Training Log Archive: barb

Took a girl scout troop on the White course at the NEOC Scout-O.

They were in grades 3-5.

It was hard to teach them with the full map. They were not super engaged; which is not to say that they weren't engaged at all -- just that I felt it was a constant struggle to be interesting enough to get them to look at me. I think going directly into a full forest O map for this age is tough. I started to think about whether it wouldn't be better to encourage scout troops to start with park orienteering, and perhaps some of our introductory lessons. Maybe we could partner with NEOC to do that. NEOC's Scout-O's are generally sold out (twice a year). I think partly that's so they can tick off their merit badge requirement, so it's possible they would not be interested in something more than the Scout-O.

Even a note to troop leaders with recommendations for preparing for the Scout-O might be good. Such as spending time in a troop meeting looking at the maps.

A simplified map might also help. For example, with White, just have the trails on there and allow them to focus on recognizing trail intersections in terrain, setting the map, and going in the right direction.

This was definitely a great learning experience for the adult leaders who were along. But I don't think it is the best approach for kids in grades 3-5 to just throw them into it. I mean, it's a fun outing, but I can see how it isn't something they come home begging for more of.

Having said that, there were plenty of older kids (pretty much all boys) running around out there.

Jim P told me that they used to have a training day then a competition day. But the reason they did not do that this year has something to do with a lawsuit by the Girl Scouts against the Boy Scouts, which kind of blows my mind. There had to be a way around that. Something about billing the second day as a Scout Championships.

Event: NG/CSU: Race on a Sprint Map
 

Ethan and I taught 4 sessions, totally ~175 kids, at Chelmsford. This was our first chance to work with students in that school district. Huge thanks to Ed Despard for making the map!

Some thoughts.

Special needs kids: I think it would help to send their aides and parents information a couple weeks ahead of the program, so that they are more prepared. Maybe some information and visuals about maps and orienteering, and exercises with the specific map that we'll be using. A full explanation of what the lesson will be like.

Kids who can't run: there was a student who had to sit out because they were recovering from concussion. We had in the lesson plan that we could use a student to manage the leaderboard, and we did in fact work with him in that way. But if we connect with the teachers ahead of time to find out whether there are any students who can't participate, again, that would be helpful - if the student knows they'll have a role and what it is.

I really love how kids respond to our format. By giving the map out ahead of time, with the courses on them, we encourage them to look and plan where they're going to go for a few minutes. The result is they take off running out of the start, instead of standing around puzzling over the map. By having them in groups of 2 or 3, they discuss together and show each other where controls are while they are waiting to start. I heard a PE teacher, while getting them into the start line, say: "if you are near the end of the line, you'll have more time to plan your route."

There were a few kids who had done orienteering before (we always ask). Around 5-10%. One kid, Miles, in 5th grade, had done it several times with his dad, and was super fast.

A few girls in 5th grade who do other sports (swimming, cross-country), were fast and competitive.

I invited a thumbs up, down, or in between at the end. When I asked the thumbs downers why the downed thumb, they said because of how hard it was to run so much. (The distances were around 500-800m per course.) This was cool because they were told they could choose whether to walk or run, and these were kids that were pushing themselves.

We'll be seeing most of the PE teachers again in 2 weeks at a presentation we're doing at NPEN in Methuen to 75 PE teachers (our session is maxed out for attendees :-), and then again in December and February at half-day workshops for PE teachers in Chelmsford. These next couple months will be crucial for us to figure out whether we're going to be able to attract clients to continue our work.

C • UDL 15

Biked to MIT, and around hanging controls, and then home. Pulling the bike trailer with the equipment. It was very rushed because there was not enough time after returning from Chelmsford.

We did sprint courses on the MIT campus. I had set both a short and a long but nearly everyone wanted to run the long. I ran out of maps. The results are here. Ethan mis-punched so Keegan beat him, although I think Keegan would have beat him regardless. I like the way Cristina set up our results so that we report both points and time, instead of just saying someone mispunched. Tim, another junior, had some sort of technical trouble so his time is not reflective of his actual speed. It was great to have the CRLS team there.

And so many MIT OC people! Really awesome to have them. I'd like to see CSU reach out to colleges in the area and bring in more orienteers. The agreement with MIT OC allowing us to put on these two events included that CSU would make a map of the campus that MIT OC could use, and that MIT OC will help us get permission for more events in the future. Ed suggested this plan, and I thought it was a great idea. However, I'm concerned that with Ed and Alex in Vermont, whether CSU will come through on this. Ed gave me the base map and I put in hours that I didn't really have to spare, to make it usable with canopies, and again this time with a few extra trees and some reshaping of control locations, but it is really not usable for a proper race. It's fine for training and informal introductions. For CSU to take advantage of the opportunity with MIT OC, someone other than me will need to step up. This was a money loser for us, with MIT OC people coming for free as part of this bargain, and NG spending money on admin time with setting up the registration and doing some marketing. It also took a bunch of my time, working on the map and scouting control locations and the event itself - and I'm way maxed out. We'll be cutting way back on doing public events in the future, because we just don't have the marketing skills to make it work. Instead, we will focus on the school programs. But I still feel that there is a lot of potential for CSU with the college crowds in the area. Those who attended last night really enjoyed it. Of course. It's orienteering. It's enjoyable.

So many fun things about this event. Marta, a friend of Brendan's from Basel, said hello! And it was fun playing with Lukas at the end in the dark. So glad that Steve Tarry makes the long trek on Wednesdays to join us. Wish we had more NEOCers!

The annual Morse orienteering on the school grounds. We used map updates that Eugenio made in the spring after the extensive renovations to the playgrounds. First time I've used EasyGec with Morse. Worked great.
The same two 5th grade classes will be doing a field trip to Fresh Pond for orienteering next week.

To work. To a school to teach with Ethan. Then back to work again. Then home.

We did an updated Lesson 1 with a third grade class.

* Brief intro. Six of about 20 kids had done orienteering before.
* Boundary run. Ethan's been sick; he ran super fast to stay ahead of the kids; he was pretty winded.
* Animal-O (with EasyGec) in geometric pattern
* Whiteboard map: kids fix errors
* Put animal stickers where they go on the map
* Get homework. I love giving homework for PE. Circle the cones in the drawing that are circled in the map. Handing out homework engendered mutterings about how much other homework they have. Ethan said they could probably do it on the walk back to class. One kid got down on the ground and did it right then and there. I think we should pitch it as a way to show people at home what they're doing in school.

Great PE teacher in terms of managing the kids and helping out: Mr. W.

Kid: "I thought I wasn't going to like this."

Hopefully you can see the video at this link

Brown. Loved it.