Year 9 Festival of Fieldwork

by Miss A McCaughern

As part of their end of Year 9 assessment and the National Fieldwork Festival, the whole of Year 9 spent a day at Hatfield Forest collecting data such as micro climate, infiltration rate, carbon calculations and how lights influences the amount of vegetation. 

Pupils moved around Hatfield visiting each station at which they tested out new fieldwork techniques in order to gather data to help them prove different hypothesis.  Overall it was a great experience for pupils to develop their fieldwork skills, which is around 20% for both A Level and GCSE exam grades. 

Not only does it prepare them to progress as geographers, but also for the world of work as they learn about how to develop a project and write up a report, problem solve, team work skills and draw conclusions from their data analysis. 

It was a fantastic opportunity for Felsted to develop their own Year 9 Fieldwork Festival to be part of it The National Festival of Fieldwork,  aimed at promoting  fieldwork in schools across the UK to help pupils take their learning from the classroom and apply it to the real world and is just one of the many opportunities for fieldwork at Felsted.