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Once data has been gathered, presented and analysed, you must be able to conclude and evaluate your findings.

Conclusions

You should be able to synthesize findings and evidence to reach conclusions that relate to the initial questions set in the fieldwork at the beginning of the activity. There should be a definite statement which answers the initial big question and any sub questions set.

Geography can be ‘messy’, ie fieldwork does not always match typical or predicted outcomes. It is fine for you to state that your findings were unexpected or that you were not able to fully answer the question.

Evaluation

Within the final stage of a fieldwork report, you should be able to identify the limitations of geographical evidence - accuracy, reliability and bias. You should reflect critically on the strengths and limitations of both primary and secondary data, methods used, conclusions drawn and knowledge gained.

For example, if you have undertaken a physical geography fieldwork activity which explores the effects of longshore drift on a beach, then there must be recognition that the accuracy of the data collected may be a weakness because some of the recording equipment was not used or used ineffectively by some of the group.

Alternatively, if a human geography fieldwork activity was undertaken which explored the impacts of traffic on busy high street, then you must appreciate that some opinions in the bi-polar survey may have vested interests which may make the results biased.