Independent study skills are invaluable for students as they progress through school on to university or other routes of further education.
The independent study element of geography A level is one of the many reasons why geography remains so highly valued as a subject at A level and beyond. Throughout the A level geography course vital skills can be taught to aid independent study and this was the prime focus of our recent A level residential visit to the North Yorkshire coast.
Students practised a wide range of skills including sampling techniques, emotional mapping of place using geo-located data, coding of word pictures and analysis of sediment size on the beach. Students were then encouraged to consider how these skills can be transferred to their own individual research projects which compromises 20% of the final A level marks.
The results of the fieldwork trip then speak for themselves – confident skilled geographers with a passion to research their own area of interest and achieve the best results they can.
