Fieldwork investigation season has arrived at St. Julie's once again for Year 10 GCSE pupils.  

To help pupils in their understanding of river processes and landscape creation, as well as investigating the exam board set task for controlled assessment, Year 10 Geography pupils have recently visited a range of sites on the River Alyn in North Wales.  

Pupils this year have to investigate the differences that occur in discharge and sediment in a river, so we tested a wide variety of features and processes in the river to see how and why these characteristics change in the River Alyn, depending on where we are in the river.  

Pupils were able to take measurements of depth, width, cross-sectional area, discharge, sediment size (via calculating the True Nominal Diameter) and sediment roundness (by calculating Krumbein's sphericity index), velocity and pH levels.  

All of this information is now in the process of being analysed and written up by pupils to form their reports, and ultimately increase their understanding of how and why discharge and sediment vary in the River Alyn; a great way to understand Geography better and get a high score on the controlled assessment!