Ways of Studying Geography

Introduction

In this chapter, you are going to learn how and where you can find geographical information. After reading about and using the different sources of geographical information, you will be able to suggest which source is most important and why.
Activity 4.1: Finding out information
In pairs, study Figure 4.1 and do the activities that follow:

1. Summarise the information presented in the table, newspaper extract and photograph.
2. Using the information provided in the table, draw a graph to show the production of any one crop from 2010 to 2016.
3. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each source of information.
4. In your opinion, which source is most effective in giving geographical information? Give reasons why you think it is the most effective.

Studying Geography through Fieldwork

Activity 4.2: Finding out from the field
In groups, go outside the school and:
1. ask people in the local area about the different activities they do.
2. look around and write down the different things you see in the area.
3. write a report about the area studied.
4. through discussion, share your findings with other groups.

You have probably found out from field information about the activities carried out by people in the area around your school. You have also seen the natural features found in the area. The information you collected from the field is the geography of the area around your school. So, the field is one of the sources of geographical information. Visiting an area and collecting information about it is called fieldwork study.

How can we Study Geography through Fieldwork?

To be able to understand the steps and methods involved in carrying out fieldwork, do the following activity.

Activity 4.3: Exploring steps in fieldwork
In a group or as an individual:
1. Choose a topic to be studied in the area outside the classroom.
2. Decide the reasons (objectives) for doing the fieldwork.
3. Decide how you are going to collect information while in the field.
4. Go out to the field and collect the information, emphasizing how the natural environment and human features are related.
5. Draw a map showing how physical and human features are distributed in the area.

6. If possible, you may carry out measurements of particular things in the field or you may ask people how much land is used for each activity, how many buildings of a certain kind are in the area, etc.
7. After collecting all the information needed, write a report about the area studied. Through discussion, compare group reports.

While in the field, you collected some information such as that about the relief of the area, vegetation types, and crops grown or how people use their land, type of buildings and so forth, by looking around and seeing things by yourself. This is called observation.
Your teacher could also have given you a number of questions to ask people in the field in order to get information from them. This list of questions is called a questionnaire.

Activity 4.4: Understanding methods
In pairs, discuss and suggest possible names for the following methods
you could have used to get some information while in the field. Through
discussion, share the names you have suggested with the rest of the class.
1. Talking to the local people and asking them questions about the
things they do.
2. Measuring the size of gardens, market stalls, buildings and other
features in the field.
3. Drawing sketch maps, field transects and panoramas.

Writing a Report about Fieldwork
You collected information about the area you studied during fieldwork.
How do you think one can know what the geography of the area you studied is like? Possibly you have thought of telling and explaining to the person what you found out. Since it is not possible to tell everybody what we have got from the field, we write it down so that others can read for themselves. The information we write about the area studied is called a fieldwork report. To be able to write a report about your study, do Activity 4.5 below.

Activity 4.5
Using the information you collected during the field study you did in Activity 4.2 above, follow the steps below and prepare a fieldwork report.
Present the report to your teacher for any assistance you may need.
1. Remember the topic and objectives of your study.
2. State the topic and summarise your objectives at the beginning.
3. Briefly describe the area studied, possibly with a map.
4. Write down the information you got about every objective in words.
5. Analyse the statistics you got, if any, and present them in tables, charts or graphs.
6. Include photographs or other maps, if any.
7. Summarise what you found out from the fieldwork, including the relationships between the people of the area and their physical and human environment.

Learning Geography through Photographs

If we cannot reach a place very easily, we can learn about it by looking at its photographs. These can tell us a lot about the geography of even those areas we have never been to. To understand this, do the following activity.

Activity 4.6
Study Figure 4.2 and do the activities that follow.

1. In your notebook, write down the natural and human features you see in the photograph.
2. Explain how any two human features are influenced by the natural environment.
3. In what ways do you think human activities might affect the natural environment shown in the photograph?

All that you have written about Figure 4.1 is the geography of the area where the picture was taken. So studying photographs is another way in which we can get geographical information.

Types of photographs

Photographs are of different types. These depend on the angle at which the photographer looks at the features on the ground through the camera. Which types do you know? Those taken while the photographer is standing on the ground or on another feature connected to the ground are called ground photographs. Photographs can also be taken from the air, i.e. when the photographer is not directly connected to the ground. Such photographs can be taken from an aeroplane, a very tall building or a flight balloon. These are called aerial photographs. To understand this further, do Activity 4.7.

Figure 4.3: The Rift Valley in Uganda

Activity 4.7
Look at Figures 4.3 and 4.4 and:
1. identify and write in your notebook the buildings and vegetation in each photograph.
2. explain the differences between the photographs shown in each figure.
3. suggest what type of photograph each one is. Give reasons to support your opinion.

You could have realised that aerial photographs are not the same. This is because while in the air, the photographer can look at features on the ground at different angles. Photographs taken when looking at features vertically, i.e. at an angle of 90 Degrees , are called vertical aerial photographs. These show only the top views of the features on the ground, with all features appearing as flat objects. Those photographs taken looking at features at an angle less than 90 degrees are called aerial oblique photographs. These show both the top and side views of objects.

Describing where things are on a photograph

In Chapter Three, you learnt the different ways in which you can find things on maps of different scale. Which one of these can you remember? However, with a photograph we do not usually know which direction the camera was pointing when the person took the photograph. So we cannot use compass points.  When describing features on the ground and aerial oblique photographs, you divide the photograph into regions depending on how far away from
the observer the features are. These are foreground, middle ground and background. The part of the photograph which shows the sky is called the horizon. We do not divide this into regions. Can you suggest why this is so?

If you want to give the exact positions of features, you subdivide the above three grounds into other regions. These are left foreground, right foreground; left middle ground, right middle ground; left back ground and right back ground.

Activity 4.8
Look at photograph (a) in Figure 4.1 again and do the following:
1. Using a straight edge, draw in your notebook, the outline of the photograph and divide it into the first three regions.
2. Subdivide it further into six regions.
3. Identify the features found in each region and write them down.
4. Subdivide it further into nine regions and suggest which names you can give to the new regions.
5. Swap your work with one of your neighbours and comment on each other’s work.
When you look at photograph (b) in Figure 4.4, you realise that it does not have any foreground or background. What type of photograph is it? You have probably suggested that it is a vertical aerial photograph. So, when
interpreting such a photograph, you use terms like bottom, top, left, centre and right to describe where things are.

Activity 4.9

Using these words: bottom, top, left, centre and right, describe the area shown on the photograph in Figure 4.4 (b)
Note: On photographs we can describe activities which are taking place as well as what the place looks like.

Drawing a sketch from a photograph

Sometimes it is useful to draw a sketch based on a photograph to show the most important features of the photograph. You do not need to show everything on the photograph but simply what kinds of things are found in
each area. For instance, areas of buildings, main roads, types of vegetation, areas of farming, swamps, rivers or lakes, flat land or hills. Try to divide the photo into just three or four kinds of areas. To understand this better, see Figure 4.6.

Activity 4.10
Study Figure 4.7 and do the tasks that follow.

1. Draw a sketch of Figure 4.7 to show the main features on the photograph.
2. Divide the sketch you have drawn into appropriate divisions.
3. Name the features on the sketch.
4. Describe the area shown in the photograph.

Research Task
Individually:
1. Conduct a library or internet search about the sources of geographical information and write a report of your findings.
2. In your opinion, which source is most important? Give reasons why you think it is the most important.
3. Present your report to the class through discussion.

Chapter Summary

In this chapter, you have learnt:
1. that we can get geographical information from various sources including maps, statistics, graphs, charts, newspapers and other mass media.
2. the advantages and problems associated with each source of information.
3. that photographs are of different types depending on the angle at which they are taken.
4. how to conduct a fieldwork study and record the geography of an area.
5. that fieldwork and reading photographs are very important because they tell us what exactly a place looks like.
6. how to communicate geographical information using tables of statistics, graphs, charts and maps.