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Key pieces of information

1. Direction of travel. In what general direction are you hiking? South? Northeast? (illustrated by cupped hands holding a compass)

2. Up and down. Are you hiking uphill or downhill? (illustrated by arms out in front and back)

3. Left and right. What is the lay of the land to your right and left? Are you on a ridge, in a valley, hiking along the side of a mountain, etc.? (illustrated by arms out to the left and right)

4. Landmarks. What are the major landmarks? Are there nearby rivers, lakes, hills, clearings, roads, etc.? Can any of them be considered a handrail or backstop? (illustrated by bringing the hands together to make a mountain)


Other useful concepts

1. Handrail: a land feature (river, ridge, valley, etc., that you will be hiking alongside for a while).

2. Backstop: a land feature that, if you encounter, you will know you’ve gone too far.

3. Back bearing: if you deviate from your line of travel, sight an earlier landmark that was on your line of travel (a tree or boulder where you were standing a few minutes ago) and move until a backwards bearing (180° off of your real bearing) lines up with it.

4. Aiming off: to deliberately aim to one side of a target (the van) located near a feature (a dirt road) so that you know which way to turn upon arriving at the feature if you don’t immediately see the target.


Parts of a compass

1. Base plate

2. Compass housing (the liquid-filled chamber that contains the needle)

3. Dial/bezel (the edges of the compass housing that are marked with degrees)

4. Direction of Travel arrow (printed on the base plate)

5. Index line (a line at or under the dial that corresponds to the DOT arrow; read your bearing here).

6. Orienting arrow (under the compass housing; points to 0°/360°). We call this “the shed.”

7. Orienting lines/meridian lines (parallel to the orienting arrow; they make it easier to determine bearings when using maps). 

8. Magnetic needle (the red end points north).

9. Cardinal directions (North, East, South, West) correspond to 360 degrees.

10. A bearing is the direction in which you are heading as measured by a particular degree.


Using a compass

1. Why are compasses important/useful? They always point north. Imagine that you are in dense woods, with no trails, on a cloudy day, and you can’t see any landmarks. Or far out at sea with no land in sight. Or surrounded by thick fog. In any of those situations, you would be disoriented: you wouldn’t know what direction to go in. A compass provides you with that direction.

2. How do compasses work?

   1. Earth generates a magnetic field

   2. If you suspend a magnetized needle so it can spin freely (hang it from a thread, or put it on a piece of wood floating in a bowl of water), it will align itself with the earth’s magnetic field.

   3. The red end of the needle points to magnetic north

3. But, a compass can do more than just tell you which way is north. By using bearings - numbers between 0 and 360 that correspond to a precise direction - we can navigate with great precision.

4. Important: compasses have to be held LEVEL in order to work correctly.


Terminology

1. DOT Arrow means “Direction of Travel Arrow”

2. Put the Red in the Shed means rotate either the entire compass or just the compass housing until the red (North) end of the magnetic needle (“the Red”) is inside the Orienting Arrow (the “Shed”). Sometimes this maneuver is referred to as “boxing the needle.”

3. You can rotate the compass housing to put different numbers on top of the Index Line (which happens to be in line with the DOT Arrow). The number on top of the index line is the bearing.


Two types of bearings

1. Map bearings result from working with a map. A map bearing is the angle between true north (the top of your map) and some point on the map (like the top of a mountain).

2. Field bearings result from using your compass to measure things in the real world. A field bearing is the angle between magnetic north (where the red end of the needle points) and some point in the real world (like the top of a mountain).


Acquiring a field bearing

1. Problem: Imagine you are standing in a clearing, looking at a mountain in the distance. You want to walk in a straight line to the top of the mountain, but you know that you will lose sight of the mountain as soon as you enter the thick forest in front of you. How can you keep hiking straight towards the mountain, even when you can’t see it?
2. Answer: Acquire and use a field bearing. To acquire a field bearing, follow the three steps below:
   1. DOT Arrow: point the DOT Arrow directly at the mountain.

   2. Put the Red in the Shed by rotating the compass housing – rotate ONLY the housing, NOT the baseplate. Keep the DOT Arrow pointed straight at the mountain.

   3. Index Line: read the number on top of the index line. That’s your bearing! To use the bearing, see “Walking a bearing” below.


Acquiring a map bearing

1. Problem: you have been hiking all day in a thick patch of woods when you reach an obvious landmark on your map (for example, the north shore of a pond). From there, you want to hike in a straight line to the top of a distant mountain that you can see on the map but you can’t see in real life because of all the trees in the way. If you don’t see the mountain in real life, how can you hike straight to it?
2. Answer: Acquire and use a map bearing. To acquire a map bearing, orient the map, then follow the three steps below:
   1. DOT Arrow: line up the edge of your compass between your location on the map (the north shore of the pond) and your target destination (the mountain’s peak).

   2. Put the Red in the Shed by rotating the compass housing – rotate ONLY the housing, NOT the baseplate. Keep the edge of the compass lined up between your location and your target.

   3. Index Line: read the number on top of the index line. That’s your bearing! To use the bearing, see “Walking a bearing” below.


Walking a bearing (map or field)

1. Problem: you’re off-trail hiking in dense wilderness. From a previous map bearing you took, you know that if you keep hiking at a bearing of 118 degrees, you’ll eventually get to a beautiful pond deep in the woods. You stop for lunch. While you’re eating, your friend picks up the compass, starts playing with it, and moves the dial. How can you continue hiking towards the pond? Consider demonstrating this with one camper acting as “the beautiful pond” and another camper changing the dial on the compass.
2. Answer: set a bearing on your compass, and walk the bearing. If you’ve just acquired your bearing, odds are that you’ve already completed the three steps. In that case, just keep the Red in the Shed and start hiking. If your compass isn’t already set up with the correct bearing, do the following:
   1. Index Line: rotate the compass housing until the desired bearing is on top of the index line.

   2. Put the Red in the Shed by rotating the entire compass (and your body, if necessary). Don’t rotate the baseplate or change the number that’s on top of the index line; rotate the entire compass.

   3. DOT Arrow: your DOT Arrow is now pointed where you want to go. Hike exactly in that direction and you’ll get to your destination.


Compass activities

1. Give each student a compass (if possible). Point out an obvious landmark in the distance and have everyone with a compass acquire its bearing. Everyone should arrive at a similar number.

2. Now do the opposite: give everyone a bearing and have them point in that direction. Everyone should be pointing the same way.


Using “In-line Targets,” “Directors,” and “Runners”

In-line targets, directors, and runners is a concept that groups can use to follow a bearing accurately even in dense woods and difficult topography. To teach the concept, explain/act out what happens if you get off-track when walking a bearing: 

Problem: Have several campers play the role of thorns, and have another camper stand beyond them playing the role of a beautiful pond where you want to camp. Pretend to be walking along, following a bearing that will lead you to the pond. Encounter the thorns, and take several steps to the side to avoid them. Continue walking in the direction of your bearing. What will happen? You’ll MISS the pond. It’s like you’ve “changed lanes on the highway”: you’re still traveling in the correct direction, parallel to your original route, but you’re one lane over.

1. Solution 1: Use an In-Line Target. Use the same set-up (thorns, beautiful pond). But this time, have another student play the role of a tall, distinctive tree on the other side of the thorns that just happens to be right in line with your bearing. If you take note of the tree, you can put your compass away for the moment and work your way around the thorns to the base of the tree. Now you’re back “in-line.” Get your compass again, check your bearing, and continue hiking.
2. Solution 2: Use Directors and Runners. Use the same set-up (thorns, beautiful pond). But this time, pretend there is no distinctive tree. Instead, the person with the compass acts as the “director.” They stay put, in-line, and send “runners” out ahead, but not so far that the director can’t see the runners or the runners can’t hear the director. The director can shout instructions to the runners (“Move a few feet to your left! Good!”) until the runners are in-line with the bearing. Then the director can join the runners (who stay put until the director gets there) and repeat the process until the goal is reached.

Intro to maps

Materials needed

1. String (you can use the string on your compass)

2. The three mountain/contour line diagrams

3. Pen/marker

4. One set of contour cards for every two students.


Topography game

Have all the students stand in a circle. Explain the following seven topography features and how we can represent them using our arms and the people on either side of us. Have students demonstrate.

1. Flat ground. Point one arm straight ahead and another arm straight back. The two people on either side point their arms straight at you.

2. Summit: Point one arm ahead and down, and another arm back and down. The two people on either side squat down and point their arms up at you.

3. Ridge:

4. Valley:

5. Gap:

6. Contouring (along the right or left side of a mountain)

7. Hole:


Once you’ve reviewed all seven, make it a game. Point to someone in the circle, name a feature, and count to five. That person and the two people on either side have to represent the feature before you count to five.

Teaching parts of the map: general teaching techniques

If possible, hand out one map for every two to three students (it helps if the maps are identical) to prevent overcrowding around a single map. Ask questions to get the students talking: “What do you notice on this map?” “What does that mean for us?”

Parts of a map

Essentially...a map is a two-dimensional representation of our three-dimensional world.

Information in map margins:

1. Map name: corresponds to a prominent feature on the map

2. Date: indicates when the map was made. Older maps are likely to be less accurate, as changes may have occurred to the landscape since they were made.

3. Scale: measures distance.

4. Declination diagram: indicates the angle of difference between True North (TN or a five-pointed star), Magnetic North (MN), and Grid North (GN, which tells us the orientation of the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid system).

5. Coordinates: found at the corners of the map and indicate which lines of latitude and longitude the quadrangle borders. 

6. Lines of latitude (also called parallels) run horizontally (think rungs of a ladder) and measure how far north or south you are from the equator.

7. Lines of longitude (also called meridians) run vertically and measure how far east or west you are from Greenwich, England.

8. Contour interval: tells the vertical distance between contour lines.


Colors

1. Green: a woodland dense enough to conceal a platoon (40 people) per acre.

2. White: clearings, rock faces, or other non-forested areas

3. Blue: water (lakes, rivers, etc.) Dashed blue lines enclosing a white area indicate a permenant snow field or glacier.

4. Red: prominent roads.

5. Black: other human-made features such as trails, cabins, bridges, etc.

6. Brown: contour lines

7. Purple: recent additions or corrections to the map, based on aerial photos, but not yet confirmed from the ground.


Distance

1. Measuring distance: use a string (the lanyard on your compass) to follow the route on the map. Compare the string to the scale to get an estimate of miles.

2. The Hypotenuse Phenomenon: when you measure distance along steep uphills or downhills, you’re measuring the base of a “triangle” that in reality includes all the elevation that you’re gaining/losing. In reality, you’re hiking the hypotenuse of the triangle, not its base. Plus, hiking uphill (or downhill) is usually slower than hiking on flat ground. In general, add  to your measured distance 1 mile for every 1,000 feet of elevation gain and half a mile for every 1,000 feet of elevation loss.


Contour lines

1. Contour lines connect points of equal elevation. They are used to indicate the elevation and shape of land features.

2. Show the students the three diagrams: a “realistic” drawing of a mountain range, the same mountain range with lines drawn on it, the view of the mountain from above (or what it would look like if the mountain were squashed flat). As you present these diagrams, you could draw contour lines around your hand/knuckles and then flatten your hand to show what happens.

3. Another way to explain contour lines: imagine an island at low tide. Mark the line where the water meets the land. Now imagine that the tide goes up 5 feet. Mark the line again. Keep marking the line each time the tide goes up 5 feet.

4. Go back to the map: ask the students to identify the features that you described earlier.

   1. Summit: concentric circles

   2. Gap: lines make an hourglass

   3. Valley: lines generally V-shaped (V’s point uphill), often with water at the point of the V. How do you know which way is uphill/downhill? You could find an index contour and compare the elevations, or you could remember this: imagine that the two sides of the V are legs and the river is pee, flowing downhill.

   4. Ridge: generally more U-shaped than a valley (U’s point downhill).

   5. Steep ground: contour lines close together.

   6. Flat ground: contour lines far apart

   7. Contour hiking: when a trail parallels contour lines.

5. Explain contour intervals and index contours.


Activities

1. Split the students into pairs and give each pair a set of contour cards. Have each pair match their contour line cards with their landscape silhouette cards.

2. Longer activity: divide students into teams. Each team draws a simple mountain using contour lines on a piece of paper. Teams exchange papers, then try to sculpt the mountain out of sand.