First of all we decided to conduct a fieldwork study as we felt it would be of great benefit in our geography education. It would allow us to get out of the classroom and gain invaluable experience in the natural landscape. After some discussion we decided a river study would be best and most suitable for our class to undertake. We had previously studied rivers in detail in the physical geography section and felt we had sufficient knowledge to conduct a good study. We all also felt that it would deepen our understanding of rivers. We had already learned about the different features of a river as well as the processes it undertakes. WE then decided on the activities to undertake e.g. to measure the velocity and calculate the discharge at two stages.
Before we began our fieldwork study we decided it would be a help to revise thee physical geography section on rivers. We revised the features of the upper course e.g. the V-shaped valley. We then revised the features of the lower course e.g. the meander. We also revised the section on glaciation because we were going to visit a glaciated valley. We had tests each day in class on these to make sure that we knew them well.
Another part of our preparation was drawing a sketch map of the area we intended visiting. We drew a sketch map to scale of 1:50,000 and marked in the things we planned visiting e.g. the Lugduff River, Polanass Waterfall and the educational centre. We also drew the ribbon lakes and the road we were going to travel. The main purpose of this was to become familiar with the area so as when we got there we would know where we were in relation to the other features. It also helped with our study of reading OS maps.
We then decided to do some research on the area we intended to visit. Our teacher gave us some information on the geological background which she received fro the educational centre in Glendalough. We also downloaded information from the Internet on the Wicklow National Park website.