1. Studying your home region
Contents
1.1 Dissertation
In many Finnish schools, pupils in the 8th or 9th grade complete a dissertation project that focuses on a single municipality. The dissertation project helps the students to learn how to apply the basic knowledge they have acquired during their geography courses. The project also helps the students to connect their geographical knowledge with skills and information they have acquired in other subjects.
Planning and writing a dissertation by yourself helps you develop your writing and language skills. It also aids you in understanding Finnish society and its features. Finally, it teaches you how to apply the knowledge and skills you have acquired in different subjects to a specific task.
1.2 Stages of geographic research
| Stage | Description |
|---|---|
| Problem or question | All research begins with curiosity, questions, problems or challenges. |
| Research question | The research question is a clear question for which the research will try to an answer. |
| Gathering information | Gathering information, making observations, creating visual materials, and studying maps and diagrams are all important parts of geographical research. Marking down the sources from which the information has been gathered is important. |
| Creating a report | Creating a final report of your research (such as a dissertation, essay, or video) collects the information you have found into a concise, presentable form. |
| Evaluation | The dissertation is evalued based on the quality of the work, the effort put into it and way in which it is presented. |
What kind of a research question will you plan to answer with your dissertation? Write down your research question in the comments.
1.3 Studying a municipality
Language and literature: The dissertation uses skills learned during the language and literature courses. These include planning and writing text with the correct grammatical and stylistic features, as well as referencing sources in a correct manner.
Geography: The instructions for the dissertation have been devised in a way that thematically connects the dissertation project to the 9th grade geography course. The dissertation can either be incorporated into the 9th grade geography course as a small project, or it can be the primary method of study during the course.
History and social studies: History studies things in relation to time, whereas geography studies things in relation to space. The dissertation can focus on how the municipality's history has affected its current geographical features, or alternatively focus on studying municipal history from a geographical perspective.
An old town hall in Rauma, Finland.
1.4 Where to begin?
Gathering information requires effort. The following guidelines help :
- Come up with 2–5 search words and use them to find information on the internet.
- What kinds of maps and map software do you have access to?
- What kind of information can you find in your school’s library and atlases?
- Write down all the useful information you find!
- Remeber to save links to your sources.
Use the following links to help you start gathering information for your dissertation online:
- Statistics Finland
- Local Finland.
- The Paikkatietoikkuna website is useful for making your own maps.
1.5 Instructions for the dissertation project
1.6 Evaluation
The dissertation is evaluated by both the student and the teacher at various stages. Most of all, the evaluation should focus on how the student uses and applies their geographical skills and knowledge.
The goal of studying geography is not only to learn geographical facts but to also learn various thinking skills:
All forms of learning require the use of the following skills: making observations and comparisons, collecting and classifying information, understanding relationships of cause and effect, and applying the skills into different situations.