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'A' Level Courses

We can provide residential or day field courses to cover aspects of the syllabus in Biology, Environmental Science and Geography A-levels. You can either choose from ready made programmes or we can create a programme to suit your specific requirements. Residential courses are usually of a five day or a two and a half day duration. Project work maybe undertaken during five day courses, allowing time for students to learn techniques and get to know project sites before undertaking assessed work. However, if students are well prepared before coming to Wells then it is possible to undertake data collection for assessed projects within a two and a half day course.

An example five day programme including assessed projects is given below. Please note that programmes are dependent upon tidal conditions, time of year and prevailing weather conditions.

Monday: Salt Marsh
Arrive, unpack and settle in. Welcome to Centre. Introduction to tides and salt marsh formation. Succession / Zonation. Lunch. Wells Salt Marsh: Random sampling of vegetation. Statistical tests (with optional use of IT statistics packages). Evening meal. Adaptations of salt marsh plants.

Tuesday: Freshwater
Introduction to freshwater ecology and pollution. River: Invertebrate and water sampling. Lunch. Invertebrate identification using keys and chemical analysis of water. Calculation of BMWP score. Evening meal. Comparison of sites and conclusion.

Wednesday: Sand-Dunes
Holkham Dunes: Sand-dune formation and ecology. Sampling of biotic and abiotic variables on a sand-dune transect from beach to woods. Lunch. Lab based soil analysis, graphical presentation of data (with optional use of IT packages) and conclusions. Evening meal. Project Planning.

Thursday: Projects I
Equipment selection. Travel to sites. Students work on individual projects. Labwork. Evening meal. Tables, graphs and statistical analysis. Research using extensive library.

Friday: Projects II
Additional time for data collection in the field or labwork, research or write up. Project presentations and clear up. Depart.

Please regard this as just one of many possible course structures. We aim to tailor make courses to suit your individual syllabus and assessed coursework requirements.