Physical Geography field trips and workshops

Geography / Physical

Landscapes and environment

Physical geography is a huge subject; one which no teacher can be expected to cover in any real depth during the average three term year. From Frozen Kingdoms and Polar Regions, to water cycles, and volcanoes and earthquakes to tropical rainforests. Perhaps because of its wide ranging subject matter, there are many areas of physical geography that have the capacity to greatly inspire almost every child you teach.

I was lucky enough to have two wonderful teachers for the subject during my school years, who took us out of the classroom at every opportunity. One week we were doing Spearman's rank correlation coefficient on plants, the next we were out looking at sediment transportation in a local river. They taught me to see all the processes at work in every landscape and inspired me on to a degree in the subject. I am not a geography teacher, but if I was, I would be keen to inspire my students, and the best way to do that is through a well planned school visit, which ties what they see out in the field, with what they read about in their text books.

Volcanic geology in Scotland, glacial remnants and limestone pavements of northern England, and chalk cliffs on the south coast, are all processes which we can easily attribute to the past, but physical geography is alive and well, and happening all around us today. Even though a trip to the Amazon or the Serengeti is probably well out of reach for the majority of schools, such environments have been recreated right here in the UK and offer superb learning opportunities for schools wishing to visit. We hope the listings displayed here are genuinely useful in planning your next physical geography school trip.