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Introduction

Anyone involved in orienteering knows it is an extremely time consuming task to set up an orienteering course. OnLine Orienteering was developed to facilitate a quick and easy way for setting up an orienteering course to teach map and compass skills. Since its original purpose, many additional ideas for OnLine Orienteering have been developed. Ideas range from boundary markers for games, to activities created for integrating mathematics and geography with physical education.

OnLine Orienteering can be used in the gym, classroom, commons area, lunch room or outdoors. It aids in teaching movement skills, knowledge of distance, angles, bearings, math, reading, following directions, decision making, cooperation and problem solving. It can also be used as a safety barrier, marking off areas for activities or class organization.

As your students use OnLine Orienteering, they will discover many exciting learning possibilities. This activity guide includes worksheets to assist you in your instruction, as well as information on compass use, designing maps, measuring distances, step pacing, learning directionality and motivating students in cooperative problem solving.

The actual OnLine Orienteering product is 125 feet of marking tape, 2" wide. On one side of the tape are the letters A-Z marked off in 5-foot sections. On the other side are the numbers (1-20). To make it user friendly, the tape is housed on a plastic reel that's easy to wind and unwind.

Orienteering Lead Up Activities

The first concept in learning orienteering is to be able to step off a consistent pace for distance. Using the tape, have a student walk along the tape and see how many steps they are taking between numbers.

Step #1
Explain to your students that a pace is the distance between every 2 steps a person takes. Have students attempt to only take 2 steps between numbers. Have each student start with their right foot and count by 5s every time their left foot touches the ground.

Step #2
Using the 100-foot OnLine Orienteering tape, have each student work on step counting starting at the 0 mark on the tape and go to the 20-foot number on the tape. Students should be encouraged to practice a 5-foot pace over the distance of the 100-foot tape. If they achieve an accurate 5-foot pace, then the measurements in the field become simply a matter of counting by 5...10...15...20...25...etc.

Step #3
After becoming proficient at pacing at 5-foot intervals, take the tape into an uneven terrain or wooded area and practice step counting. Students will learn that unobstructed ground, like a gym floor or playground, is easy, compared to outdoor terrain.

Step #4
Once students have a grasp on the pace concept, have them apply it to different locomotor skills like running and skipping.

Orienteering Compass And Compass Activities

For compass activities, one must use a modern orienteering compass that has a protractor and compass built into the instrument. Good orienteering compasses can be found in the Sportime catalog. With the compass you can learn how to shoot bearings in relationship to magnetic north.

Setting Up A Compass Activity

Step #1
Set up the OnLine Orienteering so that the end with number 1 or letter A is pointing west and the number 20 and letter Z are pointing east. All the given calculations are established with this West/East configuration.

Step #2
The compass activity cards included in this guide are set up so each student or group of students gets a card with different challenges on each card. With each challenge, a start number is given and then the degree and distance are given for each of the movement legs. At the end of the challenge the student should find the correct number that indicates they have correctly followed the directions given for that challenge. It is not easy to land exactly on the correct number, so the scoring allows for some margin of error. If the student gets the exact number correct, they get 100 points. Five points are deducted (from that 100 points) for each number they are away from the correct number. For example: If the correct number is 5 and they end up at 7, the student would receive a score of 90.

Step #3
After each challenge is completed, students will have their number answers verified by the teacher and then total up their score. When each student or group of students has completed all 3 challenges on their card they may trade cards with another person or group and continue the process. Included in this guide are examples of cards you'll find throughout the guide that are reproducible and can be used with up to 30 students. You can easily create your own cards by combining the 20 different challenges in a different order each time.

Step #4
To increase the challenge, the OnLine Orienteering system can be placed on types of different terrain that makes shooting the bearings and pacing off the distance more difficult. It is much easier to pace a distance when there are no trees, benches or fences to hinder and step counting procedure so adding one or more of these elements adds difficulty.

Step #5
Once the participants are able to successfully master the challenges presented in this guide, they are ready to develop their own challenges. Using the practice maps included throughout this guide, they can create a challenge course of their own on the map and then be able to test its accuracy on the OnLine Orienteering system. The blank practice maps are reproducible and there is also an example given to show you how to complete this process.

Activities

The following activities are examples of predetermined bearings that you can use with your students. This will save valuable teacher time as you can begin using the system and not have to take the time to measure and shoot bearings before attempting to have students use the compass and maps. The activities utilize a progression of 2-leg, 3-leg and multi-leg games. We have also included a small indoor course using only half of the numbers on the OnLine Orienteering system (this is a great rainy day activity for the gym or activity room). We hope that you and your students have fun while attempting to use this unique approach to orienteering.

View Acrobat Files to see Activities and Worksheets

Class Organizational Ideas

Roll out the line for sidelines of a soccer, football field or to serve as end lines. (If you have 4 lines, you can quickly set up a field without having to measure and chalk.

Use the line as an easy way to group students:

• Have all students stand on an individual number and then group them according to number of groups needed.
• Have students form equal lines behind letters B-A-S-E and S-H-O-T. Then use the two words to form groups. (Note: You can make up other words using 3 to 5 letters.)
• Students stand on the number that represents their birth month, then group.
• Use vowels (a, e, i, o, u) to form 5 groups.
• Students stand behind the letter that begins their first or last name, and then form groups.
• Have students form even lines behind A-B-C-D-E-F, then form groups.
• For team mates, students stand on number 1 to 20. They then pair off; 1 with 11, 2 with 12, 3 with 13 and so on, until 10 is with 20.

Additional Games And Activities

Roll out the line to its full 125 feet to provide a straight line for a running or walking track.

Use as a safety stop for activities like archery and disk.

Use as a distant marker for shooting, throwing, shot put or other activities.

Use the line for activities which involve locomotor movement from one designated letter or number to another.

• Starting at #1, students skip to a number that is their birth month. (Exception: If the month is #1, go to #20 and back.)
• Use as a balance beam (lay out straight, in circles, curves or right angles).

Use the numbers or letters on the tape as exercise stations. Example: Have students line up behind the tape at numbers 10-11-12-13. When the instructor says, "slide 8 numbers to your left," each group then slides 8 numbers to the left (they should end on 2-3-4-5). The students on even numbers do curl ups and odd numbered students do jumping jacks. Have them move another designated number of spaces to the right for the next round of exercises.

Using numbers on the line, determine which exercises are to be done at which location with small signs. The number on the line represents the number of repetitions to be done.

Provide groups of students with letters to a word and have them spell it on line. If there are 2 like letters in the word, 2 students stand behind the letter. Once in place they spell the word in order, loud and clear.

Provide the students with math problems and have them move to answer via walking, running, skipping or sliding to the correct answer.

• Add 2 numbers starting at #4 and hop to the answer (4 + 7 = 11).
• Subtract numbers starting with #14 and hop on one foot to answer (14 - 6 = 8).
• Divide by 2 (starting point) with forward rolls 18 and then to answer (20).
• Multiply 4 (starting point) and slide to 5 and then to answer (20).

Set up an exercise routine by putting various exercises (jumping jacks, push ups, shadow boxing) on both sides of the line and at different numbers. On a signal, students begin to do the repetitions indicated. On the next signal, move clockwise or counter clockwise to the next station.

Lay out the line and have students walk on the line while dribbling the ball with their right hand going one way, and return dribbling with their left hand. Another option is to stop on each number and dribble the ball with alternating hands the number of times indicated on the line the student is standing on. A student may also dribble along the line and at each number or letter do a V-dribble, then continue with the opposite hand. In this drill, the ball should never be bounced on the line. In basketball you dribble to the side and in front of your body.

You can also use the line for warm up exercises. Have students line up on line and begin jumping back and forth over the line, then as a group run around the web counter clockwise. Next, students put their hands on the line and do push ups followed by jogging clockwise around the line, all on signal. Continue with various exercises.

Begin with 2 lines on each side of the number 1. Standing about 4 to 6 feet apart along the length of the line, students pass a ball between them. Have them chest pass the first 10 feet, then change to passing with a bounce the next 10 feet, then overhead the next 10 feet and back to the chest passing again. Continue alternating pass types until the ball reaches the end of the line.