On Friday 27th September, our A-level Biology students travelled down to Wakehurst to supplement our current studies. Once we arrived at Wakehurst, we were greeted with pouring rain and a lovely gentleman named Joe and our trip started. We hiked through a multitude of different terrains, up and down hills, to find our spot to conduct the practical. As we began to learn about the ecology side of our A-level course, this trip delved deeper into the practical side of Ecology as we used a belt transect of 20m to measure population distribution of organisms through a meadow. As well as measuring the biotic activity we used specific metres and probes to measure abiotic factors in an attempt to gather some relevant data for our data analysis on our return to school. Once our practical was complete we set our sights back to shelter and hiked back to the seed banks centre where we were able to watch and be walked through the process of drying seeds and their storage. My favourite part of the day was being able to watch real research being conducted on seeds and being able to witness first-hand how such a long and complex process is carried out to conserve the nature of our world.
Kai Shrosbree Arias 13AME