“On Tuesday the 9th of June, the Year 12 biology class went on an expedition into the North Yorkshire Moors as part of their first A2 assignment. The class were escorted around the moorland by the education officer for the Hawk and Owl Trust, who aim to preserve the much loved moorland so that the birds of prey and animals that are specific to the area can continue to thrive.
Whilst learning different types of plants that have grown accustomed to the peaty soil that is below the moorland, the class also learnt about how the moorlands have changed: before they were moorland, they were luscious and dense forestry (about 1000 years ago). So as you can probably tell if you have ever walked through the moors, it has changed quite a lot.
The A-level students also participated in many activities throughout the day including: identifying different types of heather, trying to catch miniature lizards and creating a transect in which to carry the quadrats on. (A transect is a straight path that is laid out over a certain distance, in our case 100 metres, that is used to identify different species.) The quadrats were placed every 10 metres and the different species within the quadrat were identified and a percentage of each species recorded.
It was a great day – full of learning and sunshine.”
James Nicholson (Year 12)
