Macaulay Prize Winner 2010
Sarah Kershaw was the 2010 recipient of the Macaulay Bursary Award, and used it towards her field trip to Malham Tarn in the Yorkshire Dales. This is the report of her experience.
On June 21st 2010 I, with my Biology teacher and five of my Biology classmates, left London for Malham in the Yorkshire Dales. As part of our A-Level course, we have to study ecology and alongside this is the option to take part in fieldwork to equip us with the necessary skills to complete our practical assessment. As the Field Studies Centre in Malham works directly with the exam boards it is a great opportunity to complete the assessment with guidance from people who are experts in knowing what the exam boards require. We spent the first three days gathering knowledge and learning fundamental skills we would need to use in our assessment on the fourth day. And so we left Kings Cross and embarked on our four hour journey up to Malham and there was definitely no mistaking us London girls, with our heavily over-packed suitcases and the inability to carry them further than a few feet without gasping for breath. The journey was uneventful; changing at Leeds and arriving in Settle in the late afternoon. We were picked up from Settle station by a representative of the Centre and transported by minibus to Malham Tarn. We soon realised our gradual move away from civilisation, as the villages began to disappear from our sight, our mobile phone signals died and we were being surrounded by more and more sheep. There was an initial moment of shock, but we came to understand that yes, there are other places outside of London and, no they were not all covered In high rise buildings. Obviously we were fully aware of this fact and we were not completely naive, but as the saying goes, you can take the girl out of London, but you cannot take London out of the girl.
We had reached our destination of Malham Tarn Field Studies Centre and were directed to our rooms. They were basic, but comfortable and we had the benefit of ensuite bathrooms. We had time to settle in and take in our surroundings, which were extraordinary. The main house was a large Georgian country house, which overlooked the Tarn itself, and with a backdrop of rolling hills and a clear blue sky, it was beautiful. We had a brief introduction to the week ahead and were shown around the Centre in order to familiarise ourselves with everything. We located the tea room and with a tub of freshly baked shortbread waiting for us, we found out that we would have this luxury every day. It was a time that was known as 'cake o'clock' and it soon became our favourite time of the day!
An hour or two later was dinner and we met the other school groups that were also in the Centre. The food was great and plentiful. We had just enough time to let our food settle, when we ventured into our designated classroom to have our evening lesson. Normally, an evening lesson would not be very welcome, but if worked well as dinner had made us happy and we knew that we would need it for the end of the week. We would be joining with two other small groups the next day and we had to catch up on what they had already learnt, as they had arrived several hours before us. It involved brainstorming what we already knew about the subject of ecology and differing sampling techniques. It wasn't too strenuous and we realised we had a firm grounding of knowledge already, which made us confident that we would be able to work on the same level of understanding as the other groups. We spent the rest of the evening watching television in the TV room within our accommodation block and hen got some much needed rest.
The second day was met with an English breakfast and gorgeous sunny weather, which definitely kept our spirits high. We joined the other two schools in their classroom and in total there were only about 15 of us. Our first task involved walking down into the wood just next to the main house. The group had previously set some humane small mammal traps with the hope of catching some mice or voles and we went to see what the outcome was. Some traps were empty; however others provided some mice and voles for us to look at. This method of sampling is called capture- mark-release-recapture and it enables you to investigate the populations of various animal species in an area. None of the animals they catch at the Centre are marked, due to the sheer volume of students repeating the same sampling methods. Next, we put on our wellington boots and made a journey to Gordale Beck, a nearby stream, to implement some more investigative techniques we had learnt. We were informed that due to such small amounts of rainfall this year, the stream had significantly decreased in depth, which, luckily for us, meant that we were not going to get very wet. As a group we devised a hypothesis and set about proving it. In smaller groups we took different parts of the stream and took various measurements, including the pH of the water and the velocity of the water flow. We also took samples of the invertebrates that we living in the different parts of the stream by means of kick sampling (disturbing the rocks to release the creatures living amongst them). Back in the classroom we merged our results together and came to a conclusion after discussing the advantages and disadvantages of our sampling methods. Once again, cake o'clock came at a perfect time, when we were starting to lose concentration and was soon followed by dinner and another evening lesson.
Our destination on the third day was the nearby bog, which was not like a bog in its normal sense. The reduced rainfall meant it had dried up to a point at which our wellington boots were not needed and we could sit down in the middle without getting wet. Using a line transect and point sampling, we recorded the variation of plant species as you moved further away from the water source. We found out that moisture content, pH and competition amongst other species caused the different abundances of plants in the area. In the afternoon, we swapped wellies for walking boots and went snail hunting ... yes, snail hunting! At first we were not sure where this would lead us, but by the end; it turned out to be like a treasure hunt; a pink snail being the gold treasure. Unfortunately, no one found a pink snail, nor were we expected to, as they are so rare in the area. However, we did find yellow, brown and stripy snails. The point of this 'treasure hunt' was to take part in the Open University's snail census, which uses people's results from all over the world to try and determine whether snail evolution is being affected by climate change. Our results were put onto the website and we felt satisfied that we had contributed to an International investigation.
The following day brought our practical assessment and so we were as a single group once more. We spent the day practicing our techniques and then taking part in two different investigations by ourselves. The previous few days had massively benefitted us as we were required to use skills we had learnt and knowledge we had gained from the other experiment. Being outdoors made it seem less like an exam and I found myself more relaxed, which made the whole day go quite quick! After doughnuts and then dinner, the usual evening lesson was replaced by watching TV and relaxing with the other schools we had worked with for the past couple of days.
Friday meant we were going home and after saying goodbyes, we were transported to the train station. Two trains and 4 hours later we were back in London and back to the busy, non-stop way of living in the city. We unanimously came to the conclusion that we enjoyed spending so much of our learning time outdoors, but we also agreed that five days was just the right amount of time to spend away from civilisation. Any longer and we would have felt deprived! It was a great trip and when it comes to studying ecology in school, it will be invaluable in helping our understanding. I learn better when I do something myself and therefore, with it being so practical, I have been able to retain much of what I was taught. The teachers inspired me and I now have a newfound love for ecology, due to their infectious passion for the subject. The dread of studying it in school has been replaced by interest and curiosity, which was only possible due to the help of the Old Girls' Association and by being awarded the Macaulay Bursary. I am truly grateful, thank you.
