A Kaleidoscope of Orienteering Activities

Deborah Tannehill &

Curriculum Students

Pacific Lutheran University

Orienteering has become known as the "thought sport". It involves running through natural terrain navigating a course using map and compasses to travel from control point to control point demonstrating physical endurance and critical thinking in determining the most efficient route.

Sprint, roller-blade, and mountain bike orienteering are just a few of the events that can be organized around this challenging sport. Orienteering is a great activity for integrating health and fitness with other areas of the curriculum. It can be designed progressively and offered at various stages across the curriculum. To be successful participants use problem solving, decision-making, and fitness. Students can design their own courses, organize and monitor their own events, and take responsibility for their own learning.

Orienteering meets the following Washington EALRs

• Health & Fitness

• Reading

• Arts

• Communication

• Social Studies: Geography

1. Use and construct maps, charts, and other resources

Following are a couple of orienteering events to get you started. More will be provided during the session with handouts you can take home.

Here is your chance to check your skill at using a compass and navigating a course.

Place a coin/marker on the ground between your feet. Set your Silva compass for an arbitrary direction between 0 and 120 degrees (for example, 40 degrees). Face your chosen bearing as directed by the compass and walk this bearing for 20 steps...STOP.

Look at your compass again. Add 120 degrees to your original bearing (for example, 40 +120 = 160). Set this new bearing on your compass. Face this new bearing as directed by the compass and walk this new bearing for 20 paces…STOP.

Again, add 120 degrees to your last setting (for example, 160 + 120 = 280). Reset your compass, determine the new direction to walk, and take 20 steps in the direction indicated by the travel arrow…STOP.

LOOK down and you should find your marker!

Working with a partner, your task is to navigate the course using the photos at each control point to guide you from one to the next.

• Examine the photo for your first control point
• Get your bearings before you go to the first control point
• At the control point, read the question on the back of the photo and then answer it on your score sheet
• Examine the photo on the front of the control and repeat the process of setting your bearings and then moving to the next control point

Working with your partner suggests that the two of you make cooperative decisions and discuss options and requires that you remain together throughout the event.

**This can be modified by having all the pictures on a board at home base. Students select which control points they want to locate and return to home base after they locate each one. This allows for the teacher to provide guidance frequently and keep "tabs" on the location of students.

Find out More About Orienteering

Andresen, S. (1977). The Orienteering Book. Mountain View, CA: World Publications.

Darst, P. W., & Swinford, M. E. (1984). Orienteering for secondary students. In R. P. Carlson, Ideas II: A sharing of teaching practices by secondary school physical education practitioners. Reston, VA: National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE).

Kjellstrom, B. (1986). Be expert with map and compass: The orienteering handbook. New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

Laubach, S. A. (1998). Introducing orienteering to your students. Teaching Elementary Physical Education, pp. 21-23.

McNeill, C., Cory-Wright, J., & Renfrow, T. (1998). Teaching Orienteering. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Mood, E., Musker, F. F., & Rink, J. E. (1999). Sports and Recreational Activities. Boston, MA: WCB McGraw-Hill.

Renfrew, R. (1997). Orienteering. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Silva Company, Division of Johnson Camping

Box 1604, Binghamton, NY, 13902

(607) 724-0411

AAA Travel maps of region

Orienteering Merit Badge Series

Boy Scouts of America

Local troop or council

Husky Orienteering Club

Cascade Orienteering Club

Chuckanut Orienteering Club

Eastern Washington Orienteering Club

Ellensberg Orienteering Club

Nisqually Orienteering Club

http://www.orienteering.org/iofold.htm (competitive orienteering)

http://www.us.orienteering.org/pacific.html (United States Orienteering)

http://www.uio.no/~kjeticj/compass/lesson1.html (Compass use)

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/james_baker (Youth Orienteering)

http://www.howstuffworks.com/compass.htm