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Description

Gamify using bearings and a compass to reinforce the teaching. We use our village churchyard (with the foreknowledge of the church) but adapt it to suit your surroundings. The general idea is the scouts use, or work out a bearing, or bearing and distance, follow it and record the surname of the grave they get to.
We have tiered the game increasing the difficulty. The lower tiers take no time to set up, the higher one take a little more prep.
Again, we use graves but you could Sharpie letters on pebbles and place them for your answers.

Resources

Compasses
Maps
Answer sheets
Pencils

Instructions

Run through a refresh on using a compass at the start of the evening so everyone has a chance!

Pick a start point in the middle of the churchyard (we use the older part and play after they've cut the grass)

Level 1
Identify 5 graves on the perimeter of the churchyard and use a compass to record their bearings. The scouts are then given a compass, paper and a pencil.
Brief the scouts on risks (uneven ground, don't climb on or swing/lean on grave stones) and advise them to be considerate. They need to record the surname for the furthest grave on each of the five given bearings.
The scouts ask for a bearing for a particular question number, you provide it, they follow it and record the surname on the headstone before returning and asking for another.

Level 2
Mark out 100m and get them to count their paces so they can measure distance.
This time each question is a bearing and distance or combination of them to a grave stone.

Level 3
As above, but use a map (doesn't have to be of where you are) for the scouts to work out their bearings.
Eg. Calculate the bearing from the phone box at SX237482 to the trig point at SX248478. Follow this bearing for 25m.

Tags

• compass bearings outdoor
• compass game

Badge Links

• Navigator - 6-figure reference
• Navigator - 6-figure reference
• Navigator - Bearings
• Navigator - OS Maps