Geography teachers take a field trip

May 03, 2009 News

One Geography teacher observing the land formation features in Christianburg

Georgetown Geography teachers were recently privy to a preliminary field trip to Linden and its immediate environs where they were allowed to practise what they teach in the classroom and have a better understanding of their jobs.

Warren Mitchell, Coordinator of the Geography Subject Committee, facilitated the excursion.
The trip, which occurred on Wednesday, last saw 19 Geography teachers from the Georgetown education district conducting the field trip to Linden and its immediate environs.
The purpose of the exercise was for Geography subject teachers to be cognisant and acquaint themselves with physical geographical phenomena stipulated by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) namely, weathering and erosion, spring formation, landforms and to examine the environmental impact of bauxite mining.

Fourteen secondary schools in Georgetown participated in this event. They were Charlestown, Richard Ishmael, Brickdam, Central, St Mary’s, Campbellville, North Georgetown, Tutorial, St John’s, Dolphin, North Ruimveldt, St Joseph and Freeburg. Several stops were made at various locations en route to Linden. There were stops at the East Demerara Water Conservancy at Land of Canaan, Kuru Kururu and Moblissa.
The objectives were to differentiate between the low coastal plain and hilly sand and clay area, identify landform features, discuss the importance of drainage and irrigation canals to the development of commercial arable farming and describe the features of the tropical evergreen forest.

In Linden the spring at Old England was visited; observations were conducted at Block 22, Wismar on the soil conservation techniques used to combat soil erosion, and finally teachers carried out observations of erosion, weathering and impact of bauxite mining on the environment of Christiansburg/ Buck town area. Geography teachers were involved in activities, such as rock climbing, hill climbing, hiking, sketching, collecting specimens and measuring the height of hills.
These teachers have plans for similar field trips in the future to other locations in Guyana