Hi there, my name is Chloe and I'm a Geography Field Studies tutor.

This lesson is called Fieldwork, Planning and Collecting Survey Data and it forms part of the Geography, What Makes a Geographer unit of work.

In this lesson we're going to be looking at what fieldwork actually is and how we might go about planning and collecting some survey data.

Don't worry if you've never done any fieldwork before, the idea of this lesson is that it will guide you through the fieldwork in a step-by-step process and will explain why we're doing everything we do at the right time.

Let's get started.

By the end of this lesson you will be able to complete an environmental quality survey on your school site.

Before we get started there are some key words that we need to be thinking about.

First of all, inquiry.

This is an investigation of a geographical feature or issue.

Fieldwork means investigating the outdoors using geographical tools and thinking to gather information or data.

Data collection is the stage of an inquiry when you collect the data for your investigation using a range of methods.

A hypothesis is a statement which can be tested.

And finally, an environmental quality survey.

This is a type of survey which assesses different factors that affect the environment.

There are two parts to this lesson.

We're first going to look at how we would start a geographical fieldwork inquiry and then we'll move on to how we would actually carry out an environmental quality survey.

So let's begin with that first one.

Geographers often use inquiries when they're carrying out fieldwork.

It means they're thinking about what needs to be investigated.

They follow a set inquiry structure and we're gonna be going through that.

They look at an inquiry question.

They create one.

Remember, that's something that geographers do a lot.

They're always questioning what the world is like.

And they make predictions about the outcome of the inquiry.

Geographers carry out fieldwork inquiries to find out more about a particular place.

This could mean they investigate the features that they observe there.

They could look at geographical processes taking place there.

The people that live and work there could come under investigation.

They might look at the nature of an issue or an event that's happening there.

And this place might be somewhere the geographer already knows really well or it could be somewhere completely unfamiliar to them.

Both of those things would mean the geographer is doing fieldwork.

Geographers might also compare two places that share common characteristics.

In this example, you can see geographers might compare two different styles of housing.

They might compare a theory to the real world.

They would think about what would theoretically happen geographically.

But then they'd actually look to see if the real world was behaving in the way that they would expect.

Geographers might also assess the impact a change has had or has the potential to have.

Let's check our understanding of that so far.

True or false? Fieldwork is best done in a place that is unfamiliar to the geographer.

Is that true or false? Pause the video here.

Have a think about your answer and then come back to me.

Well done if you recognised that it is false.

But why is that a false statement? Yes, so fieldwork can occur in places that are familiar or unfamiliar to the geographer.

A geographical fieldwork inquiry follows a set structure.

And we're gonna go through that here.

Starting us off is our inquiry question.

This is a question about the place you are interested in.

Having a good inquiry question allows us to follow a really clear pattern in our fieldwork inquiry.

Everything hangs off that question, if you like.

We then have a stage called data collection.

This is where we go out and we measure and record data that will help you answer that inquiry question.

Following that is our data presentation.

Here you present your data using maps and graphs.

Following that is data analysis.

In data analysis, you're looking for patterns in your data and thinking about what the data tells you.

You can then write a conclusion.

This is where you answer your inquiry question based on the data that you've collected.

And finally, we evaluate.

We think about how we carried out our inquiry and what we would change to improve the accuracy of our conclusions.

Let's check our understanding of those stages.

What stage of a geographical fieldwork inquiry comes immediately after data collection? So cast your mind back to that circular diagram.

Is it data presentation, data analysis, conclusion, or evaluation? Pause the video, have a think, maybe have a chat with somebody nearby, see what their answers are, and then come back to me.

So which one did you go for? If you went for data presentation, you are correct.

It goes inquiry question, data collection, data presentation, data analysis, conclusion, and then finally evaluation.

So data presentation would immediately follow your collection of the data.

Well done.

Let's begin with that idea of an inquiry question.

Remember, we are going to be carrying out some fieldwork, so it's really important we get that question down first of all.

The inquiry question is there to focus the geographer on what data they need to collect.

So here's some examples of inquiry questions and how it leads the geographer to collect certain types of data.

So for example, an inquiry question like this, what has been the impact of the new sports centre on local people? The kind of data we'd need to collect is people's opinions, the local people's opinions on the impact that that sports centre has had.

If our inquiry question is more about along these lines, in what ways are the characteristics of the River Itchen like those of a typical river? The kind of data that we would require are things like the measurements of the river channel and its bed load.

We'd actually have to go out and measure the river itself.

In this fieldwork inquiry, the title question is this.

How does environmental quality vary around our school site? The data required to answer this question is a series of scores for environmental quality taken at various locations around the school.

Now don't worry if you're not sure about what environmental quality means at this stage.

We're going to be going through that.

You'll see this image coming up a lot in the next few lessons.

This is an image of an imaginary school and its school grounds.

You will have your own image of your school grounds to be working with.

Geographers frequently make hypotheses before they collect their data from their field site.

Aisha and Jun have made some hypotheses and they've justified their choices.

They've said why they think their hypothesis is true.

Let's see if we can spot those two things in what they're about to say.

Their hypothesis and their justification.

So let's start with Aisha.

She says, "I believe the area with the best environmental quality will be near the sports field." There's her hypothesis.

"Because it is away from the noise of the main building." There's her justification.

So she thinks because the sports field is quite far away from the school building, it's going to have the best environmental quality.

Let's see what Jun thinks.

Jun says, "I believe the area with the worst environmental quality will be next to the canteen." There's his hypothesis.

"Because that's where everyone has their snacks.

And so there is likely to be a lot of litter." He has justified why he's thought that.

Let's check our understanding.

What is the purpose of an inquiry question? Is it A, it tells the geographer what they need to know about a field site.

B, it makes a prediction about the outcome of the field work.

C, it focuses the geographer on the type of data they need to collect.

Or D, it tells the geographer what data collection method they're going to be using.

Have a really clear think about those different options.

Pause the video and then come back to me.

Well done if you found the right answer there.

It is C.

It focuses the geographer on the type of data they need to collect.

You might have noticed that B.

That is talking about a prediction about the outcome of the field work.

That's our hypothesis.

Remember, that's quite a different thing.

Our first task of this lesson.

Examine a plan of your school site.

Choose an area where you hypothesise that the environmental quality score will be the highest.

Then what I'd like you to do is justify your hypothesis.

Say why you think that area will have the best scoring environment.

Now you might have a very different opinion to somebody else in your class and that is absolutely fine.

As geographers, we're allowed to have personal opinions.

So choose an area where you think that the environmental quality score will be the highest.

It doesn't have to be the same as your friends.

Pause the video and have a really close look at the plan, the map of your school site and think about all the different areas that might have different environmental qualities to them.

Then justify why you think that one will have the highest.

Do pause the video and come back to me in a moment.

Now, of course, you're going to have very different opinions.

But here's some ideas that I had in relation to the school site, which I'm going to be looking at here.

Andeep is in the class and he's got some ideas too.

He says, "I think this area will have the highest environmental quality score." Now you can see the school site there.

It's the grey building.

He's chosen a site way away from the school building.

So that's the area that he thinks will have the highest environmental quality.

Now, let's see what he says in terms of justification.

He says, "I think this is because the area is the furthest from the main road." Ah, so it's not maybe the school building, which is the fact here, Andeep's thinking about how close the areas are to the main road.

You see the main road is actually running right along the top of the map there.

"This should mean it is the quietest.

It is also far away from the main school building, so it may score well for having natural rather than man-made views." So interesting ideas from Andeep.

You may have very different reasons for thinking that different areas will have different environmental quality scores.

Have a check through your answer.

Check that you have very clearly made a hypothesis and that you've very clearly justified, said why you think that is true.

We'll now move on to the second part of our lesson.

We're actually going to carry out an environmental quality survey.

So we're moving on to the second stage, the data collection stage now.

Before we head outside to actually carry out an environmental quality survey, there's some additional things we need to think about first.

We need to have a data collection sheet that records the information.

We need to make sure that carrying out an environmental quality survey is quick and easy to do.

It's also important to choose locations for your surveys carefully and fairly.

An environmental quality survey allows geographers to score environmental quality against a range of criteria and you will have a copy of this made available to you.

Let's look in a little bit more detail at the data collection sheet itself.

One of the first things you'll notice is that there's a range of criteria.

We can think about our environmental quality in terms of how noisier places, how much litter there is, what the views are like, what the smells are like and what the level of maintenance is like.

On the left hand side of the survey sheet, you can see the most negative aspects of those categories.

Very noisy, lots of litter, man-made views, unpleasant smells and poorly maintained.

Whereas on the other side, we can see how we've translated those into more positive attributes, that the place is peaceful, there's no litter, there are natural views, no smells and the place is well maintained.

So each of those criteria has the most negative aspects on one side and the most positive on the other.

What we've then got is a score of one to five running along the top.

This allows the geographers to show distinction in our opinion.

So a place is not either peaceful or not peaceful.

There's a gradation.

It could be anything from very noisy, a score of one, to very peaceful, a score of five.

One is an indicator of very poor environmental quality, while five is an indicator of the best environmental quality.

A set of tick boxes is aligned against the criteria and the scores so that opinions can be recorded quickly and easily.

So when you're out in the field, all you need to do is look at each criteria and then tick the number that you think applies.

So in this example, somebody has gone to the site.

They've looked at the amount of litter.

There's not very much at all.

So they've ticked box number four.

A total score can be calculated by adding together the scores given for each criteria.

So if we add together one, four, four, five and two, we end up with a total score of 16.

Let's check our understanding of that.

Complete the sentences with the missing words.

You're going to want to pause the video here so that you can have a look through the paragraph, then find the three missing words.

Come back to me and I'll tell you the right answer in a moment.

Right, let's see what answers you got.

An environmental quality score uses a number of criteria to judge the quality of the environment.

Tick boxes are used to make the recording of opinions quicker and easier.

Hope you got those right.

Now, Alex is trying to work out where to do his environmental quality survey.

So he's got a map of the school site.

He needs to work out where he's actually going to stand when he gets out there to do these surveys.

He thinks they will have enough time to do six surveys.

So he's got to think, where do I position myself six times around the school site? He takes his map of the school site and divides it into six evenly sized sections.

You can see there he's basically placed a grid over the top of his map.

Alex makes sure an environmental quality survey takes place in each section.

You can see he's marked them on there.

The precise locations of the surveys are marked on the map.

Sophia and Lucas are carrying out an environmental quality survey on the school site.

They go to each site in turn and judge it based on the criteria in the survey.

So this is the view that they are faced with.

Here at site two, I can hear a little load noise, but it is not too loud.

So I'm going to give it a score of three out of five.

Now, Lucas is also at that site.

Let's see what he believes.

He says, I can see more man-made features than natural ones, and I think that's a fair assessment of that site.

So I think we should give it a score of two against that criteria.

Sophia and Lucas have to work together to form a joint opinion.

This means they may have to justify to each other why they want to give a particular score when they initially disagree.

So let's say they arrive at site two and Sophia thinks, oh, this view is actually quite natural, but Lucas says, no, it's not.

I think it's really man-made.

They're gonna have to talk to each other about why they think each of them are correct.

It might be that Sophia hasn't seen something that Lucas has and vice versa.

So actually by having that discussion, they're going to form a more well-rounded opinion of the site.

So let's check our understanding there.

Why might geographers have to discuss the reasons for their environmental quality scores with each other? They may be working together, but their opinions might be different.

The first time they score an area, they might be wrong.

Their scores might be different in the different survey locations.

Their scores might not add up to five.

Which of those is the correct statement in answer to that question? Pause the video and have another read of them and then come back to me.

Well, hopefully you realise that it is answer A.

They may be working together, but their opinions might be different.

They will have to discuss why they think a certain site might have a score of four or a different one might have a score of two and so on.

And that's the best way of thinking like a geographer, being able to observe something and then being able to say why you have a certain opinion.

Let's take a look at our final practise task of this lesson.

Look at your own map of your school site.

Divide the map equally into sections so that an environmental quality survey location is found in each section.

Then label those survey sites.

Do remember that just because I've chosen six survey sites doesn't mean that that would work for your school site.

You may have a really large school site and it might mean you actually have to do more than six.

Then go out and carry out an environmental quality survey at each location around your school site.

Here's the important bit though.

Make a note of any things that you would change about the way you collected your data if you were to do it again.

So once you've done all of your surveys, think, did I get everything right? Could there be another way of doing things? Would I change the method if I was to do this again? Those are the things that I want you to note down.

Of course, pause the video here and good luck, get out there and collect some data.

So let's look and reflect on those two processes.

First of all, you had to divide your map into sections so that you had an environmental quality survey happening in each section.

So your answer may look something like this.

It depends on how large your school site is, but you should have some kind of like grid or something like that running over the top of your map.

And then very clearly you should have a labelled location where each survey is going to take place.

Then I asked you to reflect on what you would change about your data collection method if you were to do it again.

Here are some of the things you might've come up with.

We may need to make sure we spend at least 30 seconds looking carefully at the survey location before we record our scores in case we miss any details in our observations.

In some scenarios, it's good to make a quick decision, but with something like an environmental quality survey, you're going to want to look around really carefully before you record your observations.

You might've said something like this.

We need to read our map carefully to make sure we are in the right location to do the survey.

If you've got a lot of survey sites around your school, you're going to make sure you're in the right place before you note down your observations.

You also might've mentioned something like this, that you would listen carefully to everyone's opinion before you record a score on your data collection sheet.

If you were in a large group of people when you did your data collection, it might mean you've got to listen very carefully to lots of people before you put down any score on your data collection sheet.

Well done.

Now let's summarise our learning from today's lesson.

A geographical fieldwork inquiry follows a set structure, beginning with an inquiry question and followed by a stage where data is collected.

An environmental quality survey helps geographers to judge the features of an area in categories such as noise, natural features, and litter.

Geographers need to choose their survey locations carefully and listen to different opinions before choosing their environmental quality score.

Well done, especially if that was the first time you've ever done any geography fieldwork.

There's certainly a lot to think about, but one thing to remember is that the more time and effort you spend in the planning stages of your fieldwork, the easier and quicker the data collection will be.