If you’re a keen outdoors, nature-lover, or environmental person like me, then field trips and the area around a university can be a key reason for going to that specific uni.
For me, one of the stand-out reasons I choose BU was the applied nature of its Geography course and the amount of fieldwork this led to. Naturally, Geography is a course made to be outside so I thought I would recall three days of trips we took for our final end of year project after first year.
For our last assignment of the year we had to carry out three days of data collection in Lyme Regis, the New Forest and on Bournemouth Beach. It’s safe to say that every one of these days provided a new field trip experience, and for my course specifically, a lot of extra skills and knowledge.
The first day was spent in Lyme Regis and was all about land mass movement and so we were using GIS and GPS equipment (items we had never used before), so straight away that was an awesome skill and experience to have, especially with it being so attractive to prospective employers. This day was helped out with incredible sunshine making it feel almost like a holiday. Who would think you could say that after a day of data collection? That was a truly great field trip experience.
The second day was spent in the New Forest, an environment my course visits regularly. Here we carried out data collection from a man-made stream. This field trip was beautiful and was one of the most relaxing trips I think I will ever go on. Spending a day just collecting data from a peaceful stream through the New Forest was unbeatable. Again, we collected not just memories, but vast amounts of skills, such as how to measure erosion and the effects of this on the streamsides and the streambed.
The third day of the field trips was almost like another holiday in itself. We spent the entire day on Bournemouth Beach in the beautiful sunshine, using the most up-to-date geographic equipment and techniques. While topping up our tans, we collected erosion data from the beach, another skill we use throughout our degree and something we can show off to potential employers. Our course truly is perfect for anyone who loves the outside and a bit of exploring.
The field trip element was the main reason I chose Geography at BU and boy has it been worth it! The amount of great, fun and enjoyable experiences you have with great lecturers out in the field is brilliant and really makes the course unique. Of course every now and then you have to deal with the rain, but then that’s what it’s like when studying Geography in Britain, you get used to it.
By Louis Sherman
