Year 12 Biologists Visit Devon

Our Year 12 Biologists were fooled into thinking they were having a 5-day holiday in Devon last week. Little did they know they would be working from 9am to 7pm every day, collecting ecological data and practising ecology sampling skills to count towards the practical assessment part of their Biology A-level. The students threw themselves into all the activities with gusto, smiles, and plenty of laughs. They loved it! 

Students first visited Paignton Zoo and went on three separate ‘Charters Zoo Tours’, guided by themselves and accompanied by their teachers. They each gave some insightful talks as experts about their chosen animal. Phoebe won the prize for the best talk because of the enthusiastic delivery of her research about the binturong and her considered selection of its most interesting adaptions, which really helped the audience appreciate this animal – this, in spite of the fact the binturongs failed to make an appearance for us!    

Later that day our students settled into the Field Study Council’s residential centre in Slapton and were introduced to their ecology tutors, Emma and Emma (aka Emma squared), who had encyclopaedic knowledge of the wildlife in the area and guided our students through all of their practical assessments. Students surveyed the ecology of a rocky shore in East Prawle, had a beach day where they collected data on species inhabiting Slapton’s shingle ridge, and compared the different invertebrates in the pools and riffles of a stream. They were then fully prepared to carry out the most difficult part of the A-level practical endorsement; the individual investigation.

We were very proud of all the students and the high quality of biology fieldwork they produced throughout the week, especially their independent work. Although our students soon realised weren’t on a ‘holiday’, they all said how much they enjoyed their week, which meant their teachers did too! Our thanks to Miss Lawson and Dr Herbert for making the trip possible. Their enduring memory will be of the frenzied excitement created by the mark-release-recapture activity for estimating snail numbers.