Data collection and survey work is an important skill to be developed in geography. Below are examples of possible approaches.
1. Interviews -collect information from people about their attitude to public or private transport in a local area. Children will need to be clear about the purpose of their interview and the sequence of questions which they will ask.
2. Judgement surveys -to find what people value, to find their opinions. In this, children list a statement or word and whoever is giving an opinion can score it by circling the one that most reflects their belief.
Agreement might be in relation to the highest number chosen.
Example: a. Traffic is a real problem in our street
-1 1 2 3 4
Polar adjectives or words are used. If children choose 5 they are agreeing with the second choice.
Example: b. The roads near our school
1. dangerous 1 2 3 4 5 safe
2. threatening 1 2 3 4 5 welcoming
3. wide pavements 1 2 3 4 5 narrow pavements
The children can write their own judgement surveys and test family members with them.
3. Pedestrian Surveys -Doing a foot-fall count, i.e. counting the numbers of people who pass by the school and a contrasting over a 15 minute period at a particular time. Children need to work in pairs and to count people moving in different directions. It may be possible, if safety permits, to take readings at both sides of a street or roadway. A click counter can be used
4. Viewfinders Make a number of small cut out windows to act as viewfinders. Children take turns to place the viewfinder on a spot on the classroom window or some other window at a place within the school building. They look out the window through their smaller frame and tick various things to do with transport according to whether or not they can see them.
- Examples
a. car parking spaces
b. Roads
c. streets
d. footpaths
(Some of the above ideas have been modified from- Dave Holmes and Dave Farbrother, A-Z Advancing Geography Fieldwork, Geographical Association 2000)