Geographical Applications: Fieldwork Enquiry | AQA GCSE Geography (8035)

Geographical Applications: Fieldwork Enquiry

105 questions
10 subtopics
Paper 3
Paper 3

Geographical Applications: Fieldwork Enquiry is examined in Paper 3, Geographical applications.

It covers Choosing an enquiry question, its theory and its sources, risk assessment in fieldwork, primary and secondary data, and sampling methods, justifying your data collection methods, Choosing and using presentation methods, describing, analysing and explaining fieldwork results, anomalies in fieldwork data, Drawing conclusions from an enquiry, evaluating an enquiry: problems, limitations and missing data and how reliable were your conclusions?.

Sample questions from Geographical Applications: Fieldwork Enquiry

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

Choosing an enquiry question, its theory and its sources

What is meant by the theory or concept that underpins an enquiry?

Show the answer
The established geographical idea or model that the fieldwork sets out to test in a real place.
Risk assessment in fieldwork

How can the risk of slipping or being swept away in a river be reduced?

Show the answer
Work only at shallow, slow-flowing sites, wear boots with grip, never enter the water alone, and stay supervised with everyone accounted for.
Primary and secondary data, and sampling methods

Which kinds of physical data could be measured in the field?

Show the answer
Channel width, depth and velocity, beach gradient, pebble size and roundness, soil moisture, air temperature and wind speed.
Justifying your data collection methods

Why is every reading repeated at a site and a mean taken?

Show the answer
Because a single reading can be thrown off by a one-off such as an eddy or a large stone, and the mean of several readings is closer to the true value.
Choosing and using presentation methods

What is a flow line map, and what does it show?

Show the answer
A map on which arrows follow the routes taken by traffic, shoppers or migrants, the width of each arrow being proportional to the number moving along it.
Describing, analysing and explaining fieldwork results

What is a positive correlation between two sets of fieldwork data?

Show the answer
As one variable increases, the other increases as well.
Anomalies in fieldwork data

What kinds of thing cause genuine anomalies in physical fieldwork?

Show the answer
A local feature interrupting the natural pattern, such as a tributary joining, a weir or bridge, an outcrop of harder rock, or a sea wall or groyne on a beach.
Drawing conclusions from an enquiry

What should be said about a hypothesis when the conclusion is reached?

Show the answer
Whether the data supports it, rejects it, or supports it only in part, and which evidence leads to that judgement.

The 10 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Choosing an enquiry question, its theory and its sources	What a hypothesis is, how to choose a measurable, focused and realistic enquiry question, the theory behind it such as the Bradshaw model, the primary and secondary evidence it can use, and checking a site is suitable.	12
Risk assessment in fieldwork	What a risk assessment records, the hazards of fieldwork in rivers, on coasts and in town centres, the risks from weather and becoming separated, and the precautions that reduce each one.	10
Primary and secondary data, and sampling methods	Primary and secondary data and their strengths and weaknesses, the physical and human data that can be collected in the field, deciding what is worth measuring, and systematic, random and stratified sampling.	12
Justifying your data collection methods	Describing a method against justifying it, measuring river velocity, repeat readings and means, fixed-time pedestrian counts, environmental quality surveys, closed and open questionnaire questions, and why methods stay the same at every site.	10
Choosing and using presentation methods	Visual, graphical and cartographic methods for fieldwork data, located bar charts, choropleth and flow line maps, scatter graphs, pie charts and transects, what every graph and map must carry, and adapting a technique to fit the data.	10
Describing, analysing and explaining fieldwork results	Describing, analysing and explaining results, what a good description of a graph includes, positive and negative correlation and why it does not prove cause, and the mean, median, mode, range and interquartile range.	11
Anomalies in fieldwork data	What an anomaly is and how to spot one on a graph, genuine anomalies in river, coast and human surveys, anomalies caused by error, why they are explained rather than deleted, and how repeat readings help.	10
Drawing conclusions from an enquiry	What a conclusion must do: answer the original question with evidence, judge the hypothesis, refer back to theory, mention anomalies and respect the limits of place and time, and how a conclusion differs from an evaluation.	10
Evaluating an enquiry: problems, limitations and missing data	Why an enquiry is evaluated, problems in measuring physical data, inconsistency between collectors, questionnaire problems, limitations such as a single day or few readings, and the further data that would strengthen a river or city enquiry.	10
How reliable were your conclusions?	Reliable against accurate data, what makes fieldwork data more reliable, sample size, human error and judgement-based methods, why conclusions from a few sites cannot be stretched to a whole area, and judging how far a conclusion can be trusted.	10

Geographical Applications: Fieldwork Enquiry is 105 of the 1,429 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £7

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.