NOKUTHULA OLWETHU MFUPHI

2020783862
GEOGRAPHY ASSIGNMENT
OCTOBER 2023

FIELDWORK AND MAPWORK IN GEOGRAPHY

Fieldwork
Fieldwork is part of teaching and learning that is very informative and also interesting at the
same time because the classroom shift to the new environment with some energy. Fieldwork is
regarded as an essential part of teaching and learn6that is beneficial for both learners and the
teacher( Caliskan,2011). Geographic field tip are very informative and they stimulate different
question and also bring answers where there is confusion(Job, 2002). They start in early grades at
school because teachers believe that also young kids needs to experience the world in their level.
Different cost and resources are required in a field trip especially if it’s a long distance trip, all
those requirements needs to be meet and satisfied by parents, school (including teachers and
school governing body) and also by learners in order for a trip to be successful. There are various
types of field trips that needs to be planned in order to be successful.

Fieldtrips needs to be planned in order to be successful and the planning must involve the
concerned people according to Bitgood (1989). The Fieldwork should be prepared by parents, the
school principal and all teachers who taught the group of learners whose going to be part of the
trip. Bitgood (1989) also stated that fieldtrip need to be planned on different four phases namely:
planning of programme, pre visit preparation, on-site preparation activities and follow up
activities

The planning of programme and on-site Anne et al.(2010) argues that usually teachers they do
not prepare learners for fieldtrip that is informal, unsafe and not relevant to the classrooms
content. They ensure that they choose a place that is not have dangerous activities but they the
informative, safe and Accommodates everyone. After the suggestion of place they send letters to
parents or hold the meeting, discuss about it and get a solution if it’s get approved or fail. After
an agreement that’s is where they tell them about the things they need from everyone, parents
they usually pay for transportation fees and outfit if it requires the specific outfit. A week or two
weeks before the trip they start the content that needs to be covered before trip and that will be
observed on site (Bitgood 1989).On-site teachers they group learners and split for each educator
to be a security and inspector for that group, that help to ensure that everyone is safe because it’s
easy to control few people than more. While they are on tour they lecture them asked them
questions like how do they feel or anything related to content. After the trip teachers gives
learners some assessment as a follow up activity . Student they also prepare for themselves by
bringing all the staff that is needed on site such as books, pen&pencil, calculator all these if it’s
necessary even cell phone to communicate with their guardians and to capture the moments and
required data. After the trip they are required to do assessment like reflection, calculations of a
collected data.

Uses of fieldtrip in geography

Fieldtrips are usually educational intent, in which students displays and exhibit to gain an
experiential connection to ideas, concept and subject matter Behrendt and Franklin(2014).
Fieldtrips has different uses and benefits in geography for both of students and the teacher. They
may be planned for the following purposes: To stimulate interest and motivation in geography
And To add relevance to learning and interrelationships.

To stimulate the interest and the motivation in geography

The classroom contains learners with different preferences and that can understand the lessons in
different ways at different times. Fieldtrip is natural and social affective especially on students
that are adventurous because it brings interest and motivation in that particular lesson and willing
to know deeper about the content which I’d beneficial in their academics in their unknown future
carriers. Many students they used to complain about theory lessons, they say they are draining so
much so if they are shifted in a new environment with some kind of refreshment they enjoy
Theat subject and make them difficult to forget the content they did on an excursion. Fieldtrips
helps a lot even in those who are indecisive about their future carriers but they can see what they
can do and what they cannot. For example if the content of an excursion was about weathering
(rocks peeling off), maybe someone will be interested to a geologist since we get influenced easy
at our younger age. Fieldtrips they offer a unique opportunity to enhance learner’s skills.

To add relevance to learning interrelationship (Behrendt and Franklin 2014)

The visiting of field is powerful to make thing easier and make someone to understand more
about the content, the purpose of this activity is I’d used to ensure that students become more
relevant, accommodated and understand. The interrelationships between the classroom and the
environment become more stronger and interesting. It’s increase the teachers competence having
more ideas to say with visible examples for examples the content is about land forms the teacher
can show them easily how it started showing them how soil get eroded .They saw the reality of
the content that presented in class before the trip. Excursion have a great impact on socializing
and building relationships within the participants, If they experience the same thing together at
the same time and having to discuss about it while they are excited it increases their socializing
skills.

Conclusion

Indeed fieldtrips are very important to turns lessons informative and interesting , thus should be
the strategy that the department of education should emphasize and sponsors should pay
attention at, especially in geography, history, tourism and other learning areas that are
environmental. Future pedagogical practitioner should be trained and taught about the
importance of field trip so that they can shift our education from indigenous to modern means.

Reference list
QUESTION 2

Geography is everywhere around us, it is a study about physical features earth, human activities
including population numbers and its distribution across in the entire world and economic
activities in relation with the environment (Bonnet N/A). All these features can be recognized
others are not. To represent the following feature needs to be collected as a data and represented
on a map. Maps plays a role in different actives economically.

Map work.

The globe represent the earth truly and its physical and non physical features. It is defined as a
representation of scale features from earth into a plain surface even though that surface is small
but many rules and guides like generalization methods are considered to make a map clear.(Sign,
2009). Map work is related to geography as it present features that are collected by a Geographic
information system. Its also plays a vital role in in training upcoming geographer they notary
used in classroom to make things simpler. Geography needs maps to test learners deep
understanding through interpretation and application because if they are able to do that that
means I even in future they can apply in different ways or activities. It’s also help learners to
experience the reality at a distance around the world.

Functions

At school geography is taught by using two different maps which orthophoto and topographical
map. The topographical map is a an official map that shows both natural and man made features
in a small scale occupying the large space (Reposo, 2011). It uses different generalization to
show clear result by including a key to represent different objects. It is represented on a scale that
state that one centimetre represent an actual distance of 50000 centimetres (Singh 2009). The
topographical map is used in different activities such as in education as its used I classroom in
some of geography lessons. It is also used in planning surveying during construction in terms of
measurements and determining different characteristics about the certain space or site
simultaneously(Raposo,2011). It can used as a navigator from one place to another and show
number of features contained in particular place such rivers and types of landforms that are
found on the particular area

Orthophoto

It is also an official map that is portion taken from the topographical map, it is actually an image
that is enlarged from its original map which is topographical map(Liu et. al, 2018). In orthophoto
map there are no scales and generalizations included because the place is shown as it is or as an
image. Those images are taken at different angles at the distance by using an aerial oblique that
shows picture both side view and top view. And the last one is aerial vertical photography which
I’d good observation of roofs(Remondino et al. 2018). This type of map is used also in
construction and finding landscape features in a direct way. In GIS this map can be used As a
layer on Google earth and used on digitizing.

Map calculation

In further education and training level there are various calculations that are in geography during
map practical namely: distance, area, grid reference, gradient, vertical exaggeration, true bearing
and others.

In distance calculations they calculate the distance between two points, calculations are done by
connecting the map scale in meters and multiply by the map scale to find the distance. In
calculating the area you need to have two distances which is length and breath and convert each
into meters or kilometres and substitute in an area formula which is length times breath. The
final answer should be in square meters or kilometres. Conversion of map scale is also part of
calculations in grade elevens. In the question needs the answer to be in kilometres the map scale
is divided by one thousand but if it should be in meters is divided by one hundred. The question
asked the lectionary of the spot height found in B4, to find the location is determined by giving
the latitudes in degrees and minutes, which is given on a map the only thing needs ro be
calculated are seconds. They are calculated by the division of an object distance and with the
length of a grid, all multiply by sixty. The last question was asked to calculate the gradient which
is the steepness of a slope. It depends on contour lines arrangements. It represents highest
differences over a distance( in metres) the answer must in a ratio.

Application and interpretation

In map interpretation and application we interpret map properties by looking from the keys and
apply the knowledge from theory lesson. In this question learners were given the question to
determine whether the place is suitable for vegetation and why. The answer was supposed to be
no, it is not suitable because of the steepness of contour lines which means the land is very steep
it might have a hard rock , which makes soil to be soil to be infertile, even erosion can take place
easily.

The following question was choose the place that is good for commercial farming between B6,
B8 and C4, and the answer was supposed to be B8 because it was located next to the lower
cause of the river, which is good for irrigation purpose and the contouring are far apart which
means there is lot if soil deposition and the soil is futile. All questions encourage learners to
interpret map and apply their knowledge.

Geographic information system

GIS is usually the last question in geography exam paper 2, it is based on collection of data
represented in map. The first question was to list three components of GIS which is soft ware,
firmware and hardware. The following question was to provide the real example of point, line
and polygon in block A8, D9 and D10, which was the school, national road and the shopping
centre. GIS questions are like this in most previous papers.

Conclusion

Map work is an interesting part of learning since it make of learners to know how to apply the
information that they have learnt before, especially application and interpretation. On calculation
helps them especially for future purposes to know the relationship between the actual size and
the size in a price of paper, maybe in architecture or construction.