The National Festival of Fieldwork takes place in June and is a fantastic opportunity to get outside the classroom, learn new things, explore the local environment, and most of all, have fun doing it. We have plenty of resources to choose from when teaching these fieldwork geographical techniques. Find out why this is so important and get some inspiration for your next outdoor visit.
What is fieldwork?
Fieldwork allows us to observe and collect data from our natural environment. As this happens in our everyday outdoor surroundings and not in a classroom, it enables us to learn how our theories integrate with real life. Children and young people can learn about wildlife, habitats and forest biomes and see how they interact with each other and how this relates to what they already know, or what they have been learning.
How can your class benefit from it?
The benefits from fieldwork are huge. Not only will your class make great memories, but they’ll become competent in team building and problem-solving. They’ll be taught new practical skills and learn content essential to exams (if they are in KS3 or above). It offers ways to develop knowledge and skills that adds value to their learning, helping students to link what they have learnt in the classroom to life, through hands on experiences and scientific enquiries.
What activities could you do with your class?
If you're not sure where to start, we have plenty of resources that you could choose from. These can be the perfect way to try something new with your class or to build up their fieldwork expertise. You can use these in your school grounds, your local area or a forest.
Primary
KS1 can use the geography lesson plan to study maps and human and physical processes and even make a map of the area they have been studying. Or if you'd like to study habitats, you can try our minibeasts in the forests lesson plan.
KS2 can learn all about native woodlands and how they compare to tropical rainforests with our temperate forests lesson plan. Activities include looking for seasonal signs, tree identification and plant diversity. Or challenge your pupils to create exciting experiments to explore what a forest looks and feels like with our scientific enquiry based resource.
Prefer to have an activity with all of the equipment ready to go? Hire one of our self-led Ranger in a Bags. They have all you need to become trainee ecologists or foresters for the day. Carry out habitat and minibeast surveys and discover how to calculate the height and age of a tree.
Secondary
Students can investigate how much carbon is stored in a tree, carry out a tree pest and disease survey or calculate tree growth over time, comparing their own data with real data from our colleagues at Forest Research.
We also have two KS3 Geography fieldwork units which take you through individual desk based research and planning, collaborative fieldwork activities, data presentation and analysis:
- Investigating soils asks students to take on the role of a Forester and identify the soil characteristics of their local woodland. They can then choose appropriate tree species, from the ‘species of the future’ list, which would be suitable for planting at that location.
- Investigating leisure and recreation puts students in the position of a Forestry England Visitor Experience Manager and investigates the interaction between people and a local woodland, so that they can effectively manage the forest for the benefit of both the forest and the visitors.
Respect the forest and staying safe
Remember to take great care when moving and studying things in the forest. Make sure you try our Forest Code pre-visit resource (EYFS - KS2) to help students to think about how they can look after the forest environment.
You can also involve students in creating your risk assessment with our staying safe in the forest resource. See our full risk assessment guidance here.
There’s a beautiful natural world out there and its a great place to learn new skills in fun and engaging ways. Learning in the outdoors is great for building connections with nature and making lasting memories. Where will your field studies take you?
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