News Year 10 Geography Field Course at Margam Discovery Centre 15.06.2023

Year 10 Geography students spent last weekend on a field course at Margam Discovery Centre in South Wales.

After dinner on the first night, they hiked up to the hill above the centre to the ‘Bro Stone’ with sunset views of Port Talbot, sand dunes and the Atlantic beyond. The next day, half the students went to Cardiff for an urban study and the other half did a river study on the River Ogmore. In Cardiff, girls walked from the city centre out to Cardiff bay, investigating how land use and environmental quality changes with distance from the centre. One of the highlights was seeing students confidently undertaking questionnaires with members of the public; this helped give a more local opinion on some of the geographical issues in Cardiff.

On the River Ogmore day, students investigated the changing characteristics of the river from source to mouth. Due to its relatively short length, the river is ideal for geography fieldwork as we can track the change, from a trickle at the source to a wide meandering river at the mouth, in one day. Wellies were essential for measuring in the river and most of the students managed to stay dry, at least up until the last site! 

Margam is a fanatic centre to stay in and sits in the beautiful surroundings of a country park. As well as deer, Margamcountry park has rare breeds of sheep, cows, goats and even alpacas. The students made the most of the location taking walks around the grounds in the evening sunshine. We hope to be back next year.