Are you looking for an activity that gets students outdoors, boosts their confidence, and sneakily teaches them valuable skills at the same time? Say goodbye to predictable sports days and hello to the thrill of orienteering!
As parents and teachers, we know the best learning happens when children are engaged and having fun. That’s why we’re always searching for activities that bridge the gap between classroom knowledge and real-world application. This is where orienteering steps in, transforming something as simple as a bush track into an exciting navigational challenge.
If you’re planning an excursion or looking for enriching activities for your next school camp, you need to know about the incredible learning benefits of this unique sport. It’s an adventure that combines physical activity with clever problem-solving, making it one of the most rewarding activities you can include in a primary or secondary school camp.
What is orienteering?
The simplest way to answer the question, “What is orienteering?” is to call it a competitive form of navigational cross-country running. But don’t worry, it’s much more fun than that sounds!
Orienteering involves navigating between control points marked on a detailed map, using only a map and a compass. The goal is simple: find all the points in the shortest time possible. It’s like a treasure hunt, where the map is the puzzle and the prize is the feeling of accomplishment (although there can be real prizes from time to time!).
A brief history of orienteering
While it’s a popular international sport today, orienteering has rugged origins dating back to Scandinavia in the late 19th century. The term “Orienteering”, which is the Swedish word for “Orientation”, was first coined by the military and used for training sessions that taught soldiers how to cross unfamiliar land quickly and efficiently using only a map and compass.
After World War I, a visionary Swedish Major named Ernst Killander saw the potential to turn this demanding military exercise into a competitive sport for everyone to enjoy. He believed it was a great way to get students and youngsters interested in athletics, utilising the scenic European landscape as the playing field, and he is now widely regarded as the father of orienteering.
The sport quickly gained global popularity, especially after the invention of reliable compasses in the 1930s, and became an international phenomenon, leading to the first World Championships in the 1960s. Today, it remains a sport where using your brain is just as important as using your legs, making it perfect for students of all ages and abilities.
What are the essential tools for orienteering?
Before you jump into the adventure that is orienteering, there are a few key items that you are going to need to make sure that you have the best experience. Don’t worry, there isn’t anything on this list that is too difficult to get your hands on, and many of you will have what you need to get started already!
The map
This is going to be your best friend when getting into orienteering. Unlike standard road maps, an orienteering map is drawn at a very large scale (often 1:10,000) and uses five distinct colours and symbols to represent every detail of the terrain, including boulders, fences, small ditches, and the runnability of the forest.
For example, on most maps, white means easily runnable forest, and dark green means thick vegetation you should probably avoid! This colour-coded approach is going to allow you to make the best decisions on which routes to take and which directions to go.
The compass
Speaking of directions, let’s talk about the compass. It is primarily used to orient the map so that the features on the map align with what we see in the real-world terrain. For those younger students or beginner orienteers, simply lining up the map to the north is enough. As students get older or more advanced, they will become more skilled at lining up the map to the terrain, and the sport can become much more strategic.
Control points and punching
Not really a physical item, but important nonetheless! The course is marked by circles on the map. At the centre of the circle is the control point, marked in the terrain by a flag.
To prove they visited the correct spot, students either use a manual punch or an electronic timing device (often called a “dibber” or “e-punch”).
And that’s it! Now you have all you need to get your students going on their very own orienteering adventure.
What are the benefits of orienteering
When organising school camps, teachers often look for activities that bring tangible educational and social benefits. Orienteering ticks every box, making it an excellent addition to any program, especially for those arranging primary school camps and secondary school camps.
While there are many benefits to adding this sport to the itinerary, here are some of the key benefits of orienteering for students on school camps:
Boosts students’ independence and decision-making
Orienteering encourages students to step away from following the crowd and trust their own judgment. They will need to make some crucial decisions about which routes they need to take. Do they take the quick path through the dense bush or the longer, more straightforward path around the hill? They will learn to weigh out the pros and cons of each decision they make, which will be a vital life lesson to learn.
- For younger students (Primary school camps): Learning to hold a map correctly and follow a simple path can build confidence in a non-classroom setting. It is a gentle way to introduce them to decision-making and the consequences of the decisions that they make.
- For older students (Secondary school camps): Navigating complex courses enhances analytical thinking and rapid decision-making under pressure, preparing them for real-world scenarios, such as making important business decisions in the heat of a meeting one day or analysing the cost of two suppliers to decide who to work with.
Improve their navigation and map skills
In a world dominated by GPS and digital navigation, the simple art of reading a map is a skill that is quickly becoming rare. Orienteering takes these digital options away from students and takes them back to the basics! This way, students can learn how to:
- Orient the map to North: Students learn to rotate the map until the magnetic north lines printed on the map line up perfectly with the compass needle. This means that the map is always set to match the direction of the ground around them.
- Match terrain features: Students quickly become masters of observation, learning to match features on the map (like the brown contour lines indicating a hill or the black lines showing a track) to the landscape they are moving through.
- Measure distance using pace and scale: Orienteering can also teach students important maths skills, such as distance estimation. This can be done in two main ways:
- Using scale: They learn to use the scale on the map (for example, 1cm = 100 meters) to measure the straight-line distance between control points.
- Pace counting: Students can line up a distance on the map with their actual steps or pace count. For example, if a student walks 100 meters as indicated on the map, and they counted 80 steps, then they know that every 80 steps is 100 meters on the map.
It gives students a cognitive workout
Studies have shown that the blend of physical activity and complex navigation actively enhances cognitive functions like attention, memory, and spatial awareness. By constantly visualising where they are and where they need to go in three dimensions, students give their mental GPS a huge upgrade.
It develops their teamwork and communication skills
While orienteering can be done solo, it’s often run in small teams during school camps. This makes it a fantastic activity for developing core communication skills and learning how to work in a team. When working in teams, they will quickly realise they need to clearly communicate routes and delegate roles.
To avoid wasting precious time, teams must learn to work efficiently. They quickly learn to assign roles—Who will be the expert map reader? Who is going to be the compass holder? Who will be the swift runner to punch the control?
Most importantly, the team must clearly communicate their chosen route before leaving their current point, making sure that everyone agrees on the plan to avoid frustrating arguments and backtracking.
They will also need to build some resilience for when things inevitably go wrong. Orienteering is full of small challenges—a wrong turn, a misread feature, or a dropped map. When the pressure is on, students need to work together when things go wrong.
Instead of giving up, they learn to stop, regroup, support each other, and figure out where they are on the map before moving on. This shared experience of problem-solving can build some tight bonds and teach some valuable life lessons.
Successfully completing a course is a huge win for team morale and shows students the true value of working together.
Get your students into orienteering with PGL school camps!
As you can see, orienteering is much more than just a race against the clock—it’s an activity that simultaneously improves cognitive skills, physical fitness, and crucial teamwork abilities. By mastering the map, compass, and the terrain at pace, students gain confidence and real-world independence that lasts long after the school camp is over.
At PGL, we believe these skills are essential. That’s why we proudly feature challenging and fun orienteering courses as one of our adventure activities on our school camps.
Contact us today to start planning your next school camp adventure.
A qualified teacher and former university lecturer, Steve has been our Guest Experience Manager at Campaspe Downs for many years. Steve’s work at Victoria University, setting up the “Iramoo Sustainability Centre”, focused on restoring and protecting the native grasslands of western Victoria, as well as advising schools how to set up indigenous gardens. He has lectured on science, indigenous education and outdoor education.
