Orienteering at school for ages 13-15, Chapter 28: LINE ORIENTEERING

LINE ORIENTEERING

In the known area (school yard)

LINE-O, 1: The teacher follows the dashed line and makes a stop at distinct objects/places. Students have a blank map and follow the teacher. The teacher reminds the students to “thumb your map” and especially “red-to-red”. The teacher asks the students “Where are we? “Where is for example the boulder on the map? “In which direction do I point now?” 

Students work together in pairs and show and answer the teacher’s questions by pointing on the map.

LINE-O, 2 and 3: The students will be divided into two groups and should follow the dashed lines. There are control markers placed at different distinct points along each dashed line. The task is to highlight where these are situated. The teacher reminds students to “thumb your map” and to focus on the “red-to-red”. 

Students can usefully cooperate two and two.

In the unknown area (can be forest)

LINE-O, 4: In this exercise, we will visit the forest or a more unknown area. The dotted line shows the student to follow handrails (paths, roads, slopes and height formations). On a number of occasions the line turns from the handrail, at or close to a distinctive objects. At these times you can change the direction, and it is important to fit the map to the reality or to use “red-to-red” to get the correct direction. 

After such a “short-cut”, the student will follow the next handrail to the coming short-cut. The controls, which the students are looking for, should be placed either at the short-cut or at an object which appear after the short-cut, e.g. a boulder.

Students can usefully cooperate two and two.

Practical information

The controls may be marked with orienteering markers and pin punches. If you have access to electronic punching systems such as EMIT or SPORTident these can be used advantageously. The checkpoints may also be marked in a simple way using plastic tape in bright colours.

As a warm up, the students can put out 1-2 controls and as warm down bring the same controls back again. However, this requires that you have a map for each control, but it may be worthwhile to produce these additional master maps.

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