On the 26th of April, 32 geography students from Ms Doyle’s and Ms Ross’ geography classes went on a trip to Corballis beach to carry out their field study. The Geography field study is a key part of the Leaving Cert Geography course, amounting to 20% of your final mark. The question for our investigation was “Investigate the role played by geomorphic processes on the formation of one landform in a fluvial or coastal or glacial environment”.
Firstly we surveyed the beach, we measured the angle of the slope of the beach using a clinometer as seen in the photos below. We repeated this 6 times moving 10 meters up the beach each time. Then we moved on to collecting material from the beach. We divided the beach into three parts, front shore, middle shore and back shore. We threw a pen and placed the quadrat around it to gather our material. The material was put into bags to measure later using a pebbleometer. We used an anemometer to measure the average wind speed of the beach. Our four volunteers who were brave enough to get into the water were Amy, Shireen, Rachel and Hope. Amy and Shireen counted the number of waves per minute using a clicker and a timer, which we were then able to conclude that the waves were constructive as there was less than 10 per minute. Then they measured the height of the crest of the waves using a meter stick. Rachel and Hope did the test for long shore drift. Hope threw the orange into the sea and we marked the start with a range pole, we set five minutes on the timer to see where the orange would end up. If long shore drift occurs on the beach, the orange should move in zig zag pattern down the beach.
After we completed all of the necessary tests and measurements we headed to the Omni Shopping Centre in Santry. We treated ourselves to a McDonalds for lunch before heading back to school for last class. The weather was perfect for our Tuesday afternoon beach trip to Corballis! We couldn’t have asked for a better day! Thanks to Ms Doyle and Ms Ross for helping us carry out our investigation and for a lovely day out!
By Grace Lynch
Photos courtesy of Lucy McDonnell
