Fieldwork
Cheap and easy local fieldwork resources
An Introduction to Cheap and Easy Fieldwork in your Local Area
On 10 March 2008, 30 teachers attended the Action Plan for Geography's fieldwork CPD day, "An Introduction to Cheap and Easy Fieldwork in your Local Area". The event was held at Juniper Hall Field Centre near Dorking in Surrey and the workshop was led by Nick Lapthorn, Juniper Hall's Head of Centre.
The three main aims of the CPD day were:
- To furnish teachers with a range of ideas for fieldwork activities in their local environment
- To encourage them to save money by making their own fieldwork equipment
- To give them the opportunity to discuss and develop fieldwork activities with experts and other teachers.
The first session of the morning was spent considering ideas for fieldwork activities that could be carried out "down your street" in a residential area, rural or urban.
Following that, the teachers had a chance to try out some home made fieldwork equipment and made their own clinometer.
The intention was to spend the whole afternoon out in the grounds of Juniper Hall and on Box Hill, studying a range of environments for fieldwork and developing possible activities for different locations.
Unfortunately, the weather was too atrocious even for very keen geography teachers to venture outside, so we were confined to the classroom to consider investigations based around local issues in Dorking.
The resources from this Action Plan for Geography fieldwork CPD day are available in the form of presentations, instructions for making field equipment, and the teachers' investigation.