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Notes and Queries

The Newsletter of the Geographical Association Independent Schools Special Interest Group

Editorial: Looking to the Future

Contents:
Looking to the Future Urban Geography Spread a little Appiness... Fieldwork in Malawi 2 4 8

Welcome to the new rebranded Notes and Queries, the annual newsletter of the GA Independent Schools Special Interest Group. These are challenging times for Geography teachers; the goalposts are constantly moving in terms of what we teach and how we teach it. Hardly a week goes by without a scientific report published by academics or a learned society on the impacts of climate change, while new directives seem to be coming from the desk of the Secretary of State with the same regularity. The GA has made an excellent case for the continued inclusion of Geography in the National Curriculum and with Geography included as one of the subjects in the socalled English Baccalaureate that is used as a measure of success at GCSE, our position has never been stronger. It is a subject, however, that is constantly changing and CPD is possibly more relevant in Geography than any other school subject. On a personal note, most of my annual CPD comes via the GA annual conference . This year, president Bob Digby has chosen Looking to the Future as his theme; a theme that this newsletter will also echo. The excellent programme on offer at conference will reflect this in three key ways: how geographers see the future of the human and natural world, how the classroom of the future might approach ways of learning, and how new technologies can be used in geography teaching and learning. For this newsletter, we have invited members of the GA ISSIG and various other GA members working in a variety of institutions to contribute articles relating to these three key ways. In this edition of Notes and Queries, there are a number of articles from a variety of different contributors. Our new CEO Alan Kinder has contributed a piece on the challenges facing the independent sector in a period of rapid change, while Alan Parkinson looks at the use of Apps in the Geography classroom. Continuing on the theme of technology, Janet Speake looks at the use of SatNavs while Richard Bustin (a member of the GA ISSIG) provides a contemporary take of how Geographers look at Urban areas. There are also three articles on Fieldwork: Rob Lucas, CEO of the Field Studies Council gives us his take on the Future of Fielwork, Nik Miller (also a member of the GA ISSIG) looks at the Common Entrance project and my colleague Steve Fox writes about his experiences taking a group of senior pupils to Malawi last summer and carrying out fieldwork on water supplies. This newsletter will also published electronically as a PDF as well as a paper version. Looking to the future, it may well be the only medium it is published in. Subsequent electronic versions will include more articles than the paper version and will be available on the GA website and from a QR code published in the newsletter.

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The Future of Fieldwork Sat Navs

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Fieldwork in Prep Schools 22

New GA Chief Executive Alan Kinder writes about the challenges facing the Independent Sector on page 2

Using a suitable QR Code reader app on your smart device, this QR code will take you to the GA ISSIG page on the GA website. Have a good conference, Rob Morris

Looking to the futureAlan Kinder

Teachers of geography are well versed in thinking and teaching about the future. Were one of the few subjects that allow students to think critically and creatively about what their world might or indeed should look like when they become adults (and parents, and grandparents...). But what does the future hold for teachers of geography? This is a particularly challenging question, as we are currently faced with curriculum and wider educational changes on an almost unprecedented scale. Who can blame those teachers or schools who feel more than a little overwhelmed by the pace of reform? So lets bring some of our skills as geographers to bear on this challenge. Firstly, a summary of the key changes across the age range: Alan Kinder has been Chief Executive Officer of the GA since last September. In this article, he talks about the challenges facing the Independent sector as a result of recent announcements about the National Curriculum and GCSE
Photo The GA

1.

The statutory national curriculum for geography KS1-3 is undergoing a process of reform and public consultation (www.dfe.gov.uk). Geography has, thanks to the efforts of the entire subject community, made a successful case for its explicit inclusion in each key stage. But this is a new approach to writing a national curriculum - a concise document which sets out clearly the knowledge and understanding that all children should be expected to acquire in the course of their schooling'. Place knowledge, understanding geographical processes and some technical procedures (such as map skills) are all emphasised within the draft, but note that the core curriculum is not intended to be all that students are taught. The final Orders are due to be published by September 2013, and to be applied to all English maintained schools from September 2014, although the national curriculum also tends to influence non-maintained schools, and this is even more likely to be the case in the future (see below). Qualifications for 14-16 year olds are also undergoing reform. Maintained schools (in England) are already subject to the so-called English Baccalaureate performance measure (the percentage of students gaining grades A*-C GCSE in EBacc subjects, such as geography). More radical proposals were recently brought forward and consulted upon. The idea of English Baccalaureate Certificates (EBCs) received a full and detailed response from the GA in 2012 (www.geography.org.uk/aboutus/papersandresponses/). In this, we made clear that the GA supports the governments desire to raise standards but argued that without significant support, a new qualification alone was unlikely to achieve this aim. The Association also made the case for: rewarding every candidate with a precise and widely-understood measure of their achievement; acknowledging fieldwork as an essential element of geographical education; and introducing new qualifications only after a successful pilot phase involving schools and teachers. It was therefore gratifying to discover that many of the GAs arguments had been accepted in the February announcement by the Secretary of State (www.geography.org.uk/news/ ks4reformupdate/). Instead of EBCs, reformed GCSEs will be introduced by 2015 and geography will be offered by several awarding body. Geography A levels are also being reformed at present (www.ofqual.gov.uk) and the changes mirror recent reforms to GCSE with moves towards linear qualifications, fewer examination retakes and a more rigorous approach by the regulator towards ensuring curriculum breadth, by encouraging wider-ranging examinations at the end of the course, as well as stand alone AS levels. The recent announcement by the Secretary of State means we can expect new A level courses by 2015.

2.

There are wider changes in education, technology and society which will impact upon us as teachers of geography

3.

Drawing these threads together, we can begin to think about what they are likely to mean for teachers of geography. In key stages 1-3, a slimmed-down curriculum affords greater freedom in some respects, because it encourages the teacher (and/or school) to identify local preferences, priorities and opportunities with which to extend the essential core. However, the requirement to ensure that all students acquire core knowledge and understanding may prove a challenge for some, particularly in relation to place knowledge and physical processes. Another task for teachers will be to create detailed plans and assessments from a skeletal curriculum document. Here, it is likely that more support for what we call curriculum -making will be needed than previously from other teachers and from organisations such as the GA. In KS4, the revised subject criteria for geography will ensure that all GCSEs cover a curriculum core. For example, a detailed study of the UK could become a feature of every GCSE specification. Terminal examinations at 16 years would then be an important influence on the entire 11-16 geography curriculum, including in schools not subject to statutory Orders at KS3. The challenge here will be for teachers to sustain their creativity and avoid an incessant teaching to the test. This will be important to maintain the engagement of students who have been persuaded to choose geography by schools responding to the EBacc performance measure: recent sharp rises mean that around 36% of pupils now choose geography. As long as it remains one of a select group of core Baccalaureate subjects, we are likely to see further increases in the proportion studying geography post-14. However, much might depend on the outcome of the current consultation exercise on school accountability ( http://www.education.gov.uk/aboutdfe/ departmentalinformation/consultations/a00221259/secondary-accountability). It is difficult to predict the fate and likely status of alternative qualifications, such as the iGCSE, at this stage. For the schools and awarding bodies involved, it will be crucial to identify the contribution these courses make to high standards within a world class curriculum. And of course there are wider changes in education, technology and society which will impact upon us as teachers of geography in the foreseeable future. At the GA, we have recently been thinking about these in order to begin the process of planning our strategy to 2020. For example, we recognise the growth in use of social media amongst both teachers and students. These are increasingly used as a means of networking, sharing ideas and establishing identity. Even the GA Chief Executive now has a Twitter account (@GAChiefExec)! Combined with the use of mobile technology, social media are potentially powerful tools for learning about the world, but much more needs to be done to identify an effective pedagogy for this technology. The national debate over the role of knowledge in the curriculum also serves to remind us of the challenge of Googleisation the notion amongst some teachers and students that, since information is instantly available through sophisticated search engines, the value of an individual possessing knowledge and enquiry skills is somehow diminished. More likely, the importance of being able to find, join up and make sense of worthwhile facts and ideas is likely to increase as we become immersed in seemingly unlimited quantities of information. In order to be successful in the future, students will need to critically analyse sources of information in order to distinguish the relevant, significant and trustworthy from the trivial, inaccurate or irrelevant. In so doing, they will both draw on and develop their own powerful knowledge base. Geography teachers will therefore have an important role to play in enabling students to develop their geographical thinking, in order to become capable citizens of the future. Finally, it might be worthwhile reminding ourselves of David Hicks argument that we should be considering not one but alternative futures. This applies very well to curriculum change: there is still a great deal to play for and the outcomes in many respects are uncertain. The GA continues to engage in dialogue with the DfE, Ofqual, awarding bodies and others in order to influence policy decisions. Our collective voice, representing around 6000 memberships, is far greater than the sum of its parts. Joining the GA, maintaining membership and encouraging others to join are all practical ways of helping to shape the future of geography. Alan Kinder

Beyond Burgess: Reinvigorating the Teaching of Urban GeographyRichard Bustin

Cities are amazing places- they are home to more than 50% of the worlds population, they are the focus of national business and are hubs in global networks of information. They are locations of trenchant gang warfare, ghettos, terrorism, and shootings. They are the site of financial dealings and global transactions of international banks. They are sites of rampant consumerism. They usually contain the richest people in a country as well as the poorest- abject poverty sitting next to opulent wealth. The global city of London was the initial setting for the riots of summer 2011, followed by the inspiring Olympic games of 2012. The retail heart of UK cities has been suffering not only from an invasion of multiple chain stores but more recently from competition from online shopping. Many Arabic cities were the location of the anti-government protests that led to a change of regime in the Arab spring of 2011, and national protest and conflict often start and focus in the powerful core of capital cities. Yet how many teachers try to persuade our students that colouring in circles with different colours and wedges is modern urban geography? The Burgess, Hoyt, Mann, Harris and Ulmann and many more models came from a time in geographys past when the subject tried to explain the world through modelling, and a positivist tradition. The Burgess model (below) was based on 1920s industrial Chicago.

Richard Bustin is Head of Geography at City of London Freemens School and a member of the GA ISSIG.

We may need to throw out crusty old favourites in favour of stronger links with other subjects and lessons that challenge students to make geographical sense of their own lives and experiences A Different View

The Burgess land use model.

The model seems to have little to say about 21st Century London; it probably no longer helps people to understand modern Chicago. The modelling approach was popular in school geography when the national curriculum first set the content of school geography at the end of the 1980s. Since then, urban geographers working in universities throughout the world have found new ways to help students understand the complexities of a city, such as humanist and postmodern approaches, which do not seem to have found their way into schools. This has famously been dubbed the great divide between school and university geography. Yet the urban land use models remain the stalwart of many school urban geography courses, and

exam boards at GCSE and A level seem reluctant to move beyond them. Ofsted has repeatedly found the teaching of geography boring and irrelevant (see their reports in 2008 and 2010), and the subject often gets labelled with the colouring in tag. With so much going on in cities that frequently makes headlines, to get students to pour over outdated and irrelevant models, or worse still to try to force the models to fit real modern cities, somehow does not do justice to the wonder of modern urban areas. It is not the models per se that is the problem, a critical look at how geographers used to study cities can be a useful introduction to a course, but in a 21 st century classroom with the broadening of the national curriculum to enable teachers to innovate in the classroom once more, there are other ways to help students engage with urban spaces. These ideas are just a few ways in which teachers as the curriculum makers might want to (re)design urban geography courses. These are not original ideas and many can be found elsewhere and online, and credit has been given where possible.

London Docklands Panorama ( Richard Bustin) Global cities Cities are highly globalised; London probably has more economic links with New York than it does with other UK cities. These links enable places around the world to become networked, and the cities themselves act as hubs within that network. An interesting study can be made about which cities are switched on and highly globalised and which are somehow switched off from global connectivity, and why. This links to global patterns of consumption and trade. Simon Oakes has written useful material which can be of use here. The earth at night photograph is a good way to introduce this to students (search for it online), with pupils trying to identify the global cities. Globalisation of the high streets of UK cities is also highly evident, with retail and banking TNCs taking over former independent shops to create much publicised clone towns, a term coined by the New Economics Forum. A great piece of fieldwork on clone towns is available on the RGS IBG website, based on Guildford in Surrey (search for clone town survey). Power and Control Urban areas are often the sites of struggles between those with power and those without. There are often spaces in urban areas which are privately owned and hostile to outsiders such as gated communities in the suburbs of affluent cities across the world. Some places are public spaces such as parks and walkways, yet even these can be occupied at certain times by specific user groups such as teenagers who could be perceived to be hostile. Some interesting lessons could focus on these different key players in cities and the extent to which they exert their power and influence; from government planning polices and local council rulings providing top down control to youth gangs claiming rights to territories through fear and intimidation. Relics of colonial rule can still be found in many post-colonial cities in the world. The geographies of global terrorism often focus in cities, for example the attacks on the economic

heartland of New York in 2001, or the transport infrastructure of London in 2005. These were significant, geographical, targets. Attacks on embassies in cities are also statements of power and rule, and nationalism. Doreen Massey has written extensively on power and control in place and space. There is a wealth of material online about gang crime that could be used by teachers and students. Unequal cities The difference between the wealthy and the poor is often a feature of urban geography courses and is usually illustrated by focusing on slum developments in poorer cities of the world like Mumbai or Lagos and comparing these to rich cities like London. This can really be brought to significance by contrasting the slums of Mumbai (eg Dharavi slum) with the wealthier parts of the same city, and also comparing a deprived estate in Leeds (for example) with the wealthier parts of the city. Films like Slumdog Millionaire can spark creative responses to places, and census data for the UK can statistically compare neighbourhoods within the same cities. Lived space Cities are inherently about people, and many of the recent advances in urban geography have taken ideas from sociology to try to explain and account for the human phenomena of cities. Cultural geography tries to explain how different cultural and religious groups interact within the same urban locations, and the extent to which they can integrate and create new hybrid cultures evident through food, clothing and music (established Asian culture now has huge influence over many areas of UK life), and the stigmatisation and ghettoisation that can result from a lack of integration such as that which occurred in the Bronx in New York. Lived space tries to look at the ways in which people and places influence each other and the role that marketing has on this interaction. See the work of Ed Soja here on Thirdspace; a couple of articles on how this might be of use to teachers are in the summer 2011 editions of the GAs Geography and Teaching Geography. Iconic structures One way cities try to differentiate themselves from other cities is through iconic buildings and structures, for example the London Eye, the Empire State building, or the seemingly never ending competition to design and build the worlds tallest buildings. Some really engaging geography can try to focus on architecture and what image that tries to promote for the city. This could be modern, clean, and sleek (e.g. Guggenheim museum in Bilbao) or imposing and controlling (e.g. Parliament Palace, Bucharest). Some interesting cross curricular work with art/design technology could occur here. Sustainable cities As sites of human dwelling and massive consumption, cities rely on large hinterlands to sustain them; places to grow the food eaten by the people, places to recycle or destroy the waste produced and to generate the energy consumed. An exploration of these often hidden areas can look at the long term sustainability of these regions. Compare the efficiency, for example, of a suburban recycling centre in a UK city with the ragpicker slum dwellers of developing cities. Some cities in rich parts of the world trade Picture: Guggenheim museum, Bilbao. waste internationally, which results in its transportation around the from Chris Hyde under a creative commons licence. world. A focus on a city like Curitiba in Brazil, (which won a (Image http://www.flickr.com/photos/11309442@N06/1113877311/ Global Sustainable City award in 2010) can enable comparisons sizes/m/in/photostream/) with other places.

Redevelopment and rebranding strategies often try to bring former industrial, abandoned brownfield sites back into use; questioning the sustainability of new developments, as well as assessing the impacts of the redevelopment on the communities who once lived there also provides another angle on this traditional topic. John Widdowson has written some excellent resources on sustainable cities (including a GCSE Toolkit) and has developed some great resources on the geography of the London 2012 Olympics (see the GA website).

Curriculum making Choices need to be made about which urban areas to study. Using local ones that are familiar to students certainly increases relevance, but also consider using ones that are sensational in some way (as Janet Speake would describe). Las Vegas always captures students imaginations, and class time can be used to explore why it seems exciting. Fieldwork into cities gives students valuable first-hand experience, and if safety, time or budgetary constraints exist, then virtual fieldtrips using street view in Google Earth can be a substitute. There are many exciting urban fieldwork options online, and rather than doing the predictable pedestrian or car counts, get students to use video cameras to record an aspect of their urban investigations. The time is right to update urban geography courses, and, to quote David Lambert from the GAs manifesto A Different View (available from the GA website), we may need to throw out crusty old favourites in favour of stronger links with other subjects and lessons that challenge students to make geographical sense of their own lives and experiences. Perhaps if we do this we can get away from the boring and irrelevant geography of Burgess and Hoyt.

Further reading, other than those mentioned above: To update teachers subject knowledge: Book- Tim Hall (2006) Urban geography: 3rd Edition. Routledge. Article- Janet Speake (2007) Sensational Cities, Geography 92 Wall Street (1). Available to download for subscribers on the GA website. (Liverpool, not New York!) For some more ideas on pedagogy: Liz Taylor (2004) Re-Presenting geography. Chris Kington., Cambridge. David Mitchell (editor) Living Geography: exciting futures for teachers and students. Chris Kington publishing. Especially sustainable communities chapter by Angus Willson. Plus, numerous online forums and geography teaching websites.
Photo Rob Morris

Spread a little Appiness - Alan Parkinson

Modern phones are often powerful personal and mobile computers. They can connect students to the Internet, entertain them with games, music or films, access texts and internet messaging. They also allow them to capture HD video and still images and access social media sites. They can even, at a push, make phone calls... The screens of modern phones and tablets (whatever their screen size) are filled with apps (applications). These number in their hundreds of thousands and range in price from my favourite price (free) to hundreds of pounds. Which essential apps should the modern geographer (whether teacher or student) install on their device to enable them to make the most of its potential? Apps are available from a range of app stores. The Apple app store has been joined by Android, Google Play, Windows apps and also the MacApp store. Alan Parkinson is a freelance Geographer having previously worked for the GA and as a Head of Geography for 20 years. Organised smartphone users use folder options, or perhaps create specific screens for particular groups of apps. Some screenshots in this article were borrowed from John Sayers, a teacher from Gateshead who shares a range of ideas for using apps on his blog (see weblinks at the end of the article) These are all based on personal experience in his classroom. Its worth mentioning that apps which are downloaded do not have to be permanently stored on a device. They are stored in the cloud, and can be accessed on devices like an iPad when required and downloaded to the machine when wifi is available. This allows users to take advantage of periods when apps may be free of charge for a short period of time, and download them to a device before temporarily removing them. The Google Play store also has a Refund button which allows a cancellation within 15 minutes. I most often use iOS apps but also have a Nexus 7 tablet to explore the potential of alternative formats, and have enjoyed some of the options that it offers. Here are some possible folders along with a few useful apps that might go into them. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list - this would be impossible as many new useful apps will have appeared in the time between my finishing this article, the article being published, and you reading these words right now. Paul Turner, who currently teaches at Sevenoaks School, produced a very useful poster which showed a range of apps that he used for fieldwork. This is reproduced on page 9 (opposite) and provides a good starter library for anyone interested in taking this a little further.

App (noun)- a selfcontained program or piece of software designed to fulfil a particular purpose; an application (Oxford English Dictionary)

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Geographical Enquiries and Research Some possible apps for developing research skills and narrative creation: Name Flipboard 7 Billion Environment Agency Features Add in a range of news feeds and curate your own themed newspaper Produced by the National Geographic to explore the issue of population growth. The official Flood Alert app allows students to explore flood risk in the local area, and create their own Flood Plans Explore the airspace above the school and discover where planes that can be seen in the sky are actually heading. Bring transport to life. Price Free Free Free iOS iOS iOS / Android Format

FlightRadar24

1.49 and up

iOS/ Android / Windows / Mac

Photography and Video Some possible apps for photography and video manipulation. Digital photography has gone through a major surge in use since phone cameras reached the same standard as the old film cameras in terms of image quality. Good images are essential for engaging pupils and driving the narrative of a lesson, and they can be shared easily using apps like Instagram and Flickr.

Name Snapseed

Features Photo-editing made easy - create great results for starter images and student use. Lots of filters and very simple user interface.

Price Free

Format iOS

Diptic

Blend a number of images together into a series of frames to tell a story or show a progression. A nice way of telling a story. Create a photo collage by selecting an area of the screen, locking it in place, then pointing the camera somewhere else. Easier to use than describe. Record a scene, pause it, rewind it, play it back slow motion and annotate it. Try videoing some breaking waves and analysing the wave type afterwards.

69p

iOS / Android

Freeze Paint Free

Free

iOS

Coachs Eye

2.99

iOS / Android

Fotobabble

Make your photo talk by adding an audio clip to it. Great for fieldwork. Take a photo, or a screenshot and annotate it to your hearts content. Share the results, or add to Evernote.

Free

iOS

Skitch

Free

iOS / Android / Mac App

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Fieldwork Some possible apps for use in fieldwork are shown below:

Name
iGeology / MySoil

Features
Produced by the British Geological Survey - show you the details of the rocks and soil beneath your feet Free

Price

Format
iOS / Android / Google Play (iGeology only) iOS

Field Notes Pro (and Lite)

Allows the creation of a set of fieldwork reports for locations which include lat/long, video, audio and text notes - can then be exported as a PDF

6.99 or Free

iSAY

An app from the University of Salford, which allows sound to be recorded, and descriptive tags to be added before it is added to a collaborative map. Download other peoples sounds as mp3 files.

Free

iOS

Motion X GPS

Produce a record of any journey or walk, complete with images and other media at points of interest creates an elevation profile and exports in GPX format, which can be imported into GIS software plot a river or other route

1.49

iOS

ClickCounter

Use for traffic or pedestrian counts - each click is recorded and can be graphed over time

Free

iOS / similar app in Google Play iOS

MyRegister

Free app created by Scout leader for keeping check of groups and doing head counts during a visit.

Free

Sketch+

Turn an image into a sketch - save time on field sketching :) Over 10 000 missions to carry out over the UK, in what Alan Kinder has called innovative and brave ethnographic fieldwork

69p

iOS

Mission Explore

Free

iOS

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Mapping Mapping in the classroom or in the field. This is an area which mobile devices are becoming increasingly sophisticated at. Some practical considerations Some schools are exploring new options for the use of smartphones and tablets. The idea of Bring your own device (BYOD) is one that is growing in popularity, despite some of the issues with compatibility, and the need for wifi. Name ArcGIS Features Display a range of mapping, and overlay with data. Interacts with ArcGIS online, which has a new subscription option to collect data live in the field (subscription required at around 250 per year) A hefty app which requires a lot of space, but provides a range of virtual globes over which layers and data can be draped. Powerful, up-to-date and authoritative mapping from the creators of the Times Atlas of the World A new app which integrates maps with Google StreetView and provides sat nav functionality too. Price Free Format iOS / Android / Google Play

Atlas by Collins

4.99

iOS

Google Maps

Free

iOS

OS MapFinder

New for January 2013. The app is free, and offers a basic map. Download new tiles for 69p (1:50 000) or 2.49 (1: 25 000) and add / plot routes on OS maps.

Free app but maps cost

iOS / Android coming soon iOS / Android / Google Play

Google Earth

Although Google Earth is not technically a map of course, this app offers wonderful aerial imagery and integration with StreetView. An essential app.

Free

The iPad has started to prove its worth as a classroom device with a number of 1:1 rollouts in schools which have often been documented by the teachers. One of the most useful examples of this is the work of Fraser Speirs, who works at the Cedars School in Scotland, but this has been joined by many more during 2012/13. If using a lot of machines, managing the apps that are installed and user accounts can be difficult. Apple Configurator app has recently been launched to make this process easier to organise, and this Snapguide provides the details for those of you who may be interested in organising a trial of multiple devices: http://snapguide.com/guides/use-apple-configurator/ The Snapguide App itself is interesting, a free app which could be used by students to create their own how to... guide. There are a number of research projects that are exploring the potential of apps. Most of these are keen to stress that the pedagogy comes before the technology. The Enhancing Fieldwork Learning project - supported by Higher Education Agency - is one of these. Although it involves a number of lecturers from higher education, the ideas are transferable into the classroom, and I attended a very interesting showcase event, where numerous apps were trialled in the field. See later for the website where you can explore these ideas yourself.

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John Sayers refers to the SAMR model when he considers whether an app is having an impact on teaching and learning or not, and is wary of using those that dont. The SAMR sequence refers to whether the app is used for one of the following things: Substition - to replace an existing tool Augmentation - to replace an existing tool, but with some improvement Modification - to allow a task to be redesigned and improved as a result Redefinition - to create a new task which previously was not possible There are several places for apps in the classroom, but it is important for their use to move beyond the S, which would be the equivalent of just using an interactive whiteboard to display powerpoint slides. Its also worth noting the rise of games based learning. Many educators are using games for educational purposes. New and recent apps One particular useful and impressive application from the Mac App Store is the Reflection app, which costs about 10. This requires an Apple Mac to work, which is of course not universally available, but there are similar apps available for Windows laptops. WiFi is needed for this to work, but it is able to mirror the display from a device onto the screen of an Apple laptop or desktop, along with any sounds that are included. The resulting images could be displayed using a data projector, so that students could use an iPad and everyone in the class could see what they are doing. In this way, students are creating the learning and the resources, perhaps using another laptop-based web-app like Triptico, which offers a range of interactive tools to create classroom resources. Some apps are developed to be used offline. One recent app which was designed to be used in this way is the Atlas by Collins app. This was launched in October 2012 at the price of 4.99. It is a large app at over 600 Mb, and requires an iPad 2 and above or iPhone 4 and above. It offers a range of globes with information on tens of thousands of places around the world, and a range of datasets which can be interrogated. A classy app. If you have further questions on the use of apps, or are already running a 1:1 tablet / mobile device scheme and would like to invite me in to see it in action, please get in touch. My e-mail is at the end of the article. Weblinks John Sayers blog: http://sayersjohn.blogspot.co.uk/ The VITAL Geography portal which I manage: http://www.vital.ac.uk/portals has a range of app suggestions and you can also watch and listen to an hour-long discussion on apps here: http://www.vital.ac.uk/events/spread-littleappiness The Living Geography blog: http://livinggeography.blogspot.com has many app recommendations. Search using the box in the top left of the screen. Subscribe to the blog to hear all the latest geography news first. Enhancing Fieldwork Learning Project website: http://www.enhancingfieldwork.org.uk/ David Rogers blog (plenty on mobile learning and other things): http://daviderogers.blogspot.com The SAMR model was developed by Ruben R. Puentedura, Ph.D, who also created the image used in the article. I am also grateful to John Sayers, who has shared screenshots to show how he organises the apps on his iPad. I can be contacted at a.parkinson@gmail.com and you can follow me at @GeoBlogs on Twitter.

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Undertaking fieldwork in sub-Saharan Africa: A water survey of the Mtunthama Region of MalawiSteve Fox

In July 2012, a party of eighteen pupils from Shrewsbury School travelled to Malawi in order to undertake work at an orphanage, hospital and school that are being run with the support of a charity called Medic Malawi. Building on a preliminary investigation undertaken by staff and pupils of Wrekin College, a small group of volunteers were tasked with finding out precisely how the locals obtain their water, what they use it for and in collaboration with a Shropshire-based hydrological consultancy company, Hafren Water whether or not it might be possible to improve supplies in the future. The fieldwork Steve Fox teaches Geography at Shrewsbury School In order to assess the current situation, a questionnaire was undertaken at St. Andrews Hospital in which patients who were waiting for treatment or their relatives were asked where they got their water from, how much they paid and whether or not their sources ever ran dry. Quite remarkably, every single person who was approached answered each question to the best of their ability, despite the process taking twice as long as would have been the case had there been no need for translation a response rate that is rarely experienced in the UK! The problem then was trying to decipher place names and then to accurately locate each respondents home town as it was very hard to source maps of the area. Far more accurate information was obtained by visiting as many local villages as possible. At each settlement, a portable dipmeter was used to determine the height of the water table below wells and the flow rate of water from pumps and taps was measured. A photographic record was made of all of the wells, pumps and tapstands that could be found and their precise location was recorded using a hand-help Global Positioning System (GPS). Finally, a sample of local residents was asked questions similar to those posed at the hospital. Kamuzu Academy Being fortunate enough to be able to stay in the girls boarding house at Kamuzu Academy, we had the luxury of virtually limitless volumes of fresh, clean drinking water on tap throughout our stay in one of the poorest countries in the World. Rather unusually, Kamuzu Academy has a dedicated Water Supervisor who employs a team of eighteen full-time workers who are tasked with maintaining water supplies not only for the staff and pupils at the school but also to a number of key establishments in the surrounding area. Between them, they operate a water supply system consisting of a large reservoir, a smaller ornamental lake, two rapid gravity sand filters and even a rudimentary sewage treatment works. Having been installed before the school was officially opened in 1981 by the then President of Malawi, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, it must have been very advanced in its day but it is now beginning to show significant signs of ageing and has been suffering from a lack of routine maintenance since losing unequivocal government support when Banda died in 1997.

A UK-based charity recently asked a party of school pupils to investigate the problems associated with water supply in a remote part of one of the poorest countries in the World. How did they undertake this fieldwork and what did they find?

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The reservoir As Shrewsbury is situated so close to Wales, I had expected the 1.3km long reservoir to be located in an upland area (as is the case with the reservoirs at Bala, Vrynwy and Clywedog etc.) but the fact that Kamuzu Academy sits on a very dry plateau at an altitude of over 1100m meant that, in actual fact, the reservoir had to be sited at the bottom of a valley some 12 kilometres away from and over 130m below the main school buildings. No wonder the diesel pump that had originally been installed in 1982 could not cope! It had subsequently been replaced by two electric pumps, each of which had the capacity to pump 15,000 litres of water per hour had they been working but one was KamuzuAcademyThe Eton of Africa lacking a number of crucial parts so, for the duration of our visit, the entire water supply system was relying on just one pump that had to operate for 22 hours every day. Three engineers worked 8-hour shifts through the night to make sure that sufficient water was supplied either to the ornamental lake in front of Kamuzu Academy or, in untreated form, to the vegetable gardens that supply the students and teachers with a wide range of fresh produce: the 1000 chickens kept in the poultry house lay between 700 and 800 eggs per day, for instance, but only if they are provided with 3 3.5 tonnes of feed per month. Water treatment works Three more pumps are needed to transfer water from the ornamental lake to two purification plants (one on the school site and another off site) and the completely integrated irrigation system that keeps the school grounds looking so lush and fertile. The two rapid gravity sand filters each process 7000 litres per hour. After having been chlorinated, this water is temporarily stored in 66,000 litre storage tanks for distribution around the school site (classrooms, boarding accommodation, staff housing, a clinic and even two swimming pools) and, via 110mm pipes, to a wide range of establishments off site (St. Andrews hospital, All Saints school, Wrekin orphanage, Mtunthama market, a number of village tapstands and, very sensibly, the local police unit!). Wastewater generally feeds into septic tanks which are emptied roughly once a year by the town assembly but Kamuzu Academy itself has a series of four settling tanks which contain progressively fresher water (as monitored by different species of fish which have been deliberately introduced into the ponds for precisely that purpose). These were last emptied roughly three years ago. The effluent is eventually discharged into a local stream, at which point, local people are able to grow copious quantities of vegetables because the ground is not just moist but also highly fertile. Tapstands The off-site water treatment works provides clean water to a large proportion of the local community, supplying water throughout the year to 90 staff houses and 160 private homes in Mtunthama; 20 houses and a tapstand in Chota village, 8 houses and a tapstand in Mphnongo village and a wide range of enterprises such as Mtunthama market and the hospital, school and orphanage supported by Medic Malawi. Its a much -appreciated service which works pretty well most of the time, although a growth in demand is now beginning to stretch water supplies to their absolute limit. At the orphanage, for instance, the gardener only has access to water for about two hours per day. This is enough to irrigate a very well -tended vegetable patch which supplies fresh vegetables to the 70 or so orphans and staff. Were there to be more water at his disposal, the gardener would be capable of growing surplus fruit and vegetables for sale at the local market: there is plenty of land available, the only limiting factor being the cost and availability of water.

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Pumps In those villages located beyond the reach of Kamuzu Academys pipelines, residents usually get their water from boreholes using AfriDev pumps. These seem to have been installed pretty extensively over the past 20 years or so either by the government or by NGOs such as the US Peace Corps and the Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF), a scheme supported by the World Bank. The water from such hand pumps is free and, apparently, safe although queuing can be quite a significant problem and the pumps occasionally break down altogether. Spare parts were relatively expensive and occasionally, engineers had to be called out from Kasungu, the regional capital, to replace vital components such as axles. As a result, certain pumps develop a good reputation and become popular owing to the perceived quality of the water and/or the speed of flow. Wells In some of the outlying townships, neither taps nor pumps were available so the locals had to sink their own wells. Despite having been dug by hand, these could occasionally reach depths of over 15 metres although wells of roughly 8 metres were more common because the water table was met at an average depth of 7.5 metres below the surface. Most were protected by makeshift covers to stop debris from entering and chlorine tablets were thrown in on a monthly basis but, judging by the quality of both the buckets and the ropes being used, this could not have prevented the water quality from being quite poor. Typically, a family would extract about 70 100 litres of water per day for drinking, cooking and washing from such a well and, quite often, the owners would also allow their neighbours to extract similar amounts without charge.

One of the expeditioners tending a highly productive vegetable patch, the produce from which

was immediately put to good use by other expeditioners who were helping to cook lunch for 70

Dambos Although there is very little surface water in this part of Malawi, there are numerous dry valleys in which the water table is much closer to the surface. In these dambo areas, locals can not only grow fruits and vegetables quite intensively but they can also dig shallow wells to provide water for other uses. Some farmers have dug linear troughs near the centre of the dambo so that watering their cabbages, beans, tomatoes and sweet potatoes is not normally necessary until the very height of the dry season. The water in a dambo is generally not clean enough for human consumption but can be used for washing and is occasionally drunk when no better option is available.

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Conclusion The community located in the vicinity of Kamuzu Academy clearly derive great benefit from the availability of fresh, clean drinking water sourced from a large reservoir which never runs dry and from a series of treatment works and pipes which have served them well for over thirty years. Those people living in outlying districts are rather less fortunate in that they either have to queue at a pump for clean water or risk becoming ill by drinking water from a well. The hospital, school and orphanage that are supported by Medic Malawi are fortunate to be supplied by Kamuzu Academy at the moment but would be well-advised to try to secure their own supply in the future as their demand for water, inevitably, grows. Acknowledgements Steven Cale, Wrekin College Stephen Drew, Medic Malawi Dr. Tim Foulger, Shrewsbury School Geography Faculty Fyson Kanjira and Ojes Mwela ,Kamuzu Academy Chris Leake, Hafren Water A Damboshared by three farmers

All photos Steve Fox

Medic Malawi is a small charity, funding a hospital in Mtunthama, rural Malawi, which opened in 2001, together with a clinic for feeding the malnourished and an orphanage for 70 children. This charity is special because: Every penny raised goes to Malawi there are no UK administration costs or salaries. We seek to involve supporters and volunteers and especially teenagers in the actions of the charity, experiencing Africa for themselves and sharing time with the people in Mtunthama. It is focused on one district, which offers continuity, regular contact and transparency. Shrewsbury School support Medic Malawi through regular charity events and by pupils visiting Malawi every other year to work on various projects in the community. Medic Malawi is run by the former head of Wrekin College in Shropshire, Stephen Drew. He can be contacted at medicmalawi@gmail.com Website: www. medicmalawi.org

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The Future of Fieldwork: an FSC perspective - Rob Lucas

Fieldwork is a vital ingredient of the geography that is taught in our schools and teaches the children a wide variety of both geographical and life skills not my words but those of the ISSIG chair. Although written about common entrance, the sentiment applies throughout the full age range and is particularly relevant in the context of the reforms being discussed at GSCE and A level. In various meetings with the Secretary of State for Education, Schools Minister and Lord Hill (who has outdoor learning as part of his portfolio), it is clear they are all hugely supportive of fieldwork and see it as an essential part of every geography students learning. It is also clear that they are not keen on using assessment as a means of dictating approaches to teaching and learning. This is unlikely to prove to be a barrier to the amount of fieldwork being undertaken by independent schools as many already do more fieldwork than is required for the test and often choose to do specifications where fieldwork is more prominent. It is quite possible that the reforms may be perceived as taking us back to the late 70s and early 80s (and my early days as a field tutor), when fieldwork was carried out for precisely the reasons set out in the opening quote. As long as it delivers inspiring geography that may be no bad thing. Courses were largely week long affairs and, if memory serves me correctly, a typical course would include full days on fluvial geomorphology; soils and hydrology; coastal erosion; coastal deposition; settlements, and slopes and tor formation. Some of these topics are no longer in the current specifications but many others have been introduced, especially the people environment interactions introduced to fieldwork largely through the Avery Hill and 16-19 geography projects. Taking a trip down memory lane is deliberate because I anticipate that much of the fieldwork we will be undertaking post 2014/15 will see a similar approach. It will, of course, be updated in terms of theory, learning approaches and technology but, at A-level, will tackle one of the major current issues of bridging the gap between school and university. For much of physical geography the depth of investigation, range of skills employed and sophistication of equipment used is less than it was 30 years ago. Over the same period, university investigations have gone in the opposite direction. Perhaps a day not to be doing Rivers fieldwork?

Rob Lucas is the Chief Executive Officer of the Field Studies Council

We need to make geography fieldwork both real and relevant it underpins much of how industry and society functions but we rarely make that link effectively

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Much of the innovation in school geography fieldwork has been in the built environment which is hugely improved compared to the drab land use transects I remember (possibly an early example of a good data set being given higher priority than good geography!). We need to make geography fieldwork both real and relevant it underpins much of how industry and society functions but we rarely make that link effectively. Google Earth may be appropriate at KS3 and even GCSE, and has specific uses beyond this, but by A-level full blown GIS packages should be the norm. We should be making more use of remote data collection to supplement that collected first hand and using fieldwork to join up the geographical landscape rather than reduce it to a data set about a meander. Freeing up the curriculum and reducing the teaching time taken up by assessment will present more opportunities for fieldwork. There are good reasons for doing fieldwork at almost any time of year and with geography beginning at the classroom door, whether on the way in or out, the opportunities for first hand experiences have never been greater. The new GCSE is likely to encourage going beyond the at times formulaic one day rivers one day urban fieldwork and opportunities for supported independent learning (especially in the summer period) may become far more common at A-level. Our real challenge is to make fieldwork a seamless part of the geography experience and not a bolt-on accessory, all too often sacrificed on the false premise that a more effective learning experience can be achieved by wading through the next chapter of the set text. Geography fieldwork has evolved enormously over the last 30 years and we must maintain the creativity which now regularly sees students in the field using iPads and other resources to augment their learning whilst getting back to the development of real life skills which geography is uniquely placed to deliver. We look forward to working with you over the coming months to achieve this common goal.

Questionnaires in Aberystwythone of last summers few dry days!

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Theres much more to Sat Nav than Sat Nav blunders - Dr. Janet Speake
Satellite Navigation (Sat Nav) technologies are increasingly part of everyday wayfinding. Sat Nav enabled smart phones and in-vehicle systems are used by an ever widening range of people for finding their way around places which are new or unfamiliar to them. Marketed as a straight forward electronic navigation tool, Sat Nav also represents the first general adoption of location-aware systems (also called egocentric and animated multimodal me maps) for navigation and journey planning. As a navigation tool, Sat Nav also signals a change in the (re)presentation of cartographic information. In 2009, there were more than 150 million Sat Nav devices, systems and applications globally (Berg Insight nd). The annual tracking survey by NAVTEQ showed that between 2009 and 2010 consumer experience of Sat Nav devices, systems and applications increased in 13 countries (NAVTEQ, 2011). Over half of consumer respondents in Australia, China, France, Germany and the UK had experience of Sat Nav systems and devices. Comparative figures for the USA were 46%; Indonesia, 35%; Brazil, Dr Janet Speake is a Senior 33%; Mexico, 25% and India, 17%. Consumer respondents had more experience of Lecturer in Human Geog- portable devices than in-vehicle systems and Nat Nav enabled mobile phones and smart phones. More recent findings by Mintel (2012) suggest that personal use of smart raphy at Liverpool Hope phones and use of on-line maps is increasing rapidly. University. Despite the advantages of Sat Nav in assisting navigation, there is a tendency for people in general and the media more specifically, to concentrate on the disadvantages. Headlines such as Sat Nav blunder takes Christmas shoppers to Lille Belgium instead of France , Sat Nav blunder as trucker gets stuck up woodland path and Sat Nav blamed yet again for wedged lorry are common. They concentrate on the actual and potential risks of distractions created by the system, over-dependence on the technology, reduced spatial awareness and dependency on sometimes out-dated, underlying cartographic information. We have found that the use of Sat Nav technologies is altering peoples understandings of what maps are and do The first Sat Nav summit was convened by the UK government, Department for Transport in March 2012 (Department for Transport, 2012) to attempt to sort out some of the most obvious problems associated with Sat Nav use. The main issues it looked into were 1. Cutting down the number and seriousness of blunders associated with users following inappropriate directions and ending up in dangerous driving situations and 2. Creating better opportunities for users to update This lorry got stuck in November 2012 in Plythe digital mapping base regularly and mouth affordably. Photo BBC In recent research carried out at Liverpool Hope Universitys geography department (Axon, Speake and Crawford, 2012) we have found that there is considerably more to Sat Nav use than the general negativities reported in the press, and often cited by individual users (especially drivers). Importantly, we have found that Sat Nav is altering peoples behaviours as they wayfind and is changing the practices and processes of navigating. Positive attributes of Sat Nav were considered to be navigational capacity, to provide direct and quick routes, the speed and ease of use and portability and clarity of using Sat Nav technology.

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Negative characteristics of Sat Nav technologies were reported to be safety and financial attributes, especially that they were costly, both in terms of initial purchase and acquiring mapping updates. Perhaps even more significantly, we have found that the use of Sat Nav technologies is altering peoples understandings of what maps are and do. We have explored first year geography undergraduates experiences of, and attitudes towards, Sat Nav use as well as its effects on cartographic literacy and spatial awareness. This work has started to address a major gap in the existing geographical literature. Key findings of our work to date are that digital spatial representations are not seen, or used in the same way as traditional technologies of navigation. Importantly, these representations are not considered to be maps like traditional paper-based maps but as something different. Sat Nav technologies are preferred to traditional maps, with some students claiming for example, I never use maps anymore and I only use Sat Nav. They tend to engage passively with traditional paper based maps but actively with Sat Nav technologies. The use of Sat Nav generates multisensory engagements in ways not present in traditional map reading. The visual recognition of symbols and signs is being replaced by greater dependence on verbal instruction. There are clear concerns that the use of Sat Nav might reduce the ability to interpret spatial data and read traditional maps. This, students recognise, by stating that they had lost, or were losing, their map reading abilities and that, because they did not now need to use paper-based maps regularly, they were getting out of practice. Some students show concern about their actual or potential loss of skills in handling spatial data. However, many are not worried by it at all and see it as just a natural outcome of having access to new, different and generally effective, navigational technologies. We argue that Sat Nav is having major spatial and cartographic impacts which, to date, have been under-reported. Our on-going research into engagement with Sat Nav technologies and the implications for cartographic literacy and spatial awareness suggest very strongly that there is a role for geographers to participate more fully in these emerging dialogues. With the seemingly inexorable rise of Sat Nav enabled smart phones, and increasing rates of adoption and use by younger users, there are potentially challenging implications for the levels of graphicacy and spatial awareness in school and college students. For some of them, the only place that they will encounter the need to read traditional maps may be in the classroom as part of their school based learning experience. The challenges for the future of map reading and the role of maps in geography and in the geography classroom are therefore significant and it is now timely for discussion and debate within the geography community to be moved forwards. References Axon, S., Speake, J. and Crawford, K. (2012) At the next junction, turn left: attitudes towards Sat Nav Use, Area 44.2: 170-177 Berg Insight (nd) Personal navigation devices: executive summary (http://www.berginsight.com/ ReportPDFsummary/bi-pnd3-sum.pdf) (accessed 10 June 2011) Department for Transport (2012) Governments First Sat Nav Summit 6th March 2012. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/governments-first-satnav-summit (accessed 15th November 2012) Mintel (2012) Digital trends spring UK-April 2012, http://oxygen.mintel.com/display/590111 (accessed 15th November 2012). NAVTEQ (2011) NAVTEQ reveals 2010 research results on the state of navigation (http://press.navteq.com/ index.php?s=4260&item=25821) (accessed 15 November 2012).

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Geography Fieldwork at Common Entrance- Nik Miller

The importance of Fieldwork Fieldwork is at the core of all good Geography. It is what keeps Geography relevant and exciting both to teach and learn. Many subjects become abstract and stale in the classroom, with our subject we can just look out of the window or go out through the door to see, feel and touch real Geography. Most importantly, fieldwork is fun! These are changing times in Prep School Geography and teachers have had to cope with numerous alterations and tweaks in their syllabus. The syllabus focused on case studies which meant that pupils could get a high score just by memorising knowledge and demonstrating little geographical understanding. The CE syllabus is under review at the present time and it is set to champion more understanding and future examination papers promise to contain more data response and interpretation style questions. Enquiry geography facilitates understanding by applying knowledge to real examples in real places and fieldwork is the ultimate expression of geographical enquiry. Fieldwork at Common Entrance Nik Miller is the Head of Geography at Brambletye School, East Grinstead and IAPS Subject Leader for Geography Changes at GCSE, A Level and IB have moved the focus of assessing fieldwork on the ability of a candidate to collect and apply data without ever going through the whole process of reporting their findings in full. The importance of fieldwork write-up at Common Entrance has been questioned, but the determination of the prep school teachers across the country and some senior school Heads of Department have ensured that it has kept its place in the 13+ examinations. This is reflected in the 20% value that it still contributes to candidates final mark. Although it contributes to one fifth of a pupils score, there is no way that work on this one write-up should take up one fifth of their lesson time. The guidelines are very clear that the piece of work should be less than a thousand words and test a simple hypothesis. It should show the senior school how much geographical understanding a pupil has rather than regurgitating knowledge in an old-style project. This does mean that work should be all the pupils own work and excessive teacher or parent involvement is counter-productive. The high marks do tend to encourage some parents and teachers to encourage children to over-egg their work and try to produce something more akin to an A Level. Most senior schools use the fieldwork as a differentiation tool and so producing a cohort of nearly identical write-ups is not helpful, as well as a little tedious to read through. The difference between getting 60% (12/20) and 80% (16/20) in the fieldwork section only accounts for four marks in the whole scheme of things, but it really helps the person marking get a feel for the candidates true knowledge and understanding. The marks available are disproportional to the amount of work put into that one piece of work but it should be seen as a summary of that childs fieldwork and a reflection of their geographical understanding. Also, if the percentage dropped below 20% then there would be numerous Directors of Studies around the country asking their Heads of Geography why they need to do fieldwork anymore. Fitting fieldwork in Different schools have different ways of carrying out fieldwork. Some carry out regular oneday trips others put all of their eggs in one basket and take the children away for a week. Fieldwork should be a regular tool used in delivering the geography curriculum and in most cases it can be done around the school grounds. Some schools give the pupils some ideas, some resources and some guidance and then expect the children carry out the fieldwork themselves over a holiday. This latter works well in that the pupils really own the material and it is much more interesting for the senior schools. The big disadvantage with this approach is that one or two pushy parents can get over-involved and introduce concepts far outside their childs understanding in order to try to get full marks. The key point is that the children must physically collect the data themselves and understand why they have collected the data.

Fieldwork should be a regular tool used in delivering the geography curriculum

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What makes a good fieldwork write-up? As already stated, the write-up should be short and concise, no more than ten pages and have a single, simple hypothesis (perhaps a second linked one if really needed). Although geographical investigations can rely on qualitative data, it is much easier at this stage to use quantitative data. The structure of the fieldwork should be rigorous with clearly separated sections. This has now been very clearly stated in the most recent ISEB guidelines for CE fieldwork. The write-up must be divided into the following parts: Hypothesis The hypothesis is a simple statement that can be proved to be true or false. It should pertain to some element of the CE Syllabus but if the teacher has a particular passion or there is a hot local issue, then there is nothing wrong with going off-piste. Ideally it should also contain some geographical terms that appear in the CE glossary. Keep the ideas simple and keep it to the local area. Introduction This section has a tendency to dominate the fieldwork. Simply put it should set the context for the reader. An entire local history of the area or a detailed description of its flora and fauna is not necessary. Just a simple explanation of any geographical terms in the hypothesis will suffice coupled with an explanation of why the hypothesis should be proved true (or in some cases, false) and what data will need to be collected. There must be a location map in this section. Any photographs must be useful and used, ideally with annotations and helpful captions to show the reader why they are there. The photo-album approach just annoys the examiner: if it is not relevant to the hypothesis then do not include it. Method This should be a simple description of how the data was collected. The inclusion of annotated diagrams and photographs can make this section more interesting that a dull we did this list. Results The results should be presented graphically as a land use map or graph. Only graphs relevant to the hypothesis should be included and only one graph for each set of information: representing the same data as a bar graph, line graph, 3D area graph and a pie chart just tells the examiner that the child does not understand what the data means. If there are any clear trends or anomalies, it is a good idea to draw attention to them on the graph with an annotation or two. Analysis This section can be put into the results section or the conclusion section but it must be in the write-up. The candidate must show that they understand the data that they have collected and what it means. A description of each graph and both a description and a plausible explanation of any trends and anomalies discovered. This is probably the most important section in the project as far as the examiners are concerned as it demonstrates the candidates true level of geographical understanding. Conclusion A simple statement initially: has the hypothesis been proved true or false? If there are any interesting findings such as the hypothesis is generally true but there were one or two odd readings then they can be further elaborated upon here but this should not repeat anything covered in the analysis. Evaluation A concise evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the method employed should be offered and some suggestions as to how, were the investigation to be repeated, the collection of data could be improved upon. With unlimited resources and time, what other data could be collected to test the hypothesis more effectively? Summary Fieldwork is a vitally important tool for teaching and learning good geography in prep schools, though there is no ideal way that fieldwork fits into the school calendar but it must form an integral part of all geography schemes of work. Fieldwork carried out by pupils should support and, in some cases, extend their syllabus content. We should ensure that hypothesis must be simple and easily tested with data that the children can easily collect and understand. Familiarity with the structure of the write-up should help pupils avoid irrelevant information which does not help them to prove or disprove their hypotheses.

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Notes and Queries is published by the Geographical Association Independent Schools Special Interest Group Edited by Rob Morris, Geography Faculty, Shrewsbury School and printed by Shrewsbury School Reprographics Department All articles are the copyright of the individual authors and should not be used with out their permission GAISSIG 2013