"On Tuesday 17 June, the L6th Biology class travelled to North Yorkshire to carry out practicals and learning on biodiversity and sampling methods. On arrival at Crandale Centre, we immediately got to work by setting up an investigation into the population of small mammals, moths and invertebrates in the wooded areas using humane traps. We even had to apply “snail-varnish” to allow us to ascertain an estimate of the population of banded snails. The accommodation had sensational food and incredible learning opportunities. The team at Cranedale Centre very much enhanced our learning from the classroom. Over the course of the week, we carried out activities such as visiting sand dunes, where we studied the change of species from shore to dunes, and Brompton Beck and Settrington Beck, where we studied the effect of red-clawed crayfish on the ecosystem. We used a kick sampling strategy to catch loads of crayfish as well as shrimp. We also visited an RSPB bird sanctuary to look at the conservation of many different
cliff-nesting species such as Gannets, Gillimots, Kittiwakes and Puffins. The site itself is home to 500,000 birds, but it wasn’t anywhere near as smelly or noisy as we had initially feared! Wrapping up the evenings from 7.15 pm, we were in the classroom dissecting owl pellets and viewing mayfly nymphs with light microscopes. The owl pellets were particularly fascinating as they contained the indigestible parts of the small mammals consumed (bones and fur!), which we removed, cleaned and then assembled in order to identify the species of prey eaten. Indeed, some of our group were very competitively searching for hip bones and femurs.

On this trip we finished all our required practicals towards our A Level as well as having a very enjoyable five days. A funny memory I have of the trip is catching snails in the forest in five mins, which turned into a bit of a competition! We then marked these snails with non- toxic yellow nail varnish and released them back into the forest. On the final day after visiting the intensive pig farm, we came back to Cranedale Centre and went out finding the snails that we marked and again turned into a competition! This trip was thoroughly enjoyable and a wonderful way to finish the first year of Biology A Level".