Geography Fieldwork
All Year 11 Geographers enjoyed a very productive days fieldwork at the beautiful Carding Mill Valley in Shropshire during March. As day one of two fieldwork days they are expected to undertake (one physical and one human) as part of the GCSE Geography course, the students were introduced to the concept of the Bradshaw model which details how a river changes as it flows downstream. They were then able to devise questions based around the changes they should be able to expect to see and then learned how to carry out the requisite measurements to see if they were true.
Over the course of three hours, the students measured the depth, width, velocity, and channel shape of the river. They had a great time getting in the river and enjoying the “hands on” aspect of geography in the field. The paper 3 exam will ask them questions about what they did, as well as asking for their opinions on theoretical issues to do with fieldwork (what advice you would give a student who was investigating a certain aspect of a river for example). They will need to be confident in the practical elements of carrying out physical fieldwork, so I strongly recommend they keep their recording sheet from the day safe and use it for revision so that the days activities remain fresh in their minds.
We are now looking forward to the day trips to Worcester where we shall carry out the human fieldwork. Please ask your child to check which day (19th or 22nd April) they will be going on and hopefully we will be enjoying two equally productive and rewarding days.
