the following comments;

• ‘I now understand what boulder clay is having seen it first hand’
• ‘It was good to do the till analysis and practice fieldwork techniques’
• ‘I better understand roche moutonnees now’
• ‘It was good to see the landforms which we’d studied about in class’

View more photos from the trip...