Fieldwork in the school grounds

The school grounds offer tremendous opportunities for conducting fieldwork and for supporting the curriculum. Many children thrive outside the classroom environment and it is important that outdoor education is clearly embedded within our teaching programmes.

Outdoor education provides students with the opportunity to apply their knowledge and to ask questions to strengthen their understanding of geographical principles and concepts. Students can be encouraged to ask questions (the first stage in devising fieldwork) and suggest fieldwork strategies. They can practice using equipment before undertaking fieldwork further afield.

School grounds can offer a range of possibilities for fieldwork:

• Microclimates - studying temperature, wind speed and wind direction works really well given the wide variety of locations and ground surfaces available within school grounds
• Ecosystems - hedges, trees and ponds provide opportunities for studying aspects of ecosystems. Soil pits can be dug to investigate soils or tree lichens investigated as indicators of pollution
• Weathering - weathering of buildings, particularly natural stone walls, can work well. The Rahn scale can be applied and photos used to indicate different intensities and vulnerabilities to weathering processes.
• Litter surveys -this can introduce children to simple data collection techniques, mapping, analysis and evaluation

On this page we will be providing ideas and suggestions to support fieldwork in the school grounds.