At the end of June, 35 of our Year 12 students accompanied by three of our science teachers, – Miss Radford, Miss Cooney and Mr Ansell – went on a Biology trip at Field Studies Council centre – Juniper Hall in Dorking, Surrey.
At Juniper Hall the students undertook vast amounts of field work and completed half of their required practical work for their second year of the biology A-level. This included identifying and measuring different plants on the ground in two types of local forest, collecting woodlice and observing their behaviour to different environmental conditions and analysing the pigments in leaves from shaded and light areas, in order to determine if there were any differences.
In addition, Alperton biology students experienced setting (humane) small mammal traps, in which we caught voles and mice and completed a mark-release-recapture experiment on pond snails, which involved painting them with blue and yellow (s)nail varnish.
As is tradition, all of the students received certificates for their contribution to the completed work around a campfire on site, where all enjoyed some roasted marshmallows and s’mores. Throughout the trip, the students were extremely polite and Juniper Hall have once again commented upon how well behaved they are – a real credit to Alperton!
Many thanks to Miss Radford, Miss Cooney and Mr Ansell for giving up a huge amount of personal time to attend this trip – it is greatly appreciated by all staff and students.
