NavNight is the new LOC Activity night. I am the coordinator for it and funding is coming from the Participation side of BOF.
In the weeks leading up to the first night I distributed over 1300 flyers to all the junior and primary schools in the area. ActiveCumbria were to send press releases to the local papers and radio stations and get posters into the local leisure centres.
So, we had no idea of how many people would turn up on the first night. I was rather disappointed when only one family arrived, on top of my family with some extra 7 year olds. Still, they had a good time.
We started off looking at a range of different maps. I displayed a section of a map on the screen and sent them off to locate the actual map from a range of maps that were distributed on tables around the room. We then talked about the different types of map. I used 1:25000 OS and Harvey Superwalker maps; 1:50,000 Landranger; 1:25,000 French IGN; orienteering maps of UVHS, Birkrigg and Graythwaite; the London Tube map and a map showing Napoleon’s attack on and retreat from Moscow.
We then did a map jigsaw exercise, using parts of the same maps. Teams had to collect pieces of the map jigsaws that were scattered randomly around one end of the room. They had to run through a small agility course to get there. When all the pieces had been collected, they had to try to fit them together and negotiate with other teams to get the pieces they were missing. We repeated this after a cup of tea.
A good session that worked well, even if numbers were low.