Lesson video

Hello, my name is Chloe, and I'm a geography field studies tutor.

That means that I teach children all about the outdoors.

Today's lesson is called Writing a Fieldwork Inquiry Question.

It's part of a unit of work called How can we investigate the sustainability of our school.

In this lesson, we're going to be thinking about the kind of questions we can ask that we can actually then go outside and investigate during fieldwork.

A key thing to remember is that not all questions that we ask in geography will work as a fieldwork inquiry question.

So we're going to be looking in more detail at the kind of qualities that our question has to have in order to be successful.

Let's get started.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to write a fieldwork inquiry question about solar power and your school.

Before we get started in the lesson, let's take a look at some keywords that we're going to need to know in order to make progress through it.

First of all, an inquiry question.

This is a geographical question that helps us to focus our investigation.

A question is answerable if it is possible for us to find the answer by doing a fieldwork inquiry.

A hypothesis is a prediction that geographers make about the results of their inquiry.

This lesson is in two parts.

We will first be looking at the question: What can we ask about solar power at school? And then in the second part of the lesson, we'll be thinking about this question: How can our inquiry question help us? Let's start off with that first section about what we can ask about solar power.

Choosing an inquiry question is the first stage of our fieldwork inquiry.

Andeep says, "I have so many questions.

How do I pick a good one?" This is a really good question that Andeep is asking very early on.

There's lots of questions we ask in geography all the time.

How do we know that our question is a good one in terms of our fieldwork inquiry? Here are some of Andeep's questions.

Let's look at them here on the clipboard.

Do solar panels work best in the sunshine? How do solar panels work? How much energy does the school use? Are these good fieldwork inquiry questions? Sam decides to take a look at Andeep's questions.

Let's look at the first one: Do solar panels work best in the sunshine? Sam is quite right.

This question is too simple.

It can be answered pretty easily, and in fact, I think we already know the answer.

We know that solar panels work really well in the sunshine.

She then looks at the second question: How do solar panels work? Sam, quite rightly, points out, "This one is not to do with fieldwork." We can find out the answer to that by looking on the internet or by researching in books.

It's not something that we're going to find out by going outside and doing an investigation.

These are all good fieldwork inquiry questions.

Let's look at them together.

First of all, who in the school community would benefit most from solar panels? What impact might solar panels have on the school environment? Where would be the best place to put solar panels in our school grounds? When during the day would solar panels work best in our school grounds? You might notice that all of these questions have something in common.

They have the idea of the school or the school community, and they have the idea of solar panels, that all of these questions are linking those two ideas together, and that's essential because that's the key of what we're trying to find out.

But there's something else that links all these inquiry questions together.

What do you notice about all these inquiry questions? Well done if you notice that they all start with the letter W: who, what, where, and when.

Which of these is not a good fieldwork inquiry question? We've got three options here.

How do solar panels work? Where would be the best place to put solar panels in our school grounds? And what impact might solar panels have on the school environment? Which one of those is not a good fieldwork inquiry question? Pause the video here so you can read through your options again and then come back to me, hopefully, with the right answer.

So which option did you choose? Well done if you chose A.

Yes, unfortunately, that is not a very good in-fieldwork inquiry question.

We could find the answer to that question by looking on the internet or by reading the information in books.

We don't need to go outside and actually do some fieldwork in order to find out that answer.

Now let's look at Sofia's question.

Sofia's question is this: What impact will our school solar panels have on global climate change in 10 years' time? Would this make a good fieldwork inquiry question? Well, she is linking the school with the idea of solar power, but there's another problem here.

Can you spot it? This question is a really interesting geographical question, but it's just not answerable.

Let's actually have a think about it.

The impact that solar panels will have on the school in terms of climate change over a 10-year period, there's a lot to think about there, isn't there? There's no practical way of finding out the answer.

This means it is not suitable for a fieldwork inquiry question.

It might be the kind of research that a top scientist might be interested in doing, but isn't suitable for the kind of thing that we will be doing around our school grounds.

Let's check our understanding about good fieldwork inquiry questions.

True or false? All geographical questions make good fieldwork inquiry questions.

Have a think about what we've just learned.

Is that true or false? Pause the video here and then come back to me with the right answer.

So is that true or false? It's false.

Well done.

But why is that a false statement? Pause the video again and have a think about answering that now.

Fieldwork inquiry questions have to be answerable in a practical way.

Therefore, some brilliant geographical questions would not make good fieldwork inquiry questions.

We move on to our first task of this lesson.

I'd like you to write three fieldwork inquiry questions about solar power and your school.

Remember, it has to link those two things together, each using a different W word at the start.

Once you've written your three questions, your second task is to check that all your questions are answerable.

Would you actually be able to find out the information by going outside and doing some fieldwork? You're definitely going to want to pause the video here so you can really think hard about your three inquiry questions.

Pause the video and then when you've got your three, and you've had a thought about whether they are answerable or not, come back to me and we'll see what I've put.

So, your first task was to write three fieldwork inquiry questions about solar power and your school, but importantly, each one had to start with a different W word.

Here's some of the kind of things you might have put.

Where would be the best place to put solar panels in our school grounds? When during the day would solar panels work best in our school grounds? And what impact will our school solar panels have on global climate change? I've used where, when, and what.

Check that you've used W words at the start of your inquiry questions.

You then had to check that all of your questions are answerable.

So yep, we would be able to find out the best place to put solar panels in our school grounds by going outside and testing different areas.

We would also be able to find out when during the day the solar panels would work best.

We could test at different times of the day.

But what about this final question? No, that wouldn't work, would it? We would not be able to be linking our school solar panels with global climate change.

It's way too big.

It's not answerable.

As Jun points out, "This question is not answerable because there's no practical way of answering it." Let's now move on to the second part of our lesson.

We're gonna be thinking about how our inquiry question can help us.

In our fieldwork inquiry, we are going to be investigating this question that you see here in the box.

Where would be the best place to put solar panels in our school grounds? The inquiry question is like a steering wheel in a car.

It helps guide the fieldwork, and the inquiry cannot move without it.

It also connects to all other parts of the inquiry, so it's really important that we get our fieldwork inquiry question right.

Our inquiry question can help us to plan our fieldwork.

Let's look at how Izzy and Alex are using their inquiry question to plan fieldwork.

Izzy says, "To find the best place for solar panels, we will have to investigate lots of different locations around our school site." You can see here that Izzy has a map of her school site.

That's gonna really help her out.

Alex says, "And to find the best place, we will have to think about how well each location meets our criteria." So he's thought about those three criteria that we've already learned about, the fact that solar panels need lots of sunlight, they need large areas of land, and they need unused land as well.

So together, they're thinking about how their inquiry question leads into a method for how they're gonna collect their data.

Izzy is thinking about different locations, and Alex is thinking about the different criteria that solar farms need.

Let's check our understanding of those ideas so far.

Fill in the gaps using the correct word from the box.

There is one word that will not be used.

Read through the paragraph and see if you can fit the right word into the right gap there.

Pause the video here so you can really take your time to think about this exercise.

Right, how did you get on? Our inquiry question helps to guide us through our fieldwork.

It connects to all other parts of the inquiry, and we can use the question to plan our fieldwork.

Well done if you've got those three words in the right places.

Our inquiry question can also help us to write a hypothesis that predicts what our findings will be.

Let's hear some hypotheses now from Lucas and Laura.

Laura says, "I think the best place to put solar panels will be on the school field because it is a large area." Lucas thinks the best place will be on the roof of the main building because it's not used for anything.

We will find out if our hypothesis is right once we have done the fieldwork.

Let's now check our understanding of that idea.

True or false? A hypothesis is the answer to the inquiry question.

Pause the video here so you can have a think about that and then come back to me.

How did you get on? Well done if you recognize that statement is false, but why is that a false statement? It is false because a hypothesis is a prediction.

We don't know if it is right or not until we have done the fieldwork.

Well done if you recognized that distinction.

Now let's have a look at our final task of this lesson.

Think about your own school grounds.

You might be able to actually see a map of your school grounds, or at least a satellite image of them, so you can really think about the different areas that need to be considered.

Then write a hypothesis to our inquiry question: Where would be the best place to put solar panels in our school grounds? You're definitely going to want to pause the video here because there's quite a lot to think about.

You might also want to discuss your ideas with somebody nearby to see whether they agree with your ideas or not.

Let's see how you got on now.

You needed to write a hypothesis to our inquiry question.

Your answer may include wording like this: As Jacob says, "I think the best place will be on the roof of the main building because it is not used for anything." So, you need to state where you think the best place for solar panels will be at your school, but also to say why you think that.

Well done if you've written a well-developed hypothesis.

Let's now summarize our learning from this lesson.

Good fieldwork inquiry questions are interesting and answerable.

This means there is a practical way of finding out the answer.

The fieldwork inquiry question guides the investigation, connects the different parts of the inquiry together, and helps us to plan.

It can also help us to write hypotheses.

Well done for all of your hard work on that lesson.

There was a lot of ideas to really digest there, all about questions and why they're important, but next, we get to the important bit and the exciting bit, getting outside and actually collecting the data.