By Mrs McPhail (Geography Teacher)

On Thursday 16th May on a rather wet May day, the IB Geographers embarked on a morning of fieldwork covering five sites along the River Kym. Our first stop was just outside Kimbolton and our last near Hail Weston.

IB Geographers have to complete a piece of coursework known as the IA – the Internal Assessment.

We followed a route along the River Kym using maps and surveys and apart from one site where access was tricky the students were able to get to grips with the regime of this local river. So, it was with our fieldwork equipment; dog biscuits, ranging poles, clinometers, measuring tapes and a sense of humour (in the drizzly rain) that the five enthusiastic geographers embarked on a morning of data collection.

At each site various measurements were taken such as the river's depth, width and velocity. The river levels were higher than last year given current weather conditions so our readings were quite varied. It will be interesting to compare last year’s data. Each site was chosen to illustrate how the different variables impact the river and now the students are tasked with collating the data, coming up with hypotheses and presenting their findings to make their data come to life.

Using a GIS data collection technique again this year (Survey 123 app) the data will be geolocated adding a different dimension to analysis. 

Olivia Davies (Lower Sixth) said: "Though it rained the entire morning, standing in a river was more than able to make up for it. It has been a few years since we've had the opportunity to get out and put our geography knowledge into practice, and our small cohort meant that we all got really stuck in to collecting the data."