This is part of a great thread on the value of and access to #fieldwork Here. Huge #geoscience issue just now due to #Covid19. I'd urge all geoscientists to read it (1/10) https://twitter.com/seis_matters/status/1253253266550464512

Like @seis_matters fieldwork was an epiphany for me. I didn't struggle (badly) in technical parts on my degree at @GeosciencesEd. But fieldwork gave depth and meaning to all the technical knowledge to which I was exposed. (2/10)

Siccar Point was a particular revelation. The combination of observation and deduction to reveal processes and their progress through space and time was almost intoxicating (as it clearly had been for Hutton and Playfair). (3/10)

As a now more than 2-decade educator I appreciate the many of the challenges that I found surmountable (due to my background) are not so easily met by all, and that our discipline has often been blind, or turned a blind eye to these. (4/10)

This includes a stint as HoD when I had final responsibility for ensuring the best field provision we could @DurUniEarthSci, when the buck ended up in my office more than once! We could all do with facing such realities when they are aired (5/10) https://twitter.com/seis_matters/status/1253215576337584130?s=20

But I held small group meetings with (>80%) our final year undergrads in each of my years as HoD at @DurUniEarthSci. The first question I asked each group was to reflect on their degree and tell me what they had enjoyed most. (x/10)

Every single group (we're talking close to 100 groups; close on 400 students) included #fieldwork as one of the things they enjoyed most. When I pressed students on what they enjoyed about #fieldwork, they said: (7/10)

Their experience was that #fieldwork promoted learning in itself. It was more than just "seeing examples in the wild" but a deepening of their understanding of lab-, practical-, book-, and lecture- acquired knowledge. (8/10)

Every group I spoke to said being in the field made them better learners in the lab and in the class room. This has certainly been my experience too, throughout my career (9/10)

I don't say this to question the huge value that virtual #fieldwork can provide. I just hope no momentum is lost in equating access to the field, rather than equating access to alternative skills by losing the value real #fieldwork brings. (10/10)