OCR A Level Geography Independent Investigation 4 Day Fieldwork Programme

Day 1

Day 2

Urban or Rural Rebranding

There are two alternative options: urban rebranding in Barcelona, or rural rebranding in Priorat.

El Raval fieldwork: Urban Rebranding

El Raval reflected in the window of the FilmoTeca flagship

AS objectives and A-level orientation activities:

• Explore why the inner city district of El Raval needed rebranding.
• Find evidence of differing views about the rebranding of El Raval.
• Investigate the different strategies involved in the rebranding of El Raval.
• Look for evidence as to who is responsible for rebranding El Raval.
• Assess how the rebranding has altered people's perception of El Raval.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the rebranding process in El Raval.
• Consider how the rebranding of El Raval is part of a bigger picture of changing Barcelona.

Priorat fieldwork: Rural Rebranding

Recording field data in El Lloar, Priorat

AS objectives and A-level orientation activities:

• Explore why the rural region of Priorat needed rebranding.
• Find evidence of differing views about the rebranding of Priorat.
• Investigate the different strategies involved in the rebranding of Priorat.
• Look for evidence as to who is responsible for rebranding Priorat.
• Assess how the rebranding has altered people's perception of Priorat.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the rebranding process in Priorat.
• Consider how the rebranding of Priorat is part of a bigger picture of rural depopulation in Spain.

Evening Classroom Session

Students who have arrived in Barcelona fully prepared will independently finalise the draft titles of their human investigation and develop their justification and contextualisation of how their enquiry will help them answer their title. For students less prepared, the fieldwork will help them to develop geographical questions, design sampling strategies and build research proposals. In the evening session of a Taught-Course programme, students will be introduced to a wide range of potential secondary data sources and information and explore how secondary research can be used to justify a research aim, question or hypothesis. A range of possible statistical techniques and data presentation methods will also be introduced and demonstrated.

Day 3

Sitges fieldwork: Coastal Landscape Systems

Students measuring beach profiles in Sitges

AS objectives and A-level orientation activities:

• Explore how the coastal landscape can be viewed as a system of inputs, processes and outputs.
• Examine how the coastal processes have created distinctive landforms, including cliffs, caves, and beaches of different materials, widths and profiles.
• Find evidence of how human activity has caused change within the system.
• Investigate how the coastal landscape is being managed, the management strategies being implemented, the reason for their implementation, and the intentional impacts on processes and flows of material and/or energy through the system.
• Examine the effect of these impacts in changing beach profiles.
• Assess the intended and unintended consequences of these changes on the landscape.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the different approaches to coastal management.
• Consider how the Sitges coast is part of a bigger picture of a Mediterranean coastline under threat.

Evening Classroom Session

In this second evening session of a Taught-Course programme, students will independently finalise the draft titles of their investigation (either human or physical) and develop their justification and contextualisation of how their enquiry will help them answer their title. Students will also independently design sampling strategies and build research proposals.

Day 4

Students return to their chosen study location to collect data for their individual investigation - El Raval, Priorat or the Sitges coast.

Evening Classroom Session

In this final evening session of a Taught-Course programme, students will need to receive guidance in order to gain the most from their fieldwork experience. Collaborative working is recommended so that individual groups or students contribute to each step in the geographical route to enquiry.

Day 5