Unit G1/G2 - Fieldwork

For both the G1 (Physical Geography) and G2 (Human Geography) exams, you completed a fieldwork exercise.  You will be examined on this in Question 3 of the exam.  Make sure you can write a 10 mark answer on each of the following (highlighted) parts of the enquiry, referring to specific information and data from your fieldwork investigation.  Your answer should always start with the title of what you did.

1 - Planning Stages of the Investigation

·        Decide on issue to be investigated and state the hypothesis and subquestions

·        Decide on the location for the investigation

·        Visit your chosen location for a pilot survey

·        Undertake a risk assessment

·        Obtain any equipment (if required), check availability and how to operate it

·        Prepare recording sheets/ design questionnaire surveys

·        Decide on sampling strategy/ies

·        Check weather conditions if relevant

·        Decide on day, date and time of survey

·        Arrange appointments if your investigation involves interviews/visits

2 - Data Collection

·        Identify your hypothesis and subquestions.

·        Justify the reasons for selecting the location and the data set(s) you plan to collect.

·        Briefly outline the geographical context of your investigation.

·        Describe your field area with words and an annotated base map; you could also give some background information about the area.

·        Describe how you collected the data for your study. Include booking sheets, sample questionnaires.

·        Explain the sampling technique(s) used and justify your choice(s).

·        Briefly discuss any difficulties/ factors affecting your enquiry (e.g. bad weather).

3 - Data Refinement and Display

·        Refine the data into tables.

·        Use a range of appropriate graphical techniques to present the data accurately and clearly. Justify your choices.

·        Include field sketches and annotated photographs.

·        Include any cartographical (mapping) techniques. Justify your choices.

·        Evaluate your methods of presentation – how effective are they in showing the data you collected. Would alternative methods have been better?

4 - Description, Analysis and Interpretation

·        Describe and analyse each set of data. Summarise the data using measures of central tendency (mean, median and mode) and dispersion (standard deviation)

·        Look for relationships between the data shown on the graphs and where appropriate use correlation - e.g. Spearman's Rank Correlation Co-efficient.

·        Discuss your findings using your geographical understanding of the topic, answering each sub-question in turn.

5 - Conclusion and Evaluation

·        Summarise the conclusions you have been able to reach about each of your sub-questions. Your conclusions must be effective and acceptable, linking directly back to the questions.

·        Evaluate the methods of data collection and sampling techniques used.

·        Comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the study as a whole and the importance of obtaining accurate and reliable data.

·        Suggest further research that could be carried out.