Fieldwork, Geography

Question 1

What was the aim of our human enquiry?

Answer 1

To investigate climate change mitigation in Purbeck

Question 2

What was the hypothesis of our human enquiry?

Answer 2

The community of Purbeck actively supporting the switch to renewable energy

Question 3

Why was Swanage a suitable location for our human enquiry?

Answer 3

-Unique demographic with a high % population of rich elderly
-Large population so easier data collection in small window of time
-World Heritage Site and AONB, possibility of interesting questions

Question 4

How was the risk of road traffic mitigated?

Answer 4

Students were conducting questionnaires in pedestrianised area

Question 5

How was the risk of dangers from public mitigated?

Answer 5

Students in groups and in busy areas with other members of the public

Question 6

What is NIMBYism (Not in my backyard)?

Answer 6

When people reject changes that take place near to where they live due to a fear that it will affect them negatively but support changes elsewhere

Question 7

How does the AONB zone affect climate change mitigation?

Answer 7

Restricts activity and development in areas so no onshore or offshore wind farms

Question 8

A way the UK is trying to become net-zero by 2050 due to Climate Change Act 2008

Answer 8

2035 ban on sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles

Question 9

Why did we use closed questions?

Answer 9

Limited answers can produce tables or graphs

Question 10

Qualifying questions like where do you live, age and gender…

Answer 10

…allow us to see the demographic and only question people who live in Dorset

Question 11

What is quantitative data?

Answer 11

Number-based data to produce bar charts and pie charts

Question 12

What is qualitative data?

Answer 12

Word-based data to use as quotes and give an in-depth understand of people’s feelings

Question 13

How was data presentation effective? (H)

Answer 13

-Visual representation of data, creates clear conclusions
-Using Excel reduced risk of human error and produced accurate representations
-By using stacked bar graphs for use of EV/Hybrid switch, we could see how different age groups approached it
-Comparative bar chart allowed us to include our qualifying question of gender to see how male or female differed in supporting renewable energy

Question 14

How was data representation not effective? (H)

Answer 14

-Difficult to represent qualitative data with bar charts and pie charts
-We simplified our data with only 5 chart so some trends may have been missed

Question 15

What % of residents have solar panels?

Answer 15

82% dont have solar panels, 18% do

Question 16

What % know about the 2035 ban of selling diesel and petrol vehicles?

Answer 16

57%

Question 17

What was the aim of our physical enquiry?

Answer 17

To investigate changes to dune characteristics at Knoll Beach

Question 18

What was the hypothesis for our physical enquiry?

Answer 18

There is a significant change to the shape and vegetation on the sand dunes

Question 19

Why was Knoll Beach a suitable site?

Answer 19

-A large 2km beach with a deep and mature dune system 1km deep that allowed multiple groups to collect a 200m transect simultaneously.
-Owned by the National Trust who allowed us to access and survey the dune system for free.
-It is a popular tourist and local destination thereby allowing us to investigate the impact of human activity on the sand dunes

Question 20

How did we mitigate the risk of injuries from slips and falls?

Answer 20

-Suitable site found without steep inclines
-Suitable footwear
-Working in groups

Question 21

What is the Succession Theory?

Answer 21

Initially, the embryo and fore dunes are colonised by pioneer species like marram grass before the natural cycle of decomposition increases nutrient value and water retention and makes the soil more acidic that allows other species of plant to grow, such as heather, on large older yellow and grey dunes.

Question 22

What is the Cyril Driver Project?

Answer 22

Cyril Driver documented the dunes over a century ago but National Trust discovered changes between then and now. They closed off the dunes but realised they needed to allow people to walk on them for regeneration.

Question 23

What are the plant adaptations?

Answer 23

In the mobile dunes at the front we find species like marram grass with their long and extensive root systems, curled and waxy leaves. In the fixed dunes we find heather that needs a little more shelter from the wind and more nutrient rich and acidic soil.

Question 24

What was our sample method?

Answer 24

Collect gradient data every 5 metres (systematic sampling) and collect vegetation data with random systematic sampling.

Question 25

What equipment did we use?

Answer 25

50m tape measure, ranging poles, clinometer, quadrat and species identification sheet

Question 26

Sample size? (P)

Answer 26

200m

Question 27

How did we present our data?(P)

Answer 27

a sand dune profile - effectively a line graph - overlaid with a dot dispersion graph for the vegetation species and also data on percentage vegetation coverage and soil pH.

Question 28

How was data presentation effective? (P)

Answer 28

-Visual representation to clearly spot changes in land shape and identify dunes
-Overlaying pH and vegetation data with line graph allowed us to see links.
-Calculated the height of the land through the transect by using a protractor
-Used the same scale on x and y axis to make an accurate to-scale representation of the dune system

Question 29

How was data presentation ineffective? (p)

Answer 29

-Plotting data required lots of precision so there was a degree of human error
-It wasn’t obvious that the ridges were dunes or slacks. A solution is adding photos.
-Percentage vegetation cover wasn’t visual, reducing ability to spot patterns. A solution is drawing proportional symbols or pie charts.