Geographers explore the River Dove

On Tuesday, all of Year 7 visited Dovedale as part of their Geography course. They started their walk in the village of Alstonefield, walking down into the valley of the River Dove, following the river all the way southwards to the outskirts of Ilam. Along the way they measured the velocity of the river across a meander to investigate how they develop. The weather was kind enough that we were all able to enjoy a very pleasant picnic on a hillside overlooking the river.

The students also practised their field-sketching skills and recorded their observations about the impacts of tourism. Many students were thrilled to sit inside some caves and to look for fossils among the many scree slopes; themselves evidence of the cold period following the retreat of the ice sheet 10,000 years ago. We talked about the geological history and how the abundant Carboniferous Period fossils were more than five times older than the time when the big dinosaurs became extinct.

Year 7 should be very proud of the way that they conducted themselves; I am sure that their enthusiasm will translate into high quality write-up projects over the next few weeks.

Mr Amison, Head of Geography