Orienteering at school for ages 13-15, Chapter 10: MAPS WORLD WIDE

MAPS WORLD WIDE

Navigation is a valuable knowledge

Today we meet maps everywhere, both analogue and digital. Still, the analogue maps are most common in the form of paper maps, nautical charts and signs in all of its forms. However, the generation of today are uses the digital maps more and more through the “smartphone” or tablet. Regardless of the form of map, it is an important piece of knowledge to understand what information a map is giving. It is important to find the right route, to navigate or to orientate to the desired goal in a smart and efficient way.

Sweden’s most studied map, is most likely, the metro map in Stockholm. There are different versions of this map, more or less close to reality. The map to the right is the most relevant as it shows where the various metro stations located relative to each other and relative to TCentralen. It is “adapted to reality.”

In the curriculum for Sports and Health (Sweden), you can read the following: ”Knowledge of how to interpret the maps and drawings is essential for students to orientate themselves in different environments. In the environment, they should be able to orientate themselves in any different area. It can be anything from a shopping centre, to the forests and meadows. The curriculum has therefore decided to use the generic term “to orientate” rather than orienteering, reminiscent of the sport orienteering. Knowledge of how to orientate will of course also be used in the sport orienteering”.

You can find Shopping Malls nowadays everywhere and they are also one of the most visited places. We shop, we roam, we hang out, we drink coffee and ... well, the list goes on. The Shopping Mall has almost become a tourist attraction and an experience for the whole family.

All shopping centres have maps to help customers find the right department, the right business or “right product”. It also inform you as a customer so that you can find what you are looking for. The map to the right shows the largest sport stores in Scandinavia, ”Sport Shopen”, located a few kilometres south of Grebbestad.

From the known to the unknown

It is well known to most sports teachers that the forest, for many students, is an unknown place, a place that scares and it easily creates an insecurity. The unknown forest, the strange big city or a new country creates tough challenges to overcome.

In London and in New York, a Swedish company, T-Kartor AB, achieved the ability to deliver large and illustrative cycle maps. In these global metropolises these maps are posted on a number of strategic locations. Each sign has a map on both sides. It is the same map but they are ”turned correctly” so that the person viewing the map, either from one or the other direction can see that the map is adapted to reality. The symbol on the right of the map is also to the right in reality. You don’t have to turn around the map in your brain to understand in which direction you are looking at.

To fit the map to the reality or “red to red” is the basis for all maps understanding. This skill is very important for learning to orientate in a smart, understandable and effective way. The knowledge of this must be repeated at all stages, and it must be anchored in the beginning of the learning. The schoolyard map, not the forest map, is the best tool to use for this purpose.

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