The Youth Mapping Program June Map of the Month is Fisher Hill Reservoir Park in Brookline, MA. This map was created in 2024 to teach students to identify landmarks and properly orient themselves, which has led to planning future orienteering activities!
Interested in having a map made of your school? Learn more about the program and apply here.
The Youth Mapping Program May Map of the Month is Abrams Park in Ridgefield, WA.
This map was created for the city of Ridgefield. Since then, the city has hosted orienteering events and Boy Scout trainings in the park, and even installed a permanent orienteering course!
Interested in having a map made of your school? Learn more about the program and apply here.
The Youth Mapping Program April Map of the Month is Lexington Montessori School in Lexington, MA. This map was created in 2021 and is still being used extensively!
This course was first used for an 11-week orienteering course for middle school students, and has since been used for a shorter Intro to Orienteering course for younger students, to teach general map skills, to map noteworthy trees for an outdoor education project, and even to map sugar maples for tapping!
“We love being able to use the woods and fields in a more deliberate way. It adds visual-spatial learning to the outdoor experience and gives us a new purpose for outdoor activities.”
Interested in having a map made of your school? Learn more about the program and apply here.
The Youth Mapping Program March Map of the Month is MetroWest YMCA Outdoor Center in Hopkinton, MA. This map was created in 2021 and is still being used extensively!
The YMCA’s summer camps introduce as many as 650 youth per day to orienteering. They also use the map for hiking, geocaching, and to teach basic map-reading skills. In addition to their own programming, MetroWest YMCA has partnered with local scout troops to utilize their orienteering course and with the New England Orienteering Club, who use the space for their large annual Intro to Orienteering event!
“It has certainly been a huge asset that greatly benefits our ability to serve the community and engage youth into outdoor education,” said Adventure and Outdoor Ed Director Tyler Reynolds.
Have you received a map from OUSA’s Youth Mapping Program? We want to hear how you’re using it! Let us know here.
The Youth Mapping Program February Map of the Month is Santiago High School in Corona, CA. The school’s AFJROTC (Air Force Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) program uses this map to train Orienteering Team members, for school competitions, and as part of an orienteering lesson aligned with California Common Core State Standards. According to Senior Aerospace Science Instructor Michael H. Manney, the best part of having the map is that it “allows students to be introduced and practically practice orienteering on an approved OUSA course map.”
The map above includes controls added by Santiago High School for their orienteering lesson.
Have you received a map from OUSA’s Youth Mapping Program? We want to hear how you’re using it! Let us know here.
The Youth Mapping Program January Map of the Month feature is Wakamatsu Farm in Placerville, CA. After successfully teaching his fifth-grade students orienteering skills using a YMP-made map at his school, local teacher Danny Lulla wanted to expand his course options by utilizing the historic area surrounding the school, Wakamatsu Farm. Danny worked with the landowner, the American River Conservancy, who include orienteering classes as part of their environmental education program.
Between Danny’s students and the American River Conservancy’s classes, hundreds of young people have been introduced to orienteering and learned valuable navigation skills using this course. According to Danny, the best outcome of having this map is “getting students outdoors and working with maps in a cooperative and fun environment.”
Interested in having a map made of your school? Learn more about the program and apply here.
The Youth Mapping Program December Map of the Month feature is Sprague Woods School Forest in Caledonia, MN. This city park was recently dedicated as a school forest and remains open to the public, but school groups are especially encouraged to use the space. Teacher Robbie Sobczak, who provided eye-on-the-ground support for this map, plans to use the map to introduce his 9th-grade Geography class to the sport of orienteering.
Are you interested in flexing your cartography skills and joining the growing team of YMP mappers? Sign up here. Note: Mappers for the YMP are remote cartographers with field checking performed by persons from the recipient organization collaborating with you remotely, with support from the core YMP consultant.
Please join us this Thursday, April 11th, for a presentation and discussion about Orienteering USA’s Youth Mapping Program (YMP).
The presentation will take place on Google Meet at 8:30pm EDT and can be accessed at: https://meet.google.com/ama-bpex-yrv
Our goals are to introduce orienteering to as many youth as possible, to develop orienteering mappers, and to create small teaching maps to start new orienteering programs in schools and other youth-serving organizations. We aim to support the first 3 of the 4 elements of OUSA’s mission.
Who should attend:
You can learn more about the YMP on the OUSA website: https://orienteeringusa.org/resources/ymp/
The convention was attended by several hundred teachers and others involved in PE education. We were invited to present by Austin Kulp, the president of VAHPERD, who previously had a map made through Orienteering USA’s Youth Mapping Program for his school.
Barb Bryant shared the Youth Mapping Program (YMP), which is an OUSA program to get good orienteering maps made for schools and other youth-serving organizations, and to help teachers with ideas for how to use them.
Navigation Games presented its school lesson plans for elementary and high school students. We set up our fun Geometric Animal-O activity indoors for the attendees to try out. There was a lot of laughter as they scurried about the conference room trying to find the right animal control. We also had SPORTident courses and Poison Score-O in a tiny park across the street from the conference venue. Andrea Schneider of OUSA’s YMP created a base map on short notice, and Barb created the map remotely using Google Street View. Several people took advantage of the spectacular fall weather to enjoy the outdoor courses.
Don Fish from Quantico Orienteering Club gave examples of how the club works with local schools, and invited the teachers to attend a QOC meet. He also asked them to get in touch with him if they want advice or collaboration on getting started. Don feels strongly that we need to bring more young people into the sport, because many of us orienteers are getting older!
The participants were enthusiastic about the possibility of including the demonstrated activities in their teaching.
We’d like to encourage clubs to connect with their state’s PE conference. We’d be happy to give advice for a fun and informative session. We created a companion website for our presentations; feel free to take anything you find useful! The website includes the slide presentations that we went through at the beginning of our 50-minute sessions.
This post was authored by Navigation Games president Barbara Bryant. If your club has news items of general interest to Orienteering USA clubs and members, please contact us at webmaster@nullorienteeringusa.org.
The Youth Mapping Program (YMP) Committee is seeking volunteer(s) who would be willing to help us with outreach to identify new schools and non-profit youth organizations who would be interested in a map. This role involves:
For more information about the Youth Mapping Program, see the Youth Mapping Program page on the OUSA website. Interested people should contact the YMP Committee at YMPCommittee@nullorienteeringusa.org.
After many, many years of volunteer service maintaining the US foot orienteering rolling rankings, OUSA’s longtime rankings coordinator Valerie Meyer has decided to step aside. OUSA therefore stands in need of one or more people to do the work of keeping the rankings updated as National Ranking Event (NRE) results come in.
The required qualifications are modest – passable computer literacy, including basic skills in using spreadsheet software, and access to Microsoft Excel are really all that is required, given a willingness to put in one to two hours work in the aftermath of every event including one or more NREs (perhaps more for particularly well-attended events or events with a lot of participants new to the rankings, e.g Junior Nationals).
If that sounds like you and keeping the OUSA rankings system going is something you think would give you a warm glow, please contact VP of Competition Jon Torrance at jon.torrance@nullorienteeringusa.org.
