Case study 3: designing fieldwork
activities
Royal Geographical Society
East London local fieldwork network
‘Olympics’ CPD day for secondary teachers June 2009
(1) What was the session intended
to achieve?
• The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) has
established a number of ‘local fieldwork networks’ in
order for teachers within an area to explore together
how to make best use of local opportunities for learning
outside the classroom.
• The East London network was established in Spring
2009. The first CPD day was centered on Stratford and
the Olympic and Paralympic Park and took place in
June 2009.
• The day was intended to develop teachers’:
– Knowledge and understanding of the redevelopment of the
area;
– Repertoire of fieldwork strategies;
– Confidence in selecting appropriate strategies and designing
their own fieldwork experiences.
(2) How was the day organised?
• The day began in a very ‘exploratory’ fashion.
Teachers used some techniques for exploring the
area and were asked to develop a ‘place profile’
• A short theory input provided a structure for the
remainder of the day
• Groups of teachers worked together, selecting and
evaluating different fieldwork strategies at each
location
• Enquiry questions emerged during the day, were
shared and matched to appropriate fieldwork
strategies
Strategy 1: creating a ‘place profile’
• An ‘exploring kit’ was
provided to groups of
teachers. This contained
a digital camera, location
maps, a choice of
fieldwork activities and a
hand-held computer (with
built-in microphone)
• Groups were given little
instruction but
encouraged to explore
the area and bring back
impressions, recordings
and questions
I am a Camera
Photo Challenge
About this task:
This task is a fieldwork starter
activity for all Key Stages, which
takes 5-15 minutes. It gets
students thinking about their
environment and surroundings,
and describing these in detail to
their partner.
About this task:
Help your students to get to know
Stratford, finding out:
1. What is unique about Stratford.
2. Why Stratford may have been
chosen to host the 2012 Olympics.
Equipment: none / blindfold
Method: Use your digital camera to
take images that show the
uniqueness of Stratford.
Method: Find yourself a partner.
One person should close their
eyes or put on a blindfold while
the other person guides them to
a particular viewpoint.
The sighted person should then
describe the view to their
partner as if they were a camera
taking a photo.
Place profile strategies
Equipment: digital camera
But… you are not allowed to take
photos of people, buildings or
vehicles.
Think carefully about what is unique
about Stratford.
Can you identify and photograph any
thing that suggests why this place
has been chosen to host the London
2012 Olympics?
Place-check
About this task:
In this task, students apply a placecheck tool to Stratford. They assess
what services and features need to
be changed or improved in the area.
Equipment: digital camera, placecheck form
Method: Imagine you are a local
resident living in Stratford.
As you walk around the town, fill out
the place-check form to highlight
features that you like and dislike
about the place.
What needs protecting in Stratford?
What needs changing in Stratford?
What problems have you identified?
Take photos to support your findings.
Character Trail Task
About this task:
The aim of this task is to
navigate around Stratford ‘in
character’, and to find out:
1. Who is this place ‘for’?
2. Are any groups of people
excluded?
Equipment: map of Stratford
Town, character cards
Method: Select a character
card, which lists the goods
and services that your
character needs to find in
Stratford.
Navigate the area, record the
shops you visit and mark your
route on the map.
How well does the area cater
to the needs of your chosen
character?
You are … a wealthy banker working
for Credit Suisse, Canary Wharf
You have … a bonus of £100 000 and
expensive taste
You want … a gift of diamond earrings for
your fiancée
You are … a pensioner
You have … £10
You want …
 3 kilos of rice
 Halal meat – mutton or chicken
 1kg of chapati flour
 some Bangladeshi sweet desserts
 to sit down without having to buy
anything
You are … a teenager with a group of
friends
You have … £90
You want …
 this week’s number 1 CD
 somewhere to hang out
 a fast food meal
 a pair of cool trainers
You are … a builder working on the
construction of the Olympic Park
You have … £8
You want …
 a packet of cigarettes
 a café serving a cooked breakfast
 to catch a bus into the West End
You are … a wheelchair user
You have … £80
You want …
 to park your car
 a haircut
 to visit the cinema
 to try on a new pair of suit trousers
Shop/location
Item
Cost
Strategy 2: building an enquiry
• Delegates returned from the
‘exploration’ of the area with
their own impressions of the
place – and questions about it
• These questions were shared
and used to form the basis of
investigation for the following
session
• Delegates were asked to
select places and fieldwork
strategies for further
investigation.
• Some tasks and questions
were site-specific. Others
could be adapted to location.
Questions included:
• Does Stratford ‘need’ the
Olympics?
• Was Stratford a good
place to choose for the
2012 Olympics?
• What do local people feel
about the changes taking
place?
• How will the Olympics
impact on the local
community?
• Will the Olympics leave a
sustainable legacy?
Lavender Street Task
(site-specific)
About this task:
The aim of this task is to
investigate changes to the
local area. Students can
focus on two key questions:
1. How have communities in
Stratford changed?
2. How might the Olympics
impact on local
communities?
Equipment: map of
Stratford/GPS
Method: Find Lavender
Street, using your map
extract and/or the GPS .
Discuss ideas in response
to the prompt questions in
the box. Annotate the
photograph with your ideas.
Lavender street questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
Describe the Lavender Street area. What can you see?
What do you think it is like to live here today? Where do
people work? What do they do? What might they want to
change about their community?
What are the advantages of this type of urban living,
compared with the newer flats you have seen in Stratford?
Are there disadvantages?
How might the people living here be affected by the
Olympic and Paralympic Games? How will they be
connected to the Games?
Do we need the Olympics
here?
About this task:
This activity is suitable for all age
groups, although it requires
students to be aware of the
meaning of the term
‘regeneration’. It should take
around 30 minutes to complete.
Equipment: digital camera
Method: Spend five minutes
brainstorming the reasons why
Stratford needs to be regenerated.
Students are likely to come up with
ideas such as derelict buildings,
social deprivation, empty shops,
etc.
Collect photographic evidence of
these features.
Olympic Protest
About this task:
This task explores the Olympic
development site from a rather
different viewpoint and should take
approximately 20 minutes.
Equipment: notebook / paper
Method: There has been a lot of
resistance to the Olympics. Imagine
you are from ‘Games Monitor’, an
anti-Olympics organisation. You are
planning a protest on the Olympic
site about the lack of public
consultation surrounding some
elements of the Games.
• How easy would it be to organise a
protest on the site?
• Write a plan for your protest.
 Where would you do it?
 What difficulties/obstacles do you
think you would face?
The photographs can be later used
in the classroom to build on the
place profile.
Open-ended tasks
Past and Future Visioning
About this task:
This task encourages students to think
about the changes in the landscape in
the past and the future. It is suitable for
all key stages, and takes approximately
20 minutes.
Equipment: sketch books
Method: Find a suitable viewpoint You
have twenty minutes to do two
sketches.
Your first sketch should illustrate what
you think this view looked like ten years
ago.
Your second sketch should illustrate
what you think it will look like in ten
years time.
• What changes do you think have
occurred in the past?
• What changes do you think will occur
in the future?
 What are the causes of these
changes?
A ‘Drosscape’ of Olympic
Proportions?
About this task:
The term ‘drosscape’ was used
by Alan Berger to describe the
“large tracts of abused land on
the peripheries of cities, where
urban sprawl meets urban
dereliction, landscapes of
wasted land where the
planners gave up”. Drosscapes
are ‘ripe for regeneration’.
Equipment: digital camera,
evidence table
Method:.
Look for evidence of Stratford
as a drosscape.
Take photos and complete the
evidence table which focuses
on five key features of Berger’s
drosscape.
Drosscapes are
…landscapes of transition (changing
into something new... temporary storage
facilities, non-permanent buildings)
…landscapes of infrastructure (roads,
railways, etc)
…landscapes of obsolescence
(junkyards and landfills, things
abandoned or dumped)
…landscapes of exchange (things that
were once businesses and are no longer
in use)
…landscapes of contamination (brown
fields that may be contaminated by toxic
waste, etc).
Evidence of this
Strategy 3: designing fieldwork
strategies
• The most challenging aim of the day was to build
confidence (and capacity) in selecting fieldwork
strategies and designing fieldwork experiences
• This involved adapting the approaches used during
the first two sessions and showing awareness of the
types of fieldwork strategy available – and being clear
about obstacles and outcomes
• Watch the following video clips of a group of teachers
designing their own approach to investigation.