In the first two weeks of June, the 2nd year HGP and SPD students went on a ‘fieldwork week’ for the course Landscapes. In groups of 45 students, we went to Noordlaren or Allardsoog in Drenthe!

Fieldwork

Over the past few weeks of this course, we learned about the Dutch landscape and different time periods that influenced the landscape. Lectures were complemented with one practical session per week in which we were prepared for our the fieldwork week that we would go on at the end of the course.

In the first two weeks of June the time was there! The Landscapes fieldwork weeks could begin. With the two bachelor studies mixed together, we were divided in groups of around 45 students. One group went to Noordlaren, and the other to Allardsoog, in Drenthe. The fieldweek began on Tuesday morning, and ended Friday afternoon. In Noordlaren we stayed at ‘Natuurvriendenhuis de Hondsrug’, an accommodation close to our fieldwork areas. The accommodation had a big shared living space, kitchen, several smaller working areas and an outside garden with pingpong table! During the first two days we were outside analyzing our assigned fieldwork areas in smaller groups of four students, with the aim of coming up with our own research project about the area. All groups had different subjects of research, our own research project was on the distribution of different tree species in a forest in our fieldwork area. Other groups did their research on for example vegetation cover near the Drentsche Aa, and the relation between groundwater level in relation to ground vegetation cover was studied. The third day of the week we spend the whole day conducting our own research, and we ended the week on Friday with presentations about our research to the rest of the group.

Although the weather could have been better and we made long days, we had all had a very good time and the week was a really nice ending of the Landscapes course!