Focal point: the strategy sheet
Marjorie Henry, Contributor

I am currently discussing the school-based assessment for geography in this series of lessons. After presenting a checklist in the first lesson on what you should have already done, in the second lesson I started to discuss the items included on the list. Already, I have done topic and the aim of the study. Today I will continue to share with you on the strategy sheet.

All students must complete and submit a strategy sheet. A duplicate copy must also be done. As the word strategy suggests, it is an indication of your overall plan on doing the study. This strategy sheet is distributed by the examination office and your teacher should have obtained it and given it to you to complete and return within a specific period of time. Most important, it must be done before you begin your field study. Your teacher should go through the completed document and, where necessary, make suggestions where areas of inadequacies are identified. This should then be passed back to you. Since this is your plan, you need to have it to refer to as you carry out your work. Your completed field study must have a copy of the final form of the strategy sheet.

The information you are required to give includes:

• The general topic of interest. This refers to the system in the syllabus under which your question to be investigated or topic falls. In my previous lesson I had stated that the topic you choose must come from one of the systems of the current syllabus. Indicate that system here.
• The possible question to be investigated. You may recall that in the last lesson I had indicated that the topic is usually stated as a question.
• The aim or purpose of your study. Remember that this needs to be specific in relation to what is to be done.
• How you intend to obtain the data for the study. This can include conducting interviews, administering questionnaires, doing observations in the field, and a review of maps and relevant literature.
• How you intend to present the data and findings in your report. This is done through illustrations of different types, analysing the data, discussing the findings and stating a conclusion.
• Stating the location of your study area. It is only on the strategy sheet that you write about the actual location of the area of study. You must state clearly where it is located, possibly in relation to a physical feature or distance from a major town, for example.
• The equipment and resources you will need. You may have to consult a large survey map of the area or you may need to use a particular instrument to do some measurement and perhaps a tape recorder when conducting an interview. These are all to be stated.
• The challenges you may encounter. You may wish to interview persons in administration at a company or an institution. You may not always have access to such individuals on your own. This, therefore, would be a challenge to you. You must now consider how to overcome this. One possible way is that of requesting a letter from your school, identifying you and stating the reason for wanting to conduct an interview.

Let me explain the relationship between the first two points by using one of the examples of the topics I gave in the last lesson.

"What are the effects of deforestation in Gordon Town, St Andrew, Jamaica?"

This question comes under the human-environment systems from the subsection of environmental degradation. In completing the strategy sheet, this is what you would write:

General topic of interest:

Environmental degradation

Possible questions to be investigated:

What are the effects of deforestation in Gordon Town, St Andrew, Jamaica?

When your completed strategy sheet has been corrected by your teacher and returned to you, you are now to prepare to collect your data. This will be the focus in the next lesson.

Leader of the Opposition Portia Simpson Miller with Charles Frost (centre), a St George's College student, and Usain Bolt at his press conference at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel on September 14. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

Marjorie Henry is an independent contributor. Send questions and comments to kerry-ann.hepburn@gleanerjm.com