Miss Bradley’s Year 12 and Year 13 Geo class left school at 7.30am to head to Muriwai Beach for the day. The trip had been postponed multiple times as a result of New Zealand’s lockdowns, and it was a relief for students to finally be able to start their internal.
It was a sunny but windy day when the students arrived at the beautiful black sand beach, where the constant sound of waves crashing against the shore could be heard, as well as the large Gannett colony.
The purpose of this trip was to collect data for an upcoming research internal, to ‘conduct geographic research with consultation’.
The aim of the internal for the class was to research the effects of longshore drift at the location of Maori Bay, the headland, and further up Muriwai Beach.
Students threw oranges or other brightly coloured round fruit into the water. This was so if any fruit could not to be retrieved from the water, it would biodegrade and not remain and be harmful to any organisms.
Students would time how long it took for the fruit to travel 10 metres in a northern or southern direction, which would determine longshore drift (the movement of sediment along the near shore area) at Muriwai Beach and the factors affecting this process at three different locations on the coastline.
Throughout the trip many students got wet as the tide came in further than expected, with one group losing some of their fruit!
However, in spite of the challenges that the students faced, as well as the chaos of the year, they were able to successfully collect the relevant data required for them to be able to write up their internal assessment.
This was a great, real-world learning experience.
