We had a great fieldtrip to Kioloa Coastal Campus with our third year students from GEOS3009/3909. We measured topography of the beach and the inlet; assessed the sediment characteristics; and analysed surf zone processes by measuring waves and taking long-exposure imagery of the beach. This fieldtrip helps the students understand coastal processes and systems by putting into practice the concepts learnt in different parts of the unit of study, thus contributing to deep learning. We have used the concepts from the fieddtrip in most of my lectures and they will be really useful when tackling numerical modelling fo coral and siliciclastic systems with Tristan Salles over the coming weeks.

The School of Geosciences team included Tristan Salles, Tommy Fellowes, Louis Johansson (honours student), Chalene Bezzina (Technical Officer), and Ana Vila-Concejo.  The students were divided into 6 groups and each group took ownership and analysed and presented the results from one dataset. It was a steep learning curve over only a weekend but they all did really well. Students and staff worked really hard with very long days but it was well worth it!

The weather helped with beautiful sunshine albeit too windy for some of the work we wanted to do; the waves were quite small (good for health and safety); and, the accommodation and food was sensational. We will be back next year with a new cohort of GEOS3009/3909 students!

** Credit for the photos goes to Giorgia Battin and Katrina Conn.