Geography GCSE Hunstanton Fieldwork

This physical fieldwork makes up part of the 1st exam paper ‘Our Natural World’ and students must be ready to discuss their own experiences in collecting data, presenting, analysing, concluding and finally evaluating the project overall. This year, we took 5 groups, over 150 students, to visit Hunstanton and study the extent to which physical processes and human actions are affecting the shape of the coastline. Amelia Giblin & Zac Holmes have written about their experiences.

Once we had all arrived at school, we set off for Hunstanton at around 8am, ready for a busy day of field work. Upon our arrival, we completed our sense of place walk, making the journey from New Hunstanton to Old Hunstanton. We made notes along the way comparing the differences between these two areas.

We then walked back to New Hunstanton and completed our cliff field sketch, noting down evidence of weathering and geomorphic processes as well as the geology of the cliff. After that, we moved onto the beach where some people in each group used ranging poles and clinometers to determine the change of angle of the beach between the cliff and the sea. The remaining people used callipers to sample sediment sizes, gauging the change of rock size as we moved further from the cliff. We then repeated both of these processes in front of a sea wall so that we were able to compare the effects that coastal defences have on a shoreline.

As our final data collection method, we conducted a survey in our groups in which we asked the general public questions about their opinions of Hunstanton and its sea defences. To round off our day of field work, we all then treated ourselves to fish and chips and an ice cream before finally making our way back to Bourne.

Thank you to our Geography teachers and Mr Murray for helping us with our fieldwork!