Environmental Sciences and Geography at Bangor University: Discovering Snowdonia's Glacial Past

Exploring Cwm Idwal: A Natural Laboratory

We come out here today, particularly to Cwm Idwal, to learn about the area's glacial history. It's a fantastic example of glaciation in North Wales; in fact, it's one of the best examples in the UK. We're following in the footsteps of Charles Darwin, who came here in the 1800s and really announced that glaciation had occurred here. We bring our students out to give them an experience of what it's like to do fieldwork in North Wales and how they can read and interpret the landscape.

Hands-on Fieldwork and Landscape Interpretation

Today's task involves getting students to come out and actually map the features they see and then think about how that feeds into how glaciation happened in this area. We're having a fantastic day today: good weather and lots of happy students. We're only 20 minutes away from our school department, so it's easy to pop out and pop back within the day and enjoy that fieldwork experience.

Studying Geomorphological Features

Today, we are at Cwm Idwal with Lynda Yorke (Lecturer) in the lovely Welsh mountains, studying geomorphological features caused by the last glacial period. We're looking at glacial movements and the terrain that's left behind. This is quite an informative session; we're learning about the different features, rock formations, and things like that.

Varied Assignments and Learning Methods

Basically, the task is that we're going to put all of that stuff together, and at the end, we're going to make a geomorphological map. On each day, we were given a different assignment. On Monday, we've got an essay to write up on it. On Tuesday, I've just got a written piece that I've done then and there. Today, it's all going to be mapping, you drawing it out, so all different elements come into the research and observation lesson methods.

The Power of Experiential Learning

It's amazing, especially as you learn more about how these things got here and the different features. You can almost put a picture together of how he saw it and dawned on the ideas he didn't face. It's been really fun to actually interact with the landscape rather than just sitting there and learning about it. It's a completely different perspective, and I think it's a lot easier to understand when you can go there and actually see it for yourself rather than having to imagine it from a picture or textbook.

A Magical Location for Study

It's been absolutely awesome. Yes, it's incredible. I'm from a very beautiful place and was quite sad to leave it. I can't imagine a better place to go. We've got all of this on our doorsteps, and you can't really put yourself in a better place for this degree. It's just magical.