Fieldwork
Fieldwork is a component of paper 3 (Geographical Applications).
You are required to complete 2 pieces of fieldwork (enquiries) for your GCSE (1 human enquiry and 1 physical enquiry).
Physical Enquiry
Question - "How do the characteristics of a river change downstream and how do humans affect this?"
You will visit Carding Mill Valley in Shropshire in Year 10 to conduct your investigation.
Human Enquiry
Question - "To what extent is the regeneration of Leicester city centre positive?"
You will visit Leicester city centre for the day in year 11 to collect your data.
Following your fieldwork days trips, you will then spend a few lessons reviewing your data and writing up your results as an enquiry. In the exam you will be asked questions based on your two fieldwork enquiries. Below summarises what you need to know.
You also need to understand types of data and sampling that can be used on an enquiry.
Quantitative data— techniques generally involve numbers, equipment and recording sheets.
Qualitative data —techniques that don’t involve numbers or counting, so are subjective and involve the judgement of the person collecting the data. e.g. field sketches, photographs
Primary Data - Fieldwork data which you collect yourself
Secondary Data—information that another person, group or organization has collected
Random Sampling—samples are chosen at random
Systematic Sampling—data is collected to a system e.g. every 10m
Stratified Sampling—deliberately introducing bias to ensure a sample addresses the question.