GEOGRAPHERS GO PLACES!!!
On Monday 19th April Grade 11 geography students carried out fieldwork in central Mosta. In order to fulfil the requirements of most examination boards including SEC, students must undertake fieldwork enquiry. Let us consider these two words.
Fieldwork might engender images of leafy green pastures, but it may be carried out, as in this case, in the middle of a town. The main criterion is that it is work done outside of the classroom and in this sense it should make geography come to life and allow students to put things they have learned into context. It bridges the divide between the classroom and the real world.
The enquiry approach encourages the development of skills such as formulating questions, observational skills, data collection, data analysis and investigative skills. All of these should help the student as they progress from the world of education to that of work; they are some of the transferable skills we hear so much about today.
It is quite probable that the career path of young people at school now will be very different to that of their parents with more and more changing paths during their working life and the more transferable skills we equip them with the better. It may seem a huge jump from carrying out questionnaires and mapping land use in Mosta to changing careers at some point in the future, but there is a link if you care to look.
Elizabeth Layfield Bell
Geography Teacher
San Andrea Senior School