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Compas Skills and Games
By; Todd Shealy Mak 10
If you are looking for an easy outdoors activity for
your girls or boys youth club or scouting group, why
not teach about using a compass. If you don’t have
one, ask your local hiking or mountaineering club to
borrow one or have one sent from home. If you give
me enough warning, I can let you borrow mine. This
introductory activity is suitable for ages 11 and up and
can be completed in about an hour, depending on the
size of the group.
compass housing. Take a final bearing and walk
50 steps.
If your bearings have been accurate and your
steps the same length, you should be standing
next to the stick where you started.
First talk about how a compass works. We all know
that a compass points north, but in fact there are two
norths. Compass needles don’t point to True North;
they point to Magnetic North, an area in Canada 1000
miles (1609 km) away from True North. The difference between these two norths is called declination; it
is measured in degrees. If you are hiking with a map
and compass, it’s necessary to know this declination so
an adjustment can be made, or else you’ll end up off
course. But since we aren’t using a map in this activity, we can ignore declination for now.
Next explain the parts of a compass and review their
names with the students. Refer to the picture and word
list in this article. Then work on the following skills.
Give s