geostudent fieldwork

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Getting the most out of your fieldwork

The trouble with fieldwork is that it's, well ... difficult. There's no getting away from that fact. However, along with that is the fact that it is important - probably the most important thing you do in your course, because it is only when doing fieldwork that you put into use all the theory you learned in lectures, and combine it with the basic observational skills that are the foundation of geology.

Apart from that, there is the small matter that when you have a viva examination, the chances are that your external examiner will spend most of the time asking you about your field project, and a good performance will pull you over a borderline, whereas a poor one will condemn you to a lower class degree. Trust me - I've seen it happen more times than you'd imagine!!

There are two elements to a good field project - your map, and your notebook. OK, so you may have to produce a report as well, but without the map and the notebook, you will be sunk.

Your notebook is a living breathing record of the work you did in the field. It should be neat and orderly. It should include your observations and measurements, and it should also include your ideas and speculations. It might include other philosophising as well, but as I said already, the external is going to be looking over your notebook with a magnifying glass, so the witty remark you jot down while hiding from the rain in the pub might well make you look like a bloody idiot when facing the beady eye of the examiner.

Oh yes, and since the notebook is a sort of "diary" or log book, that makes it pretty hard to forge back home, if you don't do a proper job out in the field. Examiners are practised at spotting the sort of inconsistencies that you will have to work very hard to avoid - don't bother - it ain't worth it.

Let me say this again, just in case any doubt lingers:

do a good job in the field

As well as your notebook, of course your map is also a living document that records your work. There are different ways of producing a map, different lecturers have different conventions for displaying data, and religious wars break out in the staff coffee room when they are discussed. The safest thing to say is that you should listen carefully to the person in charge of your mapping, and do what they say - so that might involve identifying locations with "pinholes", marking geomprphological features, whatever - follow the advice you are given.

Share your fieldwork experiences, good and bad, tell us about your field projects, accomodation, good pubs, whatever you want, at the geostudent fieldwork forum