Day Trip 3 – 30.01.

                                                                                              30.01.17

Day Trip 3 – Map, compass and navigation

Our third trip was all about orienteering. We walked up to “Jegersberg” again and once arrived at “Øvre Jegersbergvann” we were divided in eight different groups and were handed a map of “Jegersberg” of which the legend has been cut off. We had to find six different markers showing different symbols from the map and figure out their meanings. I was in a group with Mattias, Susanne, Simon and Phil and we took turns of who must read the map and lead the rest of the group, so we all could practice reading a map. It went quite well and although we, as group 8, had been started last, returned third.

After lunch, we remained in these eight groups and had to compete with group seven in four different games:

  • A matching game, where you had to match different symbols from a map with what they represent
  • Connect 4, where you had to run to the squares and then back again
  • An orienteering game called “Inner Compass”, where you had to turn to different directions while blindfolded
  • A throwing game, where you had to run around a branch ten times first and then throw four stones in different buckets with different distances while you are dizzy

The motivation to beat the other team was obvious and it helped to work together more intense and cheer each other up whenever it was necessary. The group’s social cohesion was even higher than last week’s as we have been interacting more often since then. Because we received points for each game dependent on our results I sensed the group’s task cohesion very high as well, which however isn’t to be expected automatically. At the same time, higher social cohesion doesn’t always mean higher task cohesion. There is no reverse effect necessarily, too. Both ways could have been observed by me within the other groups.

Nevertheless, referring to Tuckman’s 4-Stage group development model (1965) I would say we have been moving towards the second stage “Storming”. People have tried out different roles within the group which either led to agreement or disagreement.