Physical Geography Top Tips: Fieldwork to support teaching the Carbon Cycle
We know many find the Physical Geography topics harder to teach at Post 16 and we are often asked specifically for help with teaching about carbon.
Following on from last week’s post about teaching the carbon topic, today we’re sharing an idea for related fieldwork activities courtesy of Hodder Education.
Hodder Education have made their article on Carbon Cycle Fieldwork: Biomass in woodlands free access online at https://www.hoddereducation.com/media/Documents/Geography/Geography-Review-31-Volume-1-Carbon-Cycle-Fieldwork-Biomass-in-woodlands.pdf
What’s great about the article is that it gives examples of fieldwork activities that can be undertaken anywhere there is a tree! The last activity in the article is best completed in an area of woodland but an area of a local park (or your school grounds if you’ve got an area with trees in) can also allow pupils to carry this out. And nothing requires expensive fieldwork equipment as it only needs a long tape measure (which PE and Science departments will have) and a clinometer (a google search brings up how to make your own if you haven’t got any already).
When thinking about fieldwork activities like these it is worth having a conversation with the A level Biology teachers as ecosystem studies are part of the course. Laura-Jayne on the Committee used to run a joint half day field trip with the Biology department to a local nature reserve which allowed the opportunity to undertake fieldwork in woodlands and on meadows - and kept costs down by filling the minibus.
In addition to the fieldwork in the article, being able to get pupils to complete something as simple as a field-sketch of the woodland and the meadow allowed for lots of discussion about how the carbon cycle works. Adding a quadrant (courtesy of the science department again) study in to compare species in both ecosystems included another fieldwork technique to promote discussion.
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If you’ve found a resource or have a fieldwork idea related to the carbon cycle, please do let us know so we can add it to a future GeogMatters.