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Lesson 5: Compass Challenge

"Trust the compass, not your instincts"

Time	70 minutes
Space	Schoolyard, local park, or forested area with an orienteering map
Materials	Compasses (1 per student or pair), Poison Score-O maps (1 per pair), All-checkpoints map (for setup and answer key), Punch cards or index cards, Pencils, Checkpoints (orienteering flags, streamers, or cones)
Setup	Place all checkpoints including poison ones according to the all-checkpoints map
Vocabulary	Poison checkpoint, Attack point, Catching feature

Activities

core

Poison-O

Visit only the checkpoints shown on your map; avoid the poison ones.

Goals

Orienteering Goals

• Take compass bearings and follow them through terrain
• Read the map carefully to distinguish safe checkpoints from poison ones
• Use spatial relationship vocabulary to describe locations
• Navigate with increasing independence and confidence

Delivery

1. Safety review (5 min): review boundaries and buddy system. Introduce relocation strategies: what to do if you get lost. Stop. Look at your map. Can you see a feature you recognize? Walk to it and figure out where you are. If not, use your safety bearing to get back to a path or road. Reinforce: it is OK to get lost. Everyone gets lost. It is also OK to ask someone nearby for help.
2. Compass review (15 min): quick refresher on compass skills from Session 3. Practice taking bearings from a map and walking in the direction of travel. Introduce compass segments if ready: navigate a series of short legs using compass bearings only, without visible checkpoints between them.
3. Poison-O (40 min): hand out Poison Score-O maps. Practice relating verbal descriptions to the map (point to features, raise your hand if it is circled on your map). Explain the rules: visit the safe checkpoints, avoid the poison ones. Hand out punch cards. Pairs navigate and record codes. Because each pair has a different map, following another pair is not helpful. This forces genuine independent navigation. Score the results and discuss errors. If time, challenge pairs to correct their mistakes. If a pair finishes quickly, hand them a second Poison map variant with different checkpoints.
4. Wrap-up (10 min): announce scores. Discuss how campers told the difference between safe and poison checkpoints. What map-reading strategies helped most?

Reflection

• How did you tell the difference between a safe checkpoint and a poison one?
• What mistakes did you make? How could you avoid them next time?
• When did the compass help you most today?
• How is Poison-O different from Score-O?

Extensions

• Poison-O to full Score-O progression: after pairs finish all Poison map variants (A, B, C, D), give them a full Score-O map with every checkpoint and challenge them to find the most efficient route to visit all of them
• Poison-O solo instead of in pairs
• Leave the map at the start and navigate from memory
• Window-O: navigate with sections of the map removed, using compass to cross the blank areas