Framing a geographical enquiry

As part of their urban fieldwork a group of students carried out a retail land-use survey along one street in two different towns to record the types of shops in the two locations.

One was their local town, the other was a seaside town popular with tourists.

They decided to classify six different types of shops as either ‘tourist shops’ or ‘non‑tourist shops’.

Their results are shown below.

Suggest a suitable enquiry question that the students could have investigated.

Explain one reason why the classification of shops might not be reliable.

Explain one method the students might have used to record the retail land-use in the two towns.

Explain two ways in which the students could have improved their data collection methods.

You have carried out your own fieldwork investigating how and why the quality of life varies in urban areas.

Assess the accuracy and reliability of the results of your investigation.

As part of their rural fieldwork a group of students carried out a retail land-use survey along one street in two different small towns to record the types of shops in the two locations.

One was their local rural town, the other was a seaside town popular with tourists.

They decided to classify six different types of shops as either ‘tourist shops’ or ‘non-tourist shops’.

Their results are shown below.

Suggest a suitable enquiry question that the students could have investigated.

Explain one reason why the classification of shops might not be reliable.

Explain one method the students might have used to record the retail land-use in the two towns.

Explain two ways in which the students could have improved their data collection methods.

You have carried out your own fieldwork investigating how and why the quality of life varies in rural areas.

Assess the accuracy and reliability of the results of your investigation.

You have carried out your own fieldwork investigating environmental quality in an urban area.

Name your urban fieldwork location

Explain one reason for the choice of question or hypothesis that you selected to investigate.

Explain two ways that you used to collect data to investigate the quality of the urban environment.

At the end of your geographical investigation you drew conclusions that either supported or did not support your enquiry question or hypothesis.

Explain how strongly your conclusions supported your enquiry question or hypothesis.

Your enquiry question or hypothesis.

A group of 20 students, divided into two groups of 10, carried out questionnaires in the main street of their local town centre.

They chose to do this on a Saturday morning to get a wider range of responses.

They wanted to find out what residents felt about the quality of life in the town.

One group was asked to select older residents to answer the questions; the second group was asked to select residents of their own age.

In total they had responses from 28 older people and 42 younger people.

All those interviewed were given three statements about the town.

Statement 1 – ‘Crime is a major problem in the town’

Statement 2 – ‘Noise and anti-social behaviour are major problems in the town’

Statement 3 – ‘I don’t feel safe being alone in the town in the evening’

All those interviewed were then asked to choose one of the following responses to each of these statements.

1. Strongly agree

2. Agree

3. Disagree

4. Strongly disagree

Figure 9 on page 31 shows the results of these responses.

Assess the reliability of these conclusions.

You have carried out your own fieldwork investigating environmental quality in a rural environment.

Name your rural fieldwork location.

Explain one reason for the choice of question or hypothesis that you selected to investigate.

Explain two ways that you collected data to investigate the quality of the rural environment.

At the end of your geographical investigation you drew conclusions that either supported or did not support your enquiry question or hypothesis.

Explain how strongly your conclusions supported your enquiry question or hypothesis.

Your enquiry question or hypothesis.

A group of 20 students, divided into two groups of 10, carried out questionnaires in the main street of their local village.

They chose to do this on a Saturday morning to get a wider range of responses.

They wanted to find out what residents felt about the quality of life in the village.

One group was asked to select older residents to answer the questions; the second group was asked to select residents of their own age.

In total they had responses from 28 older people and 42 younger people.

All those interviewed were given three statements about the village.

Statement 1 – ‘Crime is a major problem in the village’

Statement 2 – ‘Noise and anti-social behaviour are major problems in the village’

Statement 3 – ‘I don’t feel safe being alone in the village in the evening’

All those interviewed were then asked to choose one of the following responses to each of these statements.

1. Strongly agree

2. Agree

3. Disagree

4. Strongly disagree

Figure 10 on page 37 shows the results of these responses.

Assess the reliability of these conclusions.

Study Figure 8, which are photographs of the two beaches chosen by a group of students studying the impact of coastal management on coastal processes at two different locations.

Suggest an enquiry question or hypothesis that the students might have proposed for their investigation.

Suggest two problems that the students’ choice of locations may have caused for data collection.

Explain how the use of Ordnance Survey (OS) maps might have helped the students choose their two beach locations and the three sites on each of those beaches to carry out the profiles.

You have carried out your own fieldwork investigating how and why coastal management impacts on coastal processes.

Name your coastal fieldwork location:

Assess the accuracy and reliability of the results of your investigation.

Study Figure 9, which are photographs of the two access points chosen by a group of students studying river channel changes on a river at two different

Suggest an enquiry question or hypothesis that the students might have proposed for their investigation.

Suggest two problems that the students’ choice of locations may have caused for data collection.

Explain how the use of Ordnance Survey (OS) maps might have helped the students choose their two river locations and the three sites on each of those rivers to carry out their channel measurements.

You have carried out your own fieldwork investigating how and why drainage basin characteristics influence flood risk for people and property.

Name your river fieldwork location:

Assess the accuracy and reliability of the results of your investigation.

Study Figure 6a which shows variations in GCSE scores in the London Boroughs and Figure 6b which shows both GCSE scores and variations in child poverty.

Identify which one of the following London boroughs has the highest GCSE scores.

State a relationship between child poverty and GCSE scores that could be investigated.

Explain one reason why child poverty varies between different parts of a city.

For a named UK city, explain two reasons why the functions of its inner-city areas have changed in recent years.

For a named UK city, explain why changes in the city have caused economic and social changes in the surrounding accessible rural areas.

Study Figure 8, which is the data collected by a group of students studying beach profiles in two different locations with contrasting rock types.

Suggest a suitable enquiry question that the students could have investigated.

Suggest two factors which should have been considered when choosing the fieldwork locations.

Describe the results of the students’ fieldwork shown on Figure 8.

You have carried out your own fieldwork investigating the impact of coastal management on coastal processes and communities.

Name your coastal environment fieldwork location:

Assess the role of secondary data sources in your investigation.

Study Figure 9, which is the data collected by a group of students studying river gradient changes in two different upland locations with contrasting rock types.

Suggest a suitable enquiry question that the students could have investigated.

Suggest two factors which should have been considered when choosing the fieldwork locations.

Describe the results of the students’ fieldwork shown on Figure 9.

You have carried out your own fieldwork investigating how and why drainage basin characteristics influence flood risk for people and property.

Name your river environment fieldwork location:

Assess the role of secondary data sources in your investigation.