On site fieldwork Part 1

Year 7 are starting the new unit: Portsmouth: our amazing place. This year all KS 3 schemes of work will not end with an assessment. This is to encourage pupils to make links between units. I think that if a unit ends with an assessment pupils are more likely to compartmentalize the information. For example, in Year 8, Rainforest's is followed by Tourism in the Rainforest with sustainability being the key concept that runs through both units.

Year 7 start off with Amazing Places and the Place, Space and Scale concepts will run through into the next unit. The Year 7 unit is available here. s part of the new unit I hope to report on the different fieldwork techniques used with Year 7. To me, fieldwork should be small scale and embedded into the curriculum - within an hour lesson it's really easy to get out of the classroom.

This unit will employ lots of on-site and local area fieldwork as well as integrating the use of maps, both electronic and paper, and GIS. In a trial this year, we will be removing the traditional OS map skills lessons and instead exploring the skills when we need them during the unit.

To start off with Year 7 will be exploring he use of satellite images by taking part in some Photo Orienteering. Pupils try to spot where the photo was taken and then mark it on a GE image of the school site. As part of the exercise pupils will also evaluate how useful the satellite image was for this sort of exercise and compare its use with a sketch map of the school site and the council's street level plan. This is to ensure that pupils know the strengths and weaknesses of each type of map. Also, it's vital that any evaluation is linked to a real job so the evaluation will be carried out from the point of view of a street planner and an orienteering fanatic.

Finally, using some of the skills learnt on RGS GE training courses, the answers will be shown to the class as a GE tour. Get the idea here:

Photo Orienteering

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