Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to lesson five of the geography fieldwork unit.

In this lesson, we're going to be looking at some more tools of field work, and those tools are surveys and questionnaires.

Let's have a look at the agenda for this lesson now.

So the first thing that we're going to look at is what is a survey? Then we'll look at what is a questionnaire? And then lastly, we'll think about when do you use questionnaires and surveys? Now for this lesson, you'll need three things, an exercise book, or some paper, a pencil or a pen, and most importantly, our brains.

So pause the video now, make sure you've got those things, and then resume once you're ready to get started with the lesson.

So in this first part of the lesson, we're going to be learning all about what is a survey and just think for a moment to yourself now, what is a survey? What do you think is survey is? It's a word that comes up a lot, isn't it? Well, here is the big reveal of what a survey is.

So a survey is a way of reviewing a particular feature of the physical or human environment.

So an example of that is, say I wanted to do a survey on traffic.

I would have a table that looks like this, and I might list different types of vehicle.

And then as part of my survey I record data by counting the number of times I see that particular type of car.

So that is one type of survey.

And let me ask you this, would that be for the physical or the human environment? That's right.

It would be for the human environment, because I'm doing a traffic survey and traffic is part of the human environment.

Here's another example for you.

You could do a wildlife survey, so I might need to record the different types of animal I see in my garden over a, let's just say like a two hour period.

So again, I would have a written table like this and every time I saw an type of animal I'd write down its name and then tally the number of times I've seen those different types of animals.

So we're going to go through a couple of examples now of field work.

And you may remember these examples are actually from I think it was lesson one where we saw all the different types of field work that different geographers were doing around the world.

For each of these examples that we look at, I want you to think about how could that geographer use a survey in their fieldwork? Let's go through this example together now.

So Dr.

Bennion carries out field work on biodiversity which is the number of different species of plants and animals found in a place.

Her research focuses on how particular aquatic ecosystems are affected by change and how they can be protected.

Interesting field work right? If I were you I'd focus on, okay, the big thing here about this field work is about the number of different species of plants and animals in aquatic ecosystems. So what you're going to do now is write down how could Dr.

Bennion use a survey in her field work? So it just needs to be one or two nice, neat sentences.

So when you're ready, pause the video to complete your task and then resume once you're finished.

Okay.

How did Dr.

Bennion use a survey, or how do you think Dr.

Bennion should use a survey? Here's what I wrote.

Maybe you'll disagree with me, but I think this is right.

So Dr.

Bennion could use a survey to count the number of different species of plants and animals.

And you may have gone even further because you're a great geographer, and written aquatic ecosystems at the end of that.

But the key thing is very similar to my example from earlier where I was counting animals I saw in the garden she could simply use a survey to count the number of different species, because her work is on biodiversity, which is all about the number of different species of plants and animals found in a particular place.

Let's look at another example together.

And again, this is from one of the other geographers that we looked at the work they were doing as part of field work.

So here it is.

It's Dr.

Hidalgo carries out field work in Chile, West Chile, what's that you say South America, it is in South America.

Nice one.

Dr.

Hidalgo carries out fields work in Chile in places where wetland habitats are being destroyed in order to build houses and transport networks.

His main inquiry question is what takes priority wetland ecosystems, or improvements of quality of life for humans? Hmm, interesting.

A bit more complex this, but what I would do is focus on the fact that it's his field work is all about how wetland inhabitants are being impacted by the building of houses and transport networks like roads and railways.

So think about that's the main focus of his study.

How could he use a survey in his field work? Here's what you're going to do.

I suggest pause the video, reread that description, and then answer the question.

How could Dr.

Hidalgo use a survey in his field work? So when you're ready, pause the video to complete your task and then resume once you're finished.

Okay bit more challenging that one, wasn't it? But don't worry.

Challenge is good.

Challenge helps us learn more.

So here's what I wrote.

How could Dr.

Hidalgo use a survey in his field work? Well, Dr.

Hidalgo could use a survey to count the number of buildings and roads in wetland environments.

And then you could use that information to compare different wetland environments and see whether some have been impacted more by the building of houses and transport networks or less.

So again, a survey is used to count things in order to record the data, and in this case, in order to see the impact of houses and transport networks on wetlands.

So let's move on to the next part of the lesson.

In the second part of the lesson we're going to be looking at what is a questionnaire? And so I'm going to throw that question at you now, what do you think is a questionnaire? Maybe say it to the screen.

Hmm.

Well, do you want me to tell you what the questionnaire is? I'm sure you know, actually, because it is something that we come across in our day-to-day lives all the time, actually, and they are used in many different ways.

But here is what a questionnaire is.

So a questionnaire is a list of questions that you ask someone in order to gather data on a particular topic.

So in fieldwork, you might produce a list of questions that you're going to ask many different people in order to gather data that is going to help you answer your inquiry question.

And one of the good things about a questionnaire is that you can ask as many different questions as you like really, or as many as are practical.

And because of that you are able to cover every aspect of your topic if you want to.

So that's one great thing about questionnaires.

However they are not perfect.

So one negative thing about questionnaires is that sometimes they may be less accurate for factual information.

What do I mean by that? Well, with questionnaires, you are relying upon the person you're asking to remember things perfectly or to always tell the truth.

And you can't always rely on human beings to be doing those things, every time they complete a questionnaire.

So for example, someone might ask me, Tom or Mr. Barber, how many cars typically drive down your street every day? And I'll say, Oh, 25, but really how realistic is it that I will have that factual information in my head? That's not realistic.

So sometimes they're less accurate for those factual pieces of information.

So to summarise, remember questionnaires are a list of questions that you could use to ask people so that you can gather data to answer your inquiry question.

It's good because in the questions you're able to cover every aspect of a topic if you want to, but sometimes you have to be careful because that information may be less accurate or factual information, such as my example the number of cars that travel down my street every day.

So let's look at an example now, of how a questionnaire could be used.

And so imagine I'm completing my own field work study on how has tourism impacted Taunton.

And Taunton is a town in Somerset where I'm originally from.

So in order to complete this field work study, I decided I'm going to use a questionnaire.

And so I have to think of some questions that it's going to help me gather the data, so I'll be able to answer that question.

So here are the questions that I came up with.

What positive impacts has tourism had on Taunton? What negative impacts has tourism had on Taunton? Overall has tourism had a positive or negative impact on Taunton? And so I would use those questions and try and ask as many different people who are from Taunton, so that I can gather enough data and information and therefore answer my inquiry question.

And you may also note as well, that I haven't had to include that many different questions.

So sometimes you can have a few questions or you may want to include lots and lots of different questions depending on your topic.

Here's what we're going to do now.

You are going to imagine that you are doing a field work study on how effective has flood management been in some Somerset.

And when we say flood management, we mean the different ways that local councils or environment agencies try and prevent flooding.

So this is all about how effectively have they been able to prevent flooding in Somerset? Again, Somerset lovely County, it's where I'm from.

I like to include Somerset as often as I can.

So what you're going to do is write two questions that you could use in a questionnaire for this field work study.

And for the questionnaire, imagine that you're going to use that questionnaire to ask people in Somerset questions.

So have a thing.

What questions could you ask that will help answer this inquiry question? Hmm.

Well, when you're ready, pause the video to complete your task and then resume once you're finished.

Okay what questions did you come up with? Here are my questions that I came up with and they might be different from yours, but this is the general idea of what we're looking for here.

So question number one, I would ask someone from Somerset is have you been affected by flooding in the past year? And that's going to be a good question cause that will tell me, well if flood management has been effective then I would expect people to have not been flooded.

And then the second question I ask is, do you think enough has been done to prevent flooding in your area? So again, that's another way of asking people, like do we think flooding has been effective? So well done on completing that task.

Again, your questions might be slightly different, that's okay.

Let's move on to the final parts of this lesson.

In this final part of the lesson, we're going to be looking at when do you use questionnaires and surveys/ And to do that you're going to complete this final task.

So this table shows us two different inquiry questions.

So if you look on the far left column, there are two inquiry questions.

One is what impact has climate change had on my local community? And then the second one is how is climate change, affecting the biodiversity in this pond? So imagine that they've got a pond and they're looking at how climate change has impacted biodiversity in that pond.

For each of those inquiry questions, you need to decide whether the most appropriate method would be a questionnaire or a survey.

And then once you've done that, you need to write one or two sentences explaining why you chose a questionnaire or a survey.

And to present this, I think the best way to do it actually would be to present it like this table.

So write the table in your book and then add paper, not necessarily a book, and then add whether you think it should be a questionnaire or a survey and then one or two sentences explaining why.

So when you're ready, pause the video to complete your task and then resume once you're finished.

Okay all done? If so, let's look at whether we should be using a questionnaire or survey and the reasons why.

So here's what I put for inquiry question number one which is what impact has climate change had on my local community? What did you choose? Oh did you now? I chose questionnaire.

And the reason for that is because questionnaire questions can cover every aspect of how climate change has affected people in my local community differently.

So questionnaire would be great because I can cover all those different ways in which climate change can affect community.

And I didn't choose a survey because, well I struggle to think of like, well surveys, it's largely about counting things isn't it? I struggled to think of, well what are the different categories of things I would count in a survey, but a questionnaire is going to be great at covering all the different aspects of climate change.

Inquiry, question number two, how is climate change affecting the biodiversity in this imaginary pond? What did you choose? Very interesting.

I chose survey and the reason I chose a survey is because a survey can be used to count the number of different species of plants and animals.

And remember biodiversity is all about different or the number of different species of plants and animals.

So a survey would be absolutely perfect in order to gather that data.

That brings us to the end of this lesson.

Well done on all the fantastic learning that you've accomplished.

But before we finish, there are just two things that you need to do.

Firstly, remember to write down three key things that you'll remember from this lesson.

And then finally please remember to complete the exit quiz at the end.

That's can be a great way of solidifying knowledge and seeing how much tremendous progress you're making in this unit.

I look forward to teaching you again soon, and have a fantastic rest of your day.