The Environmental Management Office had the great opportunity to participate in ASAP’s Prevention/Intervention Girls Summit and Adventure Group Chilicote Ranch Activity.  This gave the department an excellent chance to mentor the Tigua youth in a positive way. Since the Chilicote Ranch lends itself to many outdoor activities the GIS Division of the Environmental Office conducted a compass navigation course. We had 16 Tigua youth made up of 9 girls and 7 boys ranging in ages from 10 to 14 years participate in the course.

Three-leg compass walk activity

The purpose of this exercise is to practice taking degree bearings and following them. We started by setting the compass at different degrees starting at 360 degrees and walking 50 paces in that direction followed by 120 degrees and then 240 degrees following the same pattern walking 50 paces each time the compass is set to different bearing. The goal of the activity is to end up in the same place that they started at. I am happy to report that all summer youth participants did really well with section of the course.

Compass/Map Navigation

We started off with a control marker and had the participants navigate themselves to three additional markers. The participants used the compasses to figure out what direction to head from each marker but the course also taught the students how to identify map features such as contour line spacing and how landmarks such as high peaks and valleys are identified on maps to help them locate the markers faster and more efficiently.

The participants all excelled at this activity finding all markers but the Environmental Management Office would like to recognize Jerry Ramirez as the outstanding navigation participant finding all markers in record time. Good Job Jerry! Overall the activity was a great success and we would like to thank the ASAP department especially ASAP chaperones for allowing the Environmental Office to participate in their programs activities.