Developing Skills in a Physical Geography Laboratory

Abstract

The ability to solve problems and to make decisions is an important intellectual attribute. Judging from existing laboratory manuals, very little attention appears to have been directed in introductory physical geography towards developing the skills related to this attribute. This paper describes an attempt to define and develop skills in the setting of an introductory physical geography course, and gives example of the activities used in the laboratory. The skills defined are categorized as those which are geographic and those which generally intellectual. Some comment is also made on the teaching styles which appear appropriate to foster such skill development.