News from Discover Ltd.


Green Globe Commendation Award for Discover Ltd.
![[green globe]](../../g/gg2.gif)
The company was delighted to be awarded one of the thirteen 1997 Commendation Awards by the World Travel and Tourism Council for Members who demonstrated significant improvements in their environmental performance. The Green Globe Award stated ...
The environmental programme of the company addresses all of the Agenda 21
areas but it is in the category of community involvement that Discover Ltd truly deserve
an Achievement Award. The Moroccan centre - the Kasbah du Toubkal, in Imlil, near
Marrakech, was rebuilt entirely using local labour, materials and building techniques
with Discover providing the capital and some project management. All the local people
were invited to the opening ceremony, and the project was welcomed by the local
community. January 1997 saw the commencement of a village rubbish collection
service with Discover providing the idea, the capital for the rubbish bin and trailer and
agreeing to underwrite the cost of labour to help the village to dispose of their rubbish.
The shops in the village now make a contribution towards the 'rubbish fund'. This
project has raised environmental awareness among the local villagers and administration
and shows a 'partnership for sustainable development'.
Further details about the WTTC and the Awards can be found from this link.

DISCOVER SOUTHERN MOROCCO
10 DAY TOUR FOR THE DISCERNING TRAVELLER
Discover Ltd are now organising 2 Tours per year for the individual
traveller. After many years only organising tours for previously formed
groups Discover Ltd is returning to running a couple of tours each year that
individuals can join. There will only be 2 tours each year one in the
Spring and one in the Autumn - the most pleasant times to visit southern
Morocco. Add ons for people wishing to prelong their stay can be arranged -
including the possibility of ascending Jbel Toubkal or a relaxing few days
on the coast at Essaouira
Who should travel
The tours will appeal to the discerning traveller who wishes to gain a real
insight into this fascinating country but realises the difficulty of
achieving this in a limited period of time without good local knowledge and
contacts. Participants need to be in good health capable of walking but
there is no need to be especially fit as any activity of a particularly
arduous nature will be optional. For futher information please click here.

GCSE Cross-Curricular Fieldwork
Trip by Benenden School in Geography Biology and French
Mike McHugo reports in the French Centre
Newsletter that 80 girls, the whole of Year 9 from Benenden School in
Kent, arrived at the Eagle's Nest in May last year for a cross-curricular
experiment not previously attempted either by the school or Discover. We're
pleased to say it was enormously successful and that Benenden, armed with
experience and new ideas, are returning to the centre this year. The
girls tackled Geography, Biology and French GCSE-level work units in an
intense and stimulating week for all concerned, which nevertheless permitted
a necessary element of relaxation - ŕ la Eagle’s Nest.
Such
concentration on only three subjects is not normally experienced until
A-Level but the practical application of theories previously encountered in
a classroom in England in such an exciting environment brought the work
alive. While the girls were splashing about in the river by the centre,
examining the life forms of the local peat bog or practising their French in
interviews with local farmers, they were packing weeks' worth of study into
a few days.
The girls worked from Discover's standard Geography units
and with new Biology units designed by Benenden trip leader, Jane Hall, and
by the FSC's Adrian Bailey, who came out with the party. The Biology units
have now been refined and added to The Eagle’s Nest collection, available to
all clients.
The language was practised by conducting a Geography survey
in French, in interviews with local people, by keeping diaries in French and
simply by osmosis with exposure to local culture. The good contacts made by
Benenden with the local school, College Henri Rouvière, were greatly
appreciated by the college. They are looking forward to renewing their
acquaintance with Benenden this spring.
For Discover the experiment was
a great success and one which we will encourage other schools to consider.
With only one organisation in the building, despite the large numbers,
procedures were simplified. Our attention was entirely focused on the needs
of one group of teachers and their students. We look forward with pleasure
to Benenden’s return and are sure the approach they have pioneered will
prove extremely valuable to other schools.

New Fieldwork Opportunities in Oman and The French Alps
One of Discover Ltds directors Mike Davis, former Head of Geography at Bicester College, has been working in the Oman for the last 6 years and has now built up the contacts required for successful fieldwork trips to that country which has an exciting blend of mountains, desert and coastline and superb wild life. Trips will be arranged on an individual basis according to the individual group's requirements..
We are also very pleased to announce that we can now offer an Alpine Option which is based working from a small private British owned and operated hotel in the small resort of Le Bettex near St. Gervais, which gives access to the Mont Blanc Massif with its excellent urban and rural settlements, agriculture, tourism and land use conflicts. It also, of course, adds another dimension to
microclimate and biogeographical studies, extending the concepts already developed in the Mont Lozere Region with respect to ideas of conservation, preservation and sustainable development. This option will be available during May and early June and mid September through October.
Winter Fieldwork
Another new venture for the company is the extension of our season in the Cevennes. As the summer schedule becomes even more busy as modules force fieldwork into a limited number of weeks we have created a new association with Le Refuge at the Mont Lozere Ski Resort to offer winter accommodation for "out-of-season" fieldwork. Whilst not actually staying at The Eagle’s Nest you will have access to all of our units and academic support staff and materials that has been a key element in the success of the service that we provide for our customers. We will be offering this option to groups of 30 paying passengers or more during the months of November to March.

New Units
A-Level Geography Units have been extended with the introduction of two new French Centre units the first (number 18) on microclimates and land use in the souteyran valley which investigates microclimates at the Centre and in the valley examining the influence of buildings, woodland, low vegetation cover and aspect. This can be done as a cross-valley transect and then compared to the weather station at the Centre. This effectively isolates any natural daily variations and allows
the study to focus on changes due to site location. The study will enable an investigation to be carried out that examines the affect of climate on people and land use. Studying microclimates in the Cevennes will be different from the more standard urban area so it will be beneficial for examination purposes.
The second geography unit (number 19) is an investigation into a soil catena on mont lozère. This unit has been designed to enable the studying of the soil catena on Mont Lozère and relate the information gathered to present land use and land capability. There is also the potential to extend the study to include soil catenas from other area visited during the week, viz.
limestone, schist, & coastal areas.
In GCSE-level biology there are three new units, the first looking at Trophic Levels, Life Cycles and Food Webs and this finds out about feeding inter-relationships between aquatic organisms in a stream ecosystem and looks at biological food chains, food webs and trophic levels. Fieldwork techniques used include kick sampling, stratified sampling along a transect, plant and freshwater invertebrate identification, flow rate measurements.
The second new biology unit is a comparison of grassland and woodland ecosystems which compares and contrasts grassland and woodland plant and animal communities using a range of abiotic and biotic factors. Fieldwork techniques used include stratified sampling along a belt transect, field sketch, invertebrate study, plant and invertebrate identification, and abiotic measurements including: pH, light intensity, soil and air temperatures, soil texture, infiltration rate.
The third unit is on the impact of skiing and trampling on plant species diversity and it investigates the effects of skiing and trampling on vegetation cover on Mont Lozère and investigates the adaptations of particular plant species to trampling. Fieldwork techniques used include systematic sampling using a belt transect, plant identification, measurement of gradient and infiltration.

The Academic Advisory
Board To keep ourselves abreast of the ever changing
syllabi and examination structure and how they affect fieldwork, we have
established an Academic Advisory Board. The committee will be chaired by our
Chairman and will be made up of the following members who have kindly agreed
to join.
Paul Baker
- Head of Geography at The Dragon
School, Oxford, UK.
Tony Binns
- Senior Lecturer in
geography at the University of Sussex, UK, and Past President of the
Geographical Association 1994.
Steve Burton
- Regional Advisor/moderator and Examiner paper 1 syllabus B.
Steve Frampton
- Chief Examiner for ULEAC syllabus B.
Ashley Kent
- Senior lecturer in education at The Institute
of Education and President of the Geographical Association 1997.
Paula Richardson
- Geography and History Advisor

New Books Two new
books of special interest to Discover clients have been published, the first
is "Marrakech and the High Atlas, Environment and
Development in a Moroccan context"
which is edited by
D.C.Funnell and R.B.G.Williams. Produced by the Campus Press of The
University of Brighton has been produced ... for all those who
wish to learn about the ancient city of Marrakech and its superb regional
setting, which includes the spectacular peaks and valleys of the High Atlas.
It offers an up-to-date and systematic analysis of the physical
environments, agricultural economy and urbanisation process within the
region, along with a number of chapters which explore the geographical
characteristics of Morocco as a whole.
The ISBN number is 0
95226984 0 4. The second book is one of a series on Europe in
Transition and is by Steve Burton and Alan Jeanes and was developed around
"The Eagles Nest". Called
"Central Southern
France"
its aimed as part of a series of books at 16-19
geographers and is published by Hodder and Stoughton (ISBN 0-340-70170-6)
itlooks at a region of contrast and disparity, change and
challenge and focuses on three key themes: ecosystems and agricultural
change; managing rural environments; and recreation and tourism. It also
considers a wide range of other geographical issues including landform and
resource management, population and regional disparities.
We regard this book as especially interesting to those of you visiting the
French Centre and complimentary copies will be in visitors rooms on arrival.

Imlil Village Association
formed The recent visit of a Hollywood film crew to Imlil to
create Tibetian scenes for a major film was quite a surprise on both sides.
The Berbers were surprised at the scale of the project and the Americans
with the support they received from the local community who helped transport
equipment and build sets.
The result was a huge success in getting the
right takes in the right weather and on budget. Imlil also benefited in that
a facility fee for use of the various locations including "The
Kasbah" has resulted in monies that can be used for village projects.
To oversee this fund the Imlil Village Association has been formed and the
first project was litter clearing in the area of the village on the route up
to Toubkal. This is a very popular trekking area and the new initiative has
helped everyone to realise that a clean environment is the way to continue.

Imlil Glacial Studies by
University
Colin Whiteman and Roger Smith from the University of Brighton have visited
Imlil to investigate landforms and deposits associated with glaciation and
periglaciation in the valley of the Oued Ighyghayene. These are generally
believed to date from the last glacial period about 15-20,000 years ago and
they hoped to use a new technique for dating exposed rock surfaces based
upon changes to the rock resulting from bombardment by cosmic rays.This new
dating technique tests previous assumptions about the age of the landforms.
The rock glacier at Aremd and the deep river gravels which formerly
filled the valley as far as Asni are the major landforms and deposits in the
Imlil region resulting from erosion and deposition in the glacial period.The
gravel deposits in the valley have now largely been removed by river action
and the toe of the rock glacier has been eroded in the area between Imlil
and Aremd. The Kasbah stands on a pinnacle of rock glacier debris left
following erosion and it seems probable that the rock glacier landform
formerly extended to just below Imlil. They hoped to establish the former
maximum extent of the rock glacier and the ways in which it has been
modified by erosion.
Relatively little recent research has been carried
out on the glacial deposits and landforms of the High Atlas and in
association with colleagues from the University of Sussex we are keen to
explore the opportunities offered by the Field Centre at the Kasbah.

The French Centre Newsletter
"Le Nid"
The Moroccan Newsletter "The Kasbah"
