Our first fieldtrip with our first-year cohort is within the first 3 weeks of the programme.
In preparation we ask students to create a poster, and this gives students the opportunity to discover what the environment is like ahead of going. This is a useful preparation tool and allows students to become familiar with where they are going the conditions, they are likely to face. We collect data before we go about different student needs and address those early on. However, a key objective of this first trip is to allow students to find out about themselves and discover what it is like to work in a field environment. We have a student cohort from some quite diverse backgrounds with their own challenges and so this trip allows them to get a feel for fieldwork. It also allows staff to find out more about the students and consider what additional support a student might need with future trips. We avoid making this first trip too strenuous and focus on making it as inclusive as possible to facilitate this objective.
