Ann

On the hot day of 17 november 2006, my class and 3D had a geography field trip at Labrador Park. It was supposedly to clear our understanding of concepts and to link what was observed in the field to what was learnt in the classroom.

When we arrived, our first stop was at the Aerial Tower. It was built mainly to offer a prime view of the cliff side vegetation coupled with a panoramic view of the sea. On our way down, i was able to observe closely the features of the forest. Lianas were "creeping" on the trees. I was also able to see the continuous canopy, which blocked out quite a bit of sunlight, thats why it was quite dark while i was walking down. Mesh netting were being put to conserve the soil and i was also able to catch glimpses of decomposing leaves. At the lower layer of the forest, i realised that it was made up of moss algae and different kinds of ferns, like the bird's nest fern and the dragon scale fern. When we finally reached concrete ground, i was astounded when i saw the height of these trees and how high 40-50m looked like. There the class were made to sketch out how a tropical rainforest would look like.

Our next stop was at the jetty to get a good view of the wave-cut platform. We were also once again made to sketch out what it looked like. We then went down to the beach to measure the wave period that break at the beach using a stopwatch. The result was about 17 per minute. There we also saw a notch that was formed at the bottom of the cliff due to erosion.

We then moved over to the Promenade where seawalls were being used as theit coastal protection. Seawalls are retaining walls built on and parallel to the coast to protect it from wave erosion. We also counted the wave period there and the result was about 13 per minute, 4 less than when we calcualted in the jetty.

Our final stop was at the Dragon's Teeth Gate. There I was able to see how rocks would look like after going through oxidation, that would cause a change in the colour of the rocks. There was also biological weathering as plants were growing on the top of the cliff as the roots of the plant would grow into joints or cracks in the rocks.

This trip did not actually mean much to me at first, however i found it very useful when i realised how much i have learnt unknowingly. I feel that this is a very good way of learning as it is easier and more interesting as we are able to experience what we have learnt in our textbook first hand. Also because of how interesting it was, i was able to bear with the heat of the blazing sun. I look forward to more fieldtrips like that. It makes learning a whole lot easier.