As part of our preparation for this year’s camp, Kahikatea have been brushing up on our position and orientation. That is, studying our compass points, maps and figuring out what direction we are heading in.

The easy bit was remembering basic moves like forwards, backwards, left and right (make an ‘L’ Cam!). It got interesting when we learnt about quarter, half and three quarter turns because this tied into our fractions work in maths. Add to that, remembering the directions of turning clockwise and anti clockwise and things started getting trickier. Then Cam had us walk through ‘The Minefield of Doom’ with a bag over our heads with nothing but a buddy’s voice to get us safely through or not!

A compass is a really handy device to help find our way. It has a pointer that points North because it is a magnet that is attracted to force called magnetic North. This attraction is created because our Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field which is an invisible force that travels between the North and South Poles. So, while one end of a compass’s pointer will always point North, the other end will always point South.

What happens when we don’t have a compass? We can make one. First we got a needle which we needed to make magnetic (magnetise). We magnetised the needle by rubbing a magnet in one direction along the needle. We rubbed it 50 times just to be sure. Next, we balanced the needle on a plastic soft drink bottle lid which we then floated in a saucer of water. Lo and behold, the needle spun around until it pointed North. We checked this with a real compass and it seemed to work!