The Passage of Time

Change is the only constant and investigating change was the focus for all Year 11 Geography students on 20 November. Starting at the Financial Harbour and ending in the heart of the Manama Souq, we explored the development of Manama as an urban area by investigating the two juxtaposing sides to the city: modern business and old tradition.

The Financial Harbour is a feat of modern engineering and we were very grateful to view the models of future expansion. We collected data from six pre-determined locations. In small groups, we had to note down the Land Use for certain locations, conduct Questionnaires, Group Traffic Counts, Building Height Surveys, Pedestrian Counts, Environmental Quality Surveys and Building Quality Surveys and complete Field Sketches. We used a number of skills: map reading, geographical knowledge, social skills, perception, counting, and even depiction. We anticipated that the questionnaires would be the most difficult to carry out, however, the field sketches proved to be the greatest challenge for many, the majority preferring to take photos and sketch later.  The trip was a unique and enjoyable way of conducting primary research, the day culminating in full data collection sheets, which now form the basis of our Controlled Assessments and will prove to be exceedingly useful in the future. ~ Anuja Jaiswal 11A