Map and Compass Training

It's 9:40 p.m. and I have just returned from taking 25 Job Corps students to Wal-Mart and JC Penney for a personal clothing purchase. Tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. I have 30 students enrolled in wildland fire training and plan to cover map and compass use utilizing USGS 7.5 minute topographic maps. I also plan to incorporate fire line construction techniques and use of hand tools in the afternoon. It will be a long day because I don't have any help.

In the training I cover types of maps, map symbols and legends, reading the terrain, gradients, contour lines, scale, latitude and longitude, declination, distance, and a host of other topics include a brief introduction to GPS.

I did some additional research and discovered educational curriculums for children through the U.S. Geological Survey. In addition I also discovered that the U.S. Orienteering Federation had links to map and compass training as well as orienteering activities. Although I am not prepared to do so tomorrow, I hope to plan a treasure hunt in an area the students have not visited before to improve their map reading and compass skills.