Books:

     Fleming, J. (1994). Staying Found: The complete map & compass handbook.  Seattle: The Mountaineers.
        This is not specifically an orienteering book, but it does a good job explaining basic map and compass skills.  It also provides some useful safety information about backcountry travel.

       Kjellstrom, B. (1976). Be an expert with map and compass: The orienteering handbook.  New York:  Charles Scriberner's Sons.
      I think there is an updated version of this book available.  This book explains many great games and activities in detail.  The book comes with a practice map and compass so that someone unfamiliar with map and compass can learn the necessary skills.  It also provides the address for Silva Orienteering Services.  This commercial organization sells many orienteering teaching aids.  These products do not appear on the Silva internet site.   For a list of current teaching aids, write to:
                SILVA Orienteering Services, USA
                Box 1604
                Binghampton, NY 13902
                (607)779-2264

There is also an address provided to order topographic maps for your area.  Send a postcard to the address below and request a Topographic Map Index Circular for your state as well as the Geological Survey booklet on Topographic Maps.  When I did this, I also got a nice chart of map symbols.  These booklets provide good material from which to make a bulletin board.             The address is:
                National Cartographic Information Center
                507 National Center
                Reston, Virginia 22092

        McNeill, C. (1998).  Teaching Orienteering (2nd ed.).  Champaign, IL:  Human Kinetics.
        I did not actually use this book.  I tried to order it from Human Kinetics in October 1998 and was informed that it was not yet in print.  I plan to acquire this book in the near future since I have found books published by Human Kinetics to be particularly useful.

         Pangrazi, R.P., & Darst, P.W. (1991).  Dynamic physical education for secondary students: Curriculum and instruction (2nd ed.).  pp. 456-465.  New York:  MacMillan Publishing.
        The pages noted contain many learning activities to use in an orienteering unit.  Many of the activities are similar to those in the Kjellstrom book, but it is useful to have them all laid out in a few pages.

       Rand, J., & Walker, T. (1976).  This is orienteering.  London:  Pelham books.
         This British book does a great job describing the competitive sport of orienteering from using the map and compass to navigation to planning your own orienteering course.
 
 
 

Internet Sites:

        Kjernsmos, K.  How to use a compass.  Available:  http://www.uio.no/~kjetikj/compass/
          Kjetil Kjernsmos has spent a considerable amount of time putting together a thorough tutorial on compass use.  He provides good instruction along with creative activities to use when teaching orienteering to children.  His home page also provides links to many other pages on orienteering and map and compass use.

       Kocbach, J.  (1998).  The world of O.  Available:  http://www.fi.uib.no/~jankoc/worldofo/O-pages/
           This page appears to have links to just about every orienteering page available on the internet.

        Trails Illustrated Topo Maps (1996).  Topo talk.  Available:  http://www.trailsillustrated.com/talk/trail.html
            This is a commercial site published by National Geographic.  It provides very good basic information about topographical maps and compasses.

        USGS (1998).  Teaching in the learning web at USGS.  Available:  http://www.usgs.gov/education/learnweb/activityIndex.html
            This site is maintained by the United States Geological Service.  Although it does not relate directly to orienteering, it gives many lesson ideas and activities about mapping (and other earth science topics) for many age groups.

Williams, H.  What is orienteering?  Available:                                                         http://www.williams.edu:803/Biology/orienteering/0~index.html
     This page, authored by Heather Williams, is an excellent internet source for information about orienteering.  There are many links within the page as well as links to other useful sites.
 
 

Return to Orienteering home page