Update... (2)

Lots of plate tectonics work for Year 13 in the first few weeks of term - plate tectonics theory, evidence for the theory of continental drift, structure of the earth, locations of the major tectonic plates, types of plate boundary, and how plate boundaries affect volcanic activity.

We've also spent a long time working on fieldwork investigations in preparation for GEO4A in January. Look at the previous post if you need a reminder of the enquiry structure (you shouldn't!). The majority of the paper will be focused on your fieldwork enquiry, so you need to make sure that you know your investigation inside out. There will also be some questions based on secondary fieldwork data, and it might be that you have to do some calculations as well as interpreting and analysing the data.... Make sure that you have a look back at Spearman Rank and know how to calculate Rs values (AND test their statistical significance!). We will have a look at Mann-Whitney and Chi-Squared in the next couple of weeks.

Most of the Year 13 group also enjoyed a trip down to "the big smoke" just before half-term. Although it was a pleasant morning considering, the layby and the school minibus are not necessarily a welcome sight at 6am. A sleepy trip down the M1 and we were at Stanmore, and then - after an impressively quick assessment of the Tube map - it was the Jubilee Line to South Kensington (an opportunity for Miss Breider to do the SuDoku, Jonny to do the crossword, Myles to catch up on the news, Michael to collect some McDonald's vouchers, and Ellie to do her make-up), and then a v speedy walk to the Royal Geographical Society. There were a number of interesting lectures (although, admittedly, some of them might have been more appreciated had we not been up so early...) and some good advice about Geography at university. Before we left, we had a chance to explore the Map Room, and we tiptoed through the Fellows' Tea Room so that we could have our photo taken in front of the rather lovely perspex globe. (A shame Jonny felt it necessary to block the view of the lovely perspex globe...)


We made the most of our venture 'down south' with a trip to the Red Zone of the Natural History Museum, where we experienced the Kobe earthquake first hand, looked into the structure of the Earth in a bit more detail, and saw some of the rocks and 'spun sugar' produced by the eruption of Mount Saint Helen's in 1980.