GCSE Geography Trip to Lapworth Museum

We went to the Lapworth Museum, which is a geological museum at the University of Birmingham, where you can learn about rocks, fossils and minerals. They have some amazing exhibits and lots of interactive displays.

To start the day, we learnt about the history of the Earth and the evolution of life. An interesting fact I learnt was that during the Precambrian period, the West Midlands was actually located in the southern hemisphere! We then went through the Active Earth gallery, where there was an interactive globe, displaying anything from the tectonic plate margins to all earthquakes recorded that day. To finish the tour, we went into the Mineral Wealth gallery, where they had a wide range of rocks, gemstones and minerals. We learnt properties to help identify a mineral, including shape, colour, location and size.

Around midday, we moved on to a presentation on tectonic hazards and the types of volcanoes, whether it could be flat or conical in shape so either shield or composite. We were even presented with 6 items associated with a volcanic eruption. Some of the examples were basalt (cooled lava) and obsidian. We got to feel them and study them closely, allowing us to accurately tell the differences, whether it could be rough or smooth, heavy or light. An example of this is pumice, where it is light and filled with holes (from escaped gases).

After getting some lunch, we had a lecture from a professor at the university on the structure of the Earth. We enjoyed learning facts of the Earth such as its magnetic field and providing us with facts we would have never thought of!

Jovan Mann (10W)