Hi All,

I have just become a Scout Leader, and would like to do some compass work with my group. Does anyone have any ideas for some games or Activities, or know of any good websites I could use.

Thanks in advance for your help

Stuart

For an inside hut activity, try and make a compass.

What you need: Glass of water, Cork and a pin

If you lie the pin in the middle of the cork and float it on the water, it should become a working compass and point to north. Its all scientific stuff. I haven't tried it since I was a scout myself.

Classic compass game: North, South, East and West. Label the 4 walls of the room with N S E W for the points of a compass and call out one of them, and the yp have to run to the right one, last one there is out. You can make it harder, by adding NW NE SW SE into the mix.

Good navigational exercise.

Dump each patrol in a different area of a field. Give them a compass and instructions as to what direction to go and how many paces to take: e.g. Face North
10 paces forward
Face East
2 spaces forward
etc.

At the exact place that they should finish, hide a prize, or even instructions to another navigational exercise. Its more fun when its pitch dark.

If you can take them outside, give instructions to find a central spot in the area where you can see various landmarks e.g. church spire and get them to work out what baring each landmark is at.

Thats all the ones I can think of, or remember from being a scout. Im a beaver leader so I don't get to do this sort of thing so I hope that helps.

And, welcome to Scout Forum, and Scouting - I hope you enjoy yourself.

:D :D THANK YOU, I WILL GIVE THEM A TRY

Let us know how you get on.

Probably the best way to learn to use a compass is to use it outside the Scout Hut. I would sugges that you do some preparation work using map and compass inside. If you look at the Ordnance Survey web site (http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/), you will find some very useful information on maps and compass.
Once outside try
- to follow a bearing on the ground,
- find a feature on a map and then try and find it (often more difficult than it looks)
- find a high point and try to locate feature on the ground using a compass and map

Apart from that the only thing you can do is practice, practice and practice!!

Good luck. If you need any more help, please ask.

Chris Anthony

We have used the Map reading made easy peasy (near bottom of http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/...ces/index.html) with ours. This is less compass work but will give them a good understanding of the OS maps etc.

also, this, http://www.inquiry.net/outdoor/games/training.htm, not sure how much use it is though.

Thank you for your ideas. I used a couple of them on Thursday, which went well. I am hoping to do a Night Hike with them teaching them more about compass work.

Glad it went well.

A night hike is a superb idea!!

During my ML (Mountain Leader Training) in North Wales, our instructor took us out for a night hike which involved going into the mountain following old slate workings. At about midnight we finally came to the surface and Barney, the ML instructor, turned to us and said "now get me back to camp". This was a true test of using a map and compass at night.

Hope all goes well with your hike.