A Level Students opinions wanted: Best/Worst Topic?

Asking as I have been asked to rewite a module, for 1st years as an Introduction, but would like to extend on topics that people have enjoyed, and introduce people to topics they'd like to do.

This would be for people who would be doing all aspects of Geography.

General
What was your best topic and why?
What was your worst topic and why?
What would of liked to have done?

Fieldwork and Skills
Did you like fieldwork and skills? why did/didn't you like?
What could have been improved?
What would you have liked to do?

Thank you,
Dr. C.E. Keene

Reply 1

smileycat

Hi
Im currently doing the Edexcel Geography course and i loved AS. I think that the first Unit is really good as it mixes both Human and Physical geography which is better than a course which has two modules in both, i would say. It also gives a good overview to all parts of geography hazards,climate change, globalisation and migration etc. However for Unit 2 we had to undertake fieldwork, i really liked doing the actual fieldwork however i found the exam very hard to prepare for and i feel maybe a more coursework approach would be better rather than asking about a fieldwork trip and the skills learnt from a month or two ago. Now im doing A2 i prefer the topics we are doing as they are new and much more upto date and therefore more relevant such as Superpowers and Energy security.

Reply 2

GiveMeAChallenge

I'm doing geography a-level at the moment and I am considering taking geography at university.
-My favourite topic was urban settlements and the development of ghettos. I found it a really current topic and it's something you see in every day life- the way groups of people are segregated.
-For me, the worst topic was tectonic plates. I felt it was a module you could only read about rather than going out and experiencing it for yourself.
-I would have like to have continued coasts from GCSE but look at them in other countries rather than just the UK.

We never did much fieldwork apart from one residential in AS and a day trip in GCSE. Despites going in the freezing winter months, I did enjoy going out and recording measurements from rivers etc. I felt it made the topic more memorable for the exam and allowed you to talk about specific technical methods.
I felt after we had recorded results and went to look back at them later, they sort of dismissed our data and just told us was the 'correct' data should have been. I know that for exam reasons it is important to have good data to come to the correct conclusions, however I felt it was almost a waste of time collecting our own data if we weren't going to use it or analyse it in some way.
I would have like to have done some more interesting fieldwork for the human section. I know it is more limited than physical but doing several environmental serveys and numerous questionnaires does start to get a bit boring.

Reply 3

HotfireLegend

Best: Rivers, tectonics, most physical topics really.
Worst: Globalisation. Bit boring.
Liked to have done: Weather!

The fieldwork isn't too bad. It would be nice if we had the opportunity to go to some more exotic locations though since it's not always fun to have to walk around London on a cold blustery day with a raincoat, umbrella and an easily-wetted clipboard with flimsy paper :biggrin:

Improvements... hmm... As above, more 'exotic' locations (the beach was fine for Succession, providing it doesn't rain but then again, you can't really control the weather... or can you? :smile:

) - maybe perhaps trips to research places (Met Office, to be able to see what they do) this is kinda what I'd like to do too.

So for a first-year topic, I'd probably suggest field trips to jobs relating to what they're studying at the moment, and to introduce more fundamental things to them (Since Globalisation isn't actually that fundamental compared to something like flooding IMO) - perhaps update it to match the current problems facing the planet, like Global Warming (For those who didn't do much/any at GCSE, this may be a good one).

EDIT: I'd just like to say - please don't make it so that we have to do surveys/questionnaires in field studies! Nearly nobody in London wants to do them, and it's humiliating to get brushed away by the 50th person in a row!

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 4

clareramos

Human Geography will definately be there (I'm a Human Geographher well Demographic & Urban Geographer) So there will be an urban fieldwork.

Hydrology and Coasts will be done, may not be the module I'm running, we are totally redoing Level 4 (1st Year) modules.
Globalisation, development and sustainability will be done.

For fieldwork: looking at one urban and one residential.
Skills will work on A Level,
Secondary data will be focused on and Survey Design will be done and that will involve fieldwork, the uni takes part in a yearly study, so it's an easy fieldwork.

Survey design and general survey work is key to degrees especially geography and the earth sciences, it will be needed further in your degree. All uni's use survey's at some point in their degree.

Reply 5

HotfireLegend

Original post by clareramos

Human Geography will definately be there (I'm a Human Geographher well Demographic & Urban Geographer) So there will be an urban fieldwork.

I'm more of a Physical Geographer.

Hydrology and Coasts will be done, may not be the module I'm running, we are totally redoing Level 4 (1st Year) modules.
Globalisation, development and sustainability will be done.

Yay.

For fieldwork: looking at one urban and one residential.
Skills will work on A Level,

Fine. Where?

Secondary data will be focused on and Survey Design will be done and that will involve fieldwork, the uni takes part in a yearly study, so it's an easy fieldwork.
Survey design and general survey work is key to degrees especially geography and the earth sciences, it will be needed further in your degree. All uni's use survey's at some point in their degree.

I wouldn't mind designing the surveys, but how do we do them if everyone just brushes us away? I'm sure this isn't so much an issue in residential areas since people aren't in such a rush to get to certain locations, but it's an issue in London. Believe me, I've tried!

Reply 6

clareramos

There will be physical aspects, depends how we end organising the other modules.

Residential fieldwork could be Isle Of Wight, not sure yet, is fairly popular with some uni's. There are other fielworks. We do quite a few.

We do in town centre and we used to go up to London and do it along the river, that may come back. Bet you where doing it on your own? We do it in groups and in the middle of the day so people are only collecting about 10 surveys and we give them skills in how to do it. My uni has done it for 5 years, and I know that Kingston uni has done a similar sort of survey since 1998 and both have been successful.

Reply 7

HotfireLegend

Sweet, Isle of Wight's a place I've only been to once. Not a very common place to go to for fieldwork as far as I've seen.

As for the surveys, they were done in groups. Most people only got one or two, mine got none (lol) and we basically 'attacked' the people that went past us. We did ours in the middle of the day too.

Reply 8

clareramos

You did your fieldwork the wrong way then.

Split your group up, so you are in at most groups of 2 and then go out, people are far more likely to speak to 1 person than a group. You also find the elderly will speak to you more.

Fieldwork at uni varies massively and some are fantastic at it, some are awful.

Reply 9

HotfireLegend

People were in groups of two. Not many elderly were in London! :P

Reply 10

clareramos

Depends where you look, if you go up to Havering, there is and in other areas there are. You just need to look.

Reply 11

HotfireLegend

Canary Wharf was the study area. (Had to do it there)

Reply 12

clareramos

that sounds a horrible area to do a survey in.

It was!

I just love everything about geography and it's related areas (geology, demography etc...) I can say that without a doubt taking A level geography was one of the best decisions so far in my life and I hope I can somehow combine it into a career later in my life!

Reply 15

clareramos

I'm looking at tilting it towards the human side of geography as there seems to generally a huge amount of physical. I am also having to re-write a module on TIE (I lecture production arts as well)