Module: Residential Field Course

Module Specifications

Academic Year 2025 - 2026

Module Title	Residential Field Course
Module Code	GEO1020 (ITS: GY339)
Faculty	Humanities & Social Sciences	School	History & Geography
NFQ level	8	Credit Rating	5

Description

Fieldwork is an integral part of a geographers training and education, providing opportunities to acquire a huge range of skills that cannot be gained in a classroom setting, while allowing engagement with, and opportunities to better the world. Building on learning and experiences from geographical fieldwork, research and communication skills modules completed in previous years, this third year residential field course provides each student with an opportunity to deploy, refine and augment these core skills and capabilities during an intensive period of fieldwork. Conducting fieldwork in a range of locations including varying landscapes, ecosystems and urban environments, this module creates unique opportunities for experiential learning, as students identify, examine, record, measure, analyse and provide solutions / outcomes to a range of real world themes and issues within the fields of physical / environmental and human geography, facilitating the bridging of concepts and ideas covered in class to the real world. Each student working both individually and in smaller teams, will informed by context based applied learning, design and investigate a specific theme and / or challenge, plan and implement their fieldwork, gather relevant data and information, manage and analyse it, and finally communicate their findings / solutions.

Learning Outcomes

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2. Identify and refine an appropriate and achievable research question that can be tackled through fieldwork
5. 1
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7. Work effectively as part of a team, in designing and implementing effective fieldwork
10. 2
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12. Employ appropriate techniques and skills in capturing, measuring, recording, storing and analysing fieldwork findings and data
15. 3
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17. Communicate their fieldwork findings in a range of innovative and original formats
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22. Record and reflect in a meaningful manner on their own experience, process and practice of fieldwork
25. 5

*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Workload	Full time hours per semester
Lecture	6	Preparatory lectures
Fieldwork	32	Fieldwork activities and exercises
Class Presentation	2	Presentation of group project findings
Assignment Completion	85	Completion of individual fieldwork book and group project
Total Workload: 125

Section Breakdown
CRN	10748	Part of Term	Semester 1
Coursework	100%	Examination Weight	0%
Grade Scale	40PASS	Pass Both Elements	N
Resit Category	RC1	Best Mark	N
Module Co-ordinator	Kathleen Stokes	Module Teacher	Jonathan Cherry

Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Assessment Breakdown
Essay	Comprised of text and illustrations: drawing upon field notebook and secondary readings and research	50%	n/a
Fieldwork	Field course notebook	50%	n/a

Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories; RC1: A resit is available for both^* components of the module. RC2: No resit is available for a 100% coursework module. RC3: No resit is available for the coursework component where there is a coursework and summative examination element. ^* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a coursework/summative examination split; where the module is 100% coursework, there will also be a resit of the assessment

Pre-requisite	None
Co-requisite	None
Compatibles	None
Incompatibles	None

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Indicative Reading List

Books:

Taylor & Francis Group: 2021, Geographical Fieldwork in the 21st Century, 1, Routledge, 270, 9780367722364
Richard Phillips,Jennifer Johns: 2012, Fieldwork for Human Geography, SAGE Publications Limited, 240, 9780857025876

Articles:
None

Other Resources

None