On Friday 8 May‚ UII (Year 4) went to Mop End Field centre and the River Chess to carry out field work on rivers. The day began with an exploration of the water cycle as the teacher at Mop End talked to the girls about the part that rivers play. The girls were then asked to make some predictions about how they thought the river would change as they went downstream.

After this discussion the girls travelled to the first site they were visiting on the River Chess, at Chesham Moor. They all had great fun measuring the width, depth and speed of the river. They then went on to the second site visit - Scotsbridge Mill in Rickmansworth. They took a second group of measurements so that they could be compared with the ones taken earlier in the day.

It was at this point that there was also an opportunity to do some dipping to see what was living in the river. The girls were amazed to see the number of different creatures that could be found, including leeches, caddis fly nymphs, sticklebacks and a large bullhead fish.

On their return to the centre at Mop End the two sets of river measurements were compared against each other and the girls' predictions from the start of the day. It was extremely interesting to discover first-hand how a river changes along its course.