Key term
AQA GCSE Geography 8035
Climate Change
Coastal Landscapes in the UKUK landscape option
Topic overviewWaves and coastal processes: weathering, mass movement, erosion, transport and depositionCoastal landforms of erosion and depositionIdentifying landforms on a stretch of UK coastlineCoastal management: hard and soft engineering, and a UK schemeManaging the Holderness coast at Mappleton
Cold EnvironmentsLiving world option
Ecosystems
EnergyResource option
FoodResource option
Geographical Applications: Fieldwork Enquiry
Topic overviewChoosing an enquiry question, its theory and its sourcesRisk assessment in fieldworkPrimary and secondary data, and sampling methodsJustifying your data collection methodsChoosing and using presentation methodsDescribing, analysing and explaining fieldwork resultsAnomalies in fieldwork dataDrawing conclusions from an enquiryEvaluating an enquiry: problems, limitations and missing dataHow reliable were your conclusions?
Geographical Skills
Topic overviewAtlas maps: coordinates, distributions and patternsReading thematic maps for physical and human associationsOS maps: scale, grid references, distance and directionOS maps: gradient, contours and landscape featuresOS maps: relief, cross sections and drawing inferencesOS maps: transects, landscape description and human activityComparing maps, sketch maps and photographsDescribing landscapes from photographs, and annotating themChoosing and constructing the right graph or chartCompleting choropleth, isoline, dot, desire-line and flow mapsReading population pyramids, choropleth and flow-line mapsNumber, scale, proportion and ratio, and designing data sheetsDrawing conclusions from numerical dataAverages, spread, percentages and correlationSpotting weaknesses in how data is presentedUsing maps, fieldwork data and GIS as evidenceUsing imagery, written, visual and graphical sourcesUsing numerical and statistical information as evidenceFraming an enquiry and writing about itBuilding an argument and reaching a conclusionIssue evaluation: stakeholders, options and a justified decision
Glacial Landscapes in the UKUK landscape option
Hot DesertsLiving world option
Resource Management
River Landscapes in the UKUK landscape option
Tectonic Hazards
The Changing Economic World
Topic overviewClassifying development, and how it is measuredWhy measures fall short, the Demographic Transition Model, and causes of uneven developmentThe consequences of uneven developmentClosing the development gap, and tourism as a strategyA rapidly developing country: change, industry, aid and impactsNigeria: a newly emerging economyEconomic futures in the UKUK economic change: named examples
Tropical Rainforests
UK Physical Landscapes
Urban Issues and Challenges
Topic overviewGlobal urbanisation: patterns, trends and what drives themThe rise of megacitiesA major city in a poorer or emerging country, and planning for the urban poorRio de Janeiro: growth, opportunities and challengesThe UK's urban population and a major UK cityBristol: urban change in a major UK cityAn urban regeneration projectSustainable urban living and urban transport
WaterResource option
Weather Hazards
Topic overviewGlobal atmospheric circulation: pressure belts and surface windsWhere tropical storms form, and whyThe structure of a tropical storm, and the effect of climate changeThe effects of and responses to tropical stormsReducing the effects of tropical stormsWeather hazards in the UKAn extreme weather event in the UK, and evidence of more extreme weather
Geographical Applications: Fieldwork Enquiry
- 10 subtopics
- 30 things to know
- Paper 3 section B
What Geographical Applications: Fieldwork Enquiry covers
Geographical Applications: Fieldwork Enquiry is examined in Paper 3, Section B, on fieldwork in unfamiliar contexts and the two enquiries you carried out yourself. It covers choosing an enquiry question and the theory behind it, risk assessment, primary and secondary data and sampling, justifying collection and presentation methods, describing, analysing and explaining results, dealing with anomalies, drawing conclusions, and evaluating the enquiry and how reliable its conclusions are. Issue evaluation, Section A of the same paper, is taught under Geographical Skills.
Where it is assessed
Paper 3 section B
Geographical applications: fieldwork, 30% of the GCSE with the issue evaluation.
Check the AQA specification ↗The 10 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- Choosing an enquiry question, its theory and its sourcesWhat 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.Open →
- Risk assessment in fieldworkWhat 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.Open →
- Primary and secondary data, and sampling methodsPrimary 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.Open →
- Justifying your data collection methodsDescribing 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.Open →
- Choosing and using presentation methodsVisual, 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.Open →
- Describing, analysing and explaining fieldwork resultsDescribing, 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.Open →
- Anomalies in fieldwork dataWhat 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.Open →
- Drawing conclusions from an enquiryWhat 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.Open →
- Evaluating an enquiry: problems, limitations and missing dataWhy 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.Open →
- 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.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Key term
What makes a conclusion an evidenced one?
Key term
How should the reliability of a conclusion be judged rather than simply called reliable or unreliable?
Key term
What is a hypothesis in geographical fieldwork?
Key term
Which practical matters decide whether an enquiry is realistic?
Key term
What three things must a risk assessment set out for every hazard it lists?
Key term
What is primary data?
Key term
What is secondary data?
Key term
What does it mean to justify a data collection method?
Key term
What is the difference between describing a method and justifying it?
Key term
What are the three broad families of presentation method available for fieldwork data?
Key term
What is a located bar chart?
Key term
What is the difference between describing results and explaining them?
Key term
What should a good description of a graph contain?
Key term
What is an anomaly in a set of fieldwork data?
Key term
Give an example of an anomaly a river study might produce.
Key term
What is the conclusion of a geographical enquiry?
Key term
What is the purpose of evaluating an enquiry?
Key term
Give two problems that can arise with the way physical data is measured.
Key term
What is the difference between reliable data and accurate data?
Key term
What is meant by the theory or concept that underpins an enquiry?
Key term
Name four physical risks of carrying out fieldwork in a river.
Key term
Which kinds of physical data could be measured in the field?
Evaluation
What is the main weakness of questionnaire data, and how can it be reduced?
Key term
Which presentation method suits fieldwork data collected for whole areas rather than points?
Key term
What is meant by analysing fieldwork data?
Key term
In a survey of people or of land use, what can produce a real anomaly?
Key term
What is the difference between a conclusion and an evaluation?
Key term
Why is inconsistency between people a problem when a group collects data together?
Key term
Name four things that make fieldwork data more reliable.
Take Geographical Applications: Fieldwork Enquiry further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Primary data vs Secondary data
Primary data: information you collect yourself at first hand in the field. Secondary data: information somebody else has already collected and published.
Systematic sampling vs Random sampling
Systematic sampling: taking readings at regular fixed intervals along a route or across an area. Random sampling: choosing sites or people purely by chance so every point has an equal chance.
Mean vs Median
Mean: the total of all the values divided by how many there are. Median: the middle value once the data are placed in order.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What is a hypothesis in geographical fieldwork?
Model answer
A statement that predicts a result and can be tested by the data collected, so that it is either supported or rejected.
- 2
Why must an enquiry question be one that can be measured?
Model answer
Because data has to be able to settle it; a question no measurement or observation can answer cannot be concluded at the end.
- 3
Why is it better to keep an enquiry to a small, focused area?
Model answer
So that enough readings can be taken in the time available to give a fair picture, rather than a thin scatter of data spread over too much ground.
- 4
Which practical matters decide whether an enquiry is realistic?
Model answer
The time, equipment, cost and number of people available, and whether the site can be reached safely and legally.
- 5
What is meant by the theory or concept that underpins an enquiry?
Model answer
The established geographical idea or model that the fieldwork sets out to test in a real place.
- 6
Why is it an advantage to build an enquiry on an existing model?
Model answer
It gives an expected pattern to compare the results against, so you can say whether your site fits the model or departs from it.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Geographical Applications: Fieldwork Enquiry revision questions
- What does Geographical Applications: Fieldwork Enquiry cover in AQA GCSE Geography?
- 10 subtopics: 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?. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Geographical Applications: Fieldwork Enquiry organised?
- By the AQA 8035 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Geographical Applications: Fieldwork Enquiry, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.