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2nd Form Fieldwork
In November the 2nd form visited The Living Rainforest, near Newbury.
This gave the students a first hand view of the adaptations made by plants
in the rainforest to the climate and conditions. If you want to find out
more about this, visit the website at http://www.livingrainforest.org/
Living Rainforest 2006
On Thursday 23rd November
we went to the Living Rainforest. After a very long bus journey, we finally
arrived at the site which is near Newbury. Everyone was excited, and pushed
to get out of the bus. Our tour guide, who took us round, was really friendly,
and very helpful. She was more than happy to help us answer the questions
we had to complete, and also gave us lots of extra information.
The actual tour was
fantastic, and it was very interesting to walk around and see all the
plants and animals. One of the best bits was that we were able to stroke
the birds; they were very tame. Learning about the different plants and
animals was fascinating, and we spent the whole of the evening giving
facts to our parents from the trip! All in all, the trip was fantastic,
and I would definitely recommend it.
By Larischa de Wet and
Alexandra Halliday
Here are some photos from our morning in the Rainforest.
Click on the thumbnails to open the full image.
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Currently in our Geography lessons, the whole of the third year are studying
volcanoes and earthquakes and on the 4th of February we visited the Natural
History Museum to research more into the subject.
After travelling for just over an hour we reached our destination, the
Natural History Museum and once everyone was equipped with their booklet
each class and their teacher went their separate ways. Our first stop
was to be 'The Power Within', where we would learn the theory of plate
tectonics.
In order to reach the gallery we went up some moving stairs and saw the
night sky and the planets. Then went through a massive round ball, which
represented the Earth. The Earth was red to exaggerate the boiling centre
and it was made of different material added on top of each other to represent
the plate boundaries, which cause these major disasters. Once we had reached
the top we were free to explore. We saw videos, an earthquake monitor,
lava samples and learnt how to use a 'barcode'. The most exciting part
of this gallery was probably experiencing being in a real earthquake.
I enjoyed this gallery very much, it was full of information, things I
did not know about volcanoes and earthquakes.
The next gallery we visited was 'Earth today and tomorrow' where we found
out how scientists find our mineral and energy sources and how they manage
our increasing demands on the environment. I found this gallery a very
colourful one, with many pictures and displays on show.
In the 'Earth's Treasury' gallery we saw many of the rare products found
on Earth. There are over 6,000 specimens in the gallery including gemstones
and crystals and we also saw some of the economic uses of the volcanic
rocks. They differed in size, shape and colour. Some were dull while others
were shiny and brightly coloured. It is unbelievable all the different
types of rock that exist in our world, and we were able to see how they
were formed.
Next we visited the 'From the Beginning' gallery where we learnt more
about the formation of the Earth. We also found out the effect volcanoes
can have on the life and climate of our Planet. We took a trip through
time and examined many rocks and fossils, which revealed to us some the
Earth's history. As we entered this gallery there stood a tall hour glass
containing around 100 discs at the bottom, each representing 1 million
years in the Earth's history. The fascinating thing was that only two
of these discs represented human existence on Earth.
It was then time for lunch so we made our way down to the basement. After
everyone had finished it was back to the galleries. Our next visit was
to be the 'Ecology' gallery. This was all about human links to all other
living things in our world. How we share the balance of air, earth, energy
from the sun and water. This exhibition was decorated as a rainforest
and was full of information about the relationship between plants, animals
and human beings. The gallery was on a higher floor and to get from one
part of it to another you had to cross over various bridges, which I felt
made it more interesting.
The last gallery we visited was the 'Restless Surface' where we investigated
some of the processes that shape the surface of the Earth and learnt why
it is constantly changing. We found out about the forces that move mountains,
shape rocks and alter the Earths climate and saw footage of major disasters.
This gallery was full of interesting things to see and different activities
to do ourselves. The part I especially enjoyed was the table that looked
like the inside of a tornado when you turned it around.
It was then time to return to Dauntsey's after a very enjoyable day. We
learnt a great deal about volcanoes and earthquakes and found out some
interesting facts about our Earth. My favourite gallery was the 'Earth's
Treasury' as it was so colourful and interesting with all the rocks, I
never knew the Earth could produce so many rare and beautiful products.
All in all it was a great day all round.
Hayley Jones 3B
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT http://www.nhm.ac.uk/museum/earthgalleries/powerwithin.html
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