The Department of Earth Sciences has run pre-sessional field trips for five years now, and they have been a huge success. Nearly all freshers come on the trip, and they meet their fellows students, work with them, socialise, and gain some confidence in University life and work even before they register.
This year, 63 of the 70 freshers attended the trip. Our base is Kilve Court, a wonderful big old house that is run by Somerset Education Authority as an outdoor activity centre. On Friday night, after a beer or two, we hold a pub quiz – focusing on earth sciences and environmental topics of course. This year, team scores ranged from a rather feeble 13 out of 35, to a masterly 30 out of 35 by one group. First-class degrees to all of them!
 Students discussing their environmental action plans on Steart Point. |
 The audience listens enthralled whilst one of their number explains their environmental action plan. |
We spent all of Saturday in the field, and the weather was dull, but acceptable for late September. Students divided into teams of eight, and in the morning each team was charged with producing a consultants' report for the Environmental Agency with an action plan for the Steart Peninsula, a vulnerable patch of farmland and housing that is exposed to major flood risks from the sea. The teams gathered information about styles of sea defences, and they plotted information on maps.
In the evening, each team elected one or more presenters, and they gave their recommendations, supported by carefully drafted maps, to a panel consisting of local interest groups. Prizes were awarded by the staff for the best technical report, and by the student society (represented by five students from the second and third years who come on the trip) for the most amusing talk (presented in the form of a play, with all team members playing their roles, from news reader to irate farmer. The staff never cease to be amazed at the professional quality the students achieve in their presentations when they are thrown together at speed.
 Walking along the spectacular geological section between Blue Anchor Bay and Watchet. |
 A group of students are amazed at the size of their ammonite discovery. |
On Saturday afternoon, we walked along the shore from Blue Anchor Bay to Watchet, learning some basic geological field skills - how to interpret ancient sedimentary environments, how to use the compass clinometer, and how to tell folds from faults. Also, a staggering number of ammonites were collected, from the tiny iridescent Psiloceras to large half-metre wide beasts.
On Sunday, on our return trip, we looked at Cheddar Gorge and Charterhouse. The aim was to learn a little about the geology and environments of the Mendips - the Carboniferous limestone full of corals and other tropical marine fossils, ancient lead-zinc mineralisation that has been exploited since Roman times, and the massive folds that explain much of the form of the Mendips.
 Professor Jon Blundy conducts the choir in "Rock of Ages" at the Sunday outdoor service. |
 Picnic lunch in front of the horizontal smelter chimneys at Charterhouse. |
The students were dropped back at their Halls of Residence and student houses by mid-afternoon, aglow with all the fresh air, having made some new friends and, hopefully, learnt some geology and environmental geoscience.