teaching - Earth Science Teachers' Association

TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 26 ● Number 3, 2001
An Earth Science Fieldtrip
for Key Stage 3 Pupils
OWAIN THOMAS
In a recent article in Teaching Earth Sciences I described some activities that could be used in
science courses in Key Stage 4 (Earth Science in Double Award Science, TES 26(1), 2001: 13-14).
Of course, pupils’ learning at Key Stage 4 must build on their prior learning in Key Stage 3, so this
article describes a simple field trip for Key Stage 3 pupils. The area is south west Wales in the
vicinity of Saundersfoot on the Pembrokeshire coast.
Figure 1
Why bother?
Many teachers of GCSE and A level geology are concerned
with the numbers of pupils who choose the subject.
For several years in Amman Valley School, the
number of students taking A level geology has declined
alarmingly and we felt that one way of improving the
uptake of the subject was to provide younger pupils
with a positive experience of Earth science. An obvious
way of doing this was to provide a field trip, on the basis
that in pupils’ minds any time out of school is a positive
experience, by definition!
Another reason for organising a field trip was to
provide help for my colleagues in teaching some of the
Key Stage 3 Earth science. This is taught as a module
in Year 9 in the chemistry lessons. I teach with three
colleagues in the chemistry department, all of whom
have little or no background in Earth science. As a
geology specialist working within the science faculty,
it is clearly my responsibility to provide curriculum
leadership in this field and thereby help to make the
Earth science component as interesting as possible for
pupils and teachers alike.
Organisation
Time for field trips is becoming more difficult to find in
school because of timetable and exam constraints.
However, we normally schedule the trip as close to the
end of the Summer Term as possible (tides permitting).
Pupils are accepted on a first come first served basis (we
usually take only one bus load) and they only pay a contribution
towards the cost of hiring the bus. Science
staff accompany the pupils in the ratio 1:15.
www.esta-uk.org
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