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Enquiry is a signature pedagogy of geography. Pupils need the opportunities to ask and investigate questions about what is happening in their world to help make sense of what is happening elsewhere.
The diagram below illustrates some of the stages of enquiry as well as some of the questions which can be asked at each stage.
Possible water-related questions to explore
| Where does water come from? | Why is water scarcity an issue? | Where do people get their water? |
| What happens to our dirty water? | Are people treated fairly? | What if there is no (clean) water? |
| Where is water found? | Where does all the rain go? | What kinds of landscape features does water create? |
| Why is water so important? | What would it be like to have no water at school?’ | Should water be shared equally? |
| How do we use water? | Why doesn’t the planet run out of water? | Do rivers flow into or flow from the sea |
| What is the water cycle? | Does anyone own our rivers? | How can we conserve water |
Enquiry question: Why does the road outside school flood every time it rains?
(this can be adapted to your school context)
Provide groups of pupils with a cut bottle/can, the link to this How to make an infiltration ring from a can YouTube video , a stopwatch, water container, map of the school site and a recording sheet and ask them to plan a piece of geography fieldwork which will help them to answer the main enquiry question.
Agree on a suitable approach. For example, pupils measure the length of time it takes for a set amount of water to infiltrate into the ground (watch this YouTube video about How to measure infiltration rate). The surfaces that they select might include soil, grass, sand tray, gravel tray as well as the playground and AstroTurf or fake grass. The last two will almost definitely leak out of the bottom and spread out rather than soak in. This is an important learning point/distinction as the surfaces are impermeable and the water will either pool up which is in essence flooding (and then evaporate) or if there is a slope it will run-off, perhaps pooling (flooding) somewhere else.
From their measurements, pupils should consider which parts of the school are most likely to flood and create a set of recommendations to present to the school’s governors or SLT about how to help protect the school from flooding. This could include a map of possible changes to the school grounds.
Back to Fieldwork involving water menu
 The Geographical Association (GA) has worked closely with the Field Studies Council (FSC) to develop these resources.
