I awoke at 06:30 and after getting showered and dressed made my way over to Bramber House for breakfast. We only get a packed lunch today as we are out in the field so a full English breakfast was the order of the day. Then it's off to await the arrival of the coach.
We managed to leave bang on 8:00 and made our way to the cliffs at Birling Gap. The weather was overcast and blustery but there was only a small chance of rain (which never materialised, thank god). The trip took about 45 minutes and then we were deposited in the car park before wandering off to the beach with our group tutor (Brian) and Geology activity tutor (Arlene).
The view was certainly spectacular. Looking out along the coast there was certainly lots to see, so we looked at the cliffs.
Next we wandered back to the coach to pick up our lunch bags before traipsing up over the Downs with the Ecology tutor (Phil). Here we were supposed to tke sample random areas of a 10m x 10m square looking for 6 different types of plant. Fortunately we were shown the plants beforehand, although that didn't make things any easier. We then got to sit and have lunch on the Downs (the clouds had parted then so we were bathed in sunlight).
After lunch we returned to the coach for the journey to New Haven harbour, where we repeated the Geology and Ecology experiments again. The purpose of this is to show two different types of geology and the different types of plants that live on them. It's was a bit difficult to see the ecology in the field but the geology was blatantly obvious (guess the rock this time was a sandy coloured rock that when handled left you with sand in your hands).
We then got a short coach ride to the bottom of a very steep hill which we got to walk up to get to the top of the cliffs for the ecology part.
We then filed back down the hill and onto the coach for the trip back to the Uni where we get to analyse the data we gathered. Fortunately we get to go for tea first.
Having piled off the coach we all wearily stagger into Bramber House expecting to be met with heaving queues, but there weren't any to be seen. Instead we were treated to roast pork with apple sauce (very nice and definitely appreciated after a hard day out) followed by fruit sponge and custard (the fruit appeared to be a thin layer of jelly on the bottom of the sponge). Then just enough time to go back to the room for a bit before mooching down for some data analysis.
I think that data analysis was not quite the right title for the evening session. It started off with Arlene taking us through the geological history of this section of the UK, making reference to what we found today. Then Phil attempted to explain the Mann Whitney U Test to us, which thoroughly lost me shortly after the ranking part. I don't think I was the only one who was confused but I think that it was more the test itself than Phil's explanation.
I was going to go back to my room for a well-deserved lie down but across the corridor was an optional evening lecture I had briefly considered going to during teatime but was worried that I would be too tired. As I felt OK I asked the tutor, James (who is the spitting image of Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall) if it was OK to sit in. I don't know whether James was worried about attendance numbers (lack of) or just keen to talk but he welcomed me into a talk entitled "Molecular Recognition - Chemistry beyond the bond". I must admit I was a bit out of my depth with some of the chemistry but found the talk James gave on what his research group are doing at Waltham Hall very interesting. An hour later I was free to return to my room for some much needed sleep.
Tomorrow we look at what gamma rays do to wheat plants. My guess is nothing good...
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