Intensive Courses

Something I have now done three time in my education is an intensive field course. All weeks played out very similarly: you had a number of days away and in those days you had a certain number of tasks to complete that were assessed through the week. The weeks were in different locations and for different lengths of time, but all involved a lot of stress, hunger and sleep deprivation, leading to some very temperamental people!

The first time I did a week like this, I was 15, studying for my GCSEs and we were taken to Malham, Yorkshire, for 3 days. While there, we undertook fieldwork in rivers (measuring discharge, velocity, width and depth), climbed the steps of a 90 feet tall limestone and karst formation, visited a cave system with some of the most stunning stalactites and stalagmites I've ever seen, attempted to climb a waterfall whilst learning about it's development (until someone slipped and fell into the plunge pool due to some ice, thus forcing us to turn back), looked at agriculture management and then spent time composing a survey to ask the public about their opinions of the leisure and tourism in the area. During the week, we had quite heavy snow, forcing us to take alternative routes to sites and on one occasion, having to help a student who stepped onto a pile of snow and ended up to her waist in the drift.

The second time, I was 17 and it was for my A-level Geography class. We went to Yorkshire again, this time to a village called Kirby Grindalythe and this time, for 5 days. Through the week we looked at and undertook fieldwork on the soil pH of woodlands, woodland management, settlement, coastal erosion, sand dune succession, heathland soils and management, sustainable tourism and agriculture. We had issues with the weather during the week, mainly students being unprepared for a heatwave n May (an extremely rare occurrence here in the UK) and a number of people ended up ill, including myself who suffered from severe heatstroke the first night, however I still loved the week.

Finally, there was the latest week, that was part of my degree. It took place in Bangor, Wales and was for 8 days in June 2014. The workload was the most intense I have ever faced, as each assignment was designed to be completed in just a few hours. As for sleep, I discovered that everything looked a good place to catch a few Z's. I napped on the bus and during lunch almost every day to catch up. I even found myself snoozing on a rock in the middle of Snowdonia NP when there was a spare 15 minutes after collecting my data! It was very clear who had and hadn't slept through the day as those that hadn't were usually quite mean-tempered by the evening lecture! Still through the week I learned about the geology of North Wales, freshwater ecology, behaviour of sea birds, mountain ecology, the effects of heavy metal contamination at a mining site as well as learning a range of surveying techniques I'd never used before.

Now, I have thought long and hard about these weeks and I have realised that I absolutely LOVE them. Sure at the time, I want to cry, scream and at times have even wanted to go home, but I always end the week feeling a greater sense of accomplishment and progression that I never feel with any of my other courses. I wish more modules were as intensive, or similarly intensive, for example taking 1-3 months  and you  have no  exams,only continuous  assessment. I have a number of reasons why I feel these courses are beneficial, listed below:

THE SCENERY: Every trip feels like being in a fantasy as we were shown spectacular view after spectacular view (see images below-this was the view from my room!) while undertaking various elements of fieldwork that were new to most of us. 

Views from my room in Bangor!


LOTS of fieldwork: In a normal module, there may be a small handful of practicals, but none give you quite the sense of work as doing it every day for a week. Just in Wales, I learned about copper mine pollution, Hana probes, Ballantyne's scoring, coastal ecology, freshwater sampling and a wide range of statistical analyses I'd never heard of before. Even if I  had covered these in a normal length module, I probably would have forgotten each thing by the time I next did it, however we had so little time between assignments and practicals, EVERYTHING stuck, because if you didn't learn it, you wouldn't be able to complete that day's assignment.

TEAMWORK: At each field week I have ever been on, you have to work with the others in your group to ensure all the work is completed,and sometimes, you need the other people to help make sure your work is a good quality. On my first two courses, I knew most of the people as I had been at school with them for a number of years. The course to Wales, however, was made up of only a small number of people I knew, the others being on a separate course to me that meant I'd never been in the same classes as them. At first, this made me nervous, but by the end of the week, I knew everyone's names and had made a bunch of new friends, whilst cementing the firendship I already had with the others.

A closer connection with your lecturers: With every one of these trips, I have felt like I know my teachers/lecturers on a more personal level as you get to actually interact with them and see that they are normal human beings just like you and they suffer as much as you do with the lack of sleep. You get to see them walk around in their pyjamas first thing in the morning as they simply don't care that you may ridicule them- they just want to get their morning coffee and then get back to being the serious adult you know them as. The absolute best thing is that when you return back to the normal bump and grind of life, you will always remember seeing that side of them and in some ways, it leads to a greater level of respect for all the crap they put up with from you students.

And finally...

The memories you will cherish: Some of the best memories of my life have come from the intensive courses I have been on. My time in Wales led to me being brave and conquering my fear of the ocean by partaking in the tradition of going for a swim as the sun sets in the North sea (though the funniest part of that is my stupid decision to wear jeans and having my lecturer hold me up while I stripped them off when they got too heavy to wear!). I will never forget the look of shock on my teachers face when at 15, my friend and I (who were both army cadets at the time), decided to start climbing up a 90 feet cliff because we'd done a similar exercise at camp a few weeks before and managed to get almost halfway up before we were spotted (I think the teacher still has nightmares from that one) and I will never forget how rewarding and how blessed I am to have seen and done so much in a short space of time. Malham, Kirby Grindalythe and Bangor have all cemented a special place in my heart, and someday, I hope to return to each of them with my children and show them that these three locations is where their mummy reached the breaking point of her education choice and crossed over it to fall even more in love with her life, knowing that no matter what, the choice of her degree is one she would never wish to change.