Nature days can provide two options for the requirements for Unit 2 of the Made for Wales Ready for the world GCSE Geography starting teaching 2026.

Option 1:

Field work skills day.

This one day field trip will provide skills in the six stages of the enquiry process and provide data for follow up data analysis and presentation.

The focus will be on planning an enquiry and collecting the data:

• Selecting the correct location
• Designing a suitable enquiry question
• Using maps to locate fieldwork sites
• Risk assessment
• Ethical data collection
• Sampling approaches
• Data collection – qualitative and quantitative

This field work day will provide skills required for students to undertake the planning for their NEA assessment for Unit 2.

A number of locations can be visited and can either be linked to where the NEA will take place or contrasting.

Rivers

The characteristics of river landforms, flood risk and management and sustainability.

Coasts:
The characteristics of coastal features, coastal defences and sustainability.

Weather:

Microclimate in built up and natural environment.

Retail in urban areas:
Looking at the concept of place and how it changes using a range of qualitative methods to cover all aspects of the enquiry process.

Land use:

How land use has changed over time.

Sustainability:

Urban and rural sustainable environments using Egan’s wheel

Option 2:

Two day option includes the half a day on field work skills outlined above, followed by a preliminary enquiry focusing on their NEA.

• Investigate potential topics to investigate in their enquiry question
• Identify risks
• Explore selecting data collection sites(s)
• Explore potential data collection methods
• Explore sampling methods and size
• Experiment with results tables
• Try GIS tools such as survey123

Schools will then go back to school and use the skills and experience from day 1 to plan their NEA and undertake task 1 and 2.

Once ready the class will return to the selected location for their NEA and day 2 will provide opportunity for data collection.

NEA day 2:

• Identify location for data collection on site
• Undertake data collection using equipment provided
• Evaluate the sampling and data collection techniques

By the end of day 2 the students will have collected all their data for their NEA and should have completed task 1 and 2. Then back at school they can complete the rest of the NEA using the data.

Support will be given to teachers on choosing the right location to allow all students to access the requirements of the NEA based on the topics set by WJEC.

All days are bespoke for each school which will build on previous learning and skills.

Humanities days can take place in a range of locations around Gower.

An example of activities available are outlined below.

Themed field days:

Themes: Our World, Sustainability, weather and seasons, coastal landscapes and processes, Navigation, pirates.

Location: Beach, sand dunes.

Outline of themes:

Exploring our coastline and seeing how waste and climate change is affecting the coastal environment.

Activities:

• Scavenger hunt to look for man-made and natural materials on the strand line.

Depending on the age group the materials will be sorted using criteria to support sorting, maths such as Venn diagrams and Carroll diagrams, dichotomous keys.

Cross curricular links: Use the materials to generate stories, create art, design and make structures, investigate sustainability.

Exploring the local landscape: field sketching, undertaking enquiry and data collection, creating models of landforms, map skills, weather and microclimate study, habitats including plant and animal investigations,

Themes: Our world, water, rivers, adaptation, navigation.

Location: River

Outline of themes:

Walking the length of a river from source to mouth investigating river features, processes and undertaking enquiry and practical data collection.

Activities:

• Measure characteristics of the river, data collection.

Depending on the age group the data can be linked to pupil generated enquiry questions and methods designed by the pupils.

Exploring the river environment: River dipping for animals, data collecting, identification, adaptation, measuring physical attributes of the river environment, e.g temperature, current, clarity, chemical composition, energy. Field sketching, map skills.

Cross curricular links: Poetry and art inspired by the river environment, data analysis, adaptation of animals,  sustainability,

Activities:

• Navigation.

Learn how to use compasses and read maps to follow a trail.

Gower is a perfect location to undertake the practical aspects of fieldwork enquiry of any Geography syllabus.

Fieldwork methodology:
Use of Transects. – 2020

Geographical flows – 2021

Changes over time – 2022

Use of Transects. – 2023

Qualitative – 2024

Conceptual frameworks.
Sphere of Influence – 2020

Mitigating Risk – 2021

Sustainability – 2022

Inequality – 2023

Cycles and Flows – 2024

This activity covers all the aspects required in the teaching or hydrology at GCSE level. From source to mouth the river is visited along its course so that variations in width, depth, speed and bed load can be observed. The river is also prone to flash flooding and so has a number of flood defensive techniques along its course.