Advanced level students of biology usually conduct group fieldwork in the summer, and this needs to be written up individually for assessment purposes.
Marine Fieldwork
Some students are lucky enough to spend time diving or on research boats where they can study ocean ecosystems, but the majority will work on the rocky sea shore when the tide is out. The focus will often be on the way the plants and animals of the littoral zone are adapted to their position on the shore.
Rocky Shore Transects
Groups of students can work together on the beach to identify and look at the distribution of the more common animals and plants. They estimate the number of organisms present at different heights above low tide level. Sampling is done by carrying out a 'transect'.
Zonation of Plants and Animals on the Rocky Shore
The tide goes out and leaves plants and animals stuck out of water on the rocks. This stresses them, and they will be restricted to the places that they can cope with. It gets a bit more complicated than that when their immediate plant and animal neighbours are taken into account (as well as the physical factors), because they will often have to cope with competition and predation. Periwinkles illustrate zonation very well, as do the common brown seaweeds.
Kite Diagrams
Data from transect studies is just a load of numbers, and this needs to be represented in a way that makes it clear what is going on. The way to do this is to translate the numbers into a kite diagram.
Writing up Fieldwork for Teacher Assessment
All students who have taken part in the fieldwork should have their own record of the group's data. They should all be able to state clearly what was done and what was found out. The difference between a good report and a poor one is much more about the way the student goes on to explain the results and suggest what further work could be done.
All good reports will:
- state clearly the materials and methods used
- record the group results accurately
- display the results in a sensible way
The best reports will go on to:
- consider the factors affecting each species (physical and biological)
- show evidence of further reading and research (a bibliography is useful here)
- put forward hypotheses about the way various factors influence distribution
- suggest further types of work that could test each hypothesis
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