27.01.20

Group Dynamics – “Map and Compass”

Our group activity at this Monday was about Map and Compass. We were divided into groups between 3 and 5, which is a good group size. Our group was three internationals and one guy from Norway.
Our task was to find the signed places in the map and take a creative photo there. The photos and a game in the end was rated and we could win a little price. So this group learned from the feedback last week. Because the group cohesion becomes better, when there is a common goal, which was now there. Also the photos were now rated by a “jury”, which made the whole game more professional, because not everybody could rate and just rate the other groups worse than the own one.
Jarle had a lot of experiences and knowledge about the work with map and compass. His knowledge helped us a lot and he worked with us very well. I think he was a good coach, because he didn´t just showed us the way. He always asked us first, which way we would choose and why. And let us make our own experiences with the map. When he thought we are going in the complete wrong way, he didn´t just said that we are wrong and that we should follow him, he explained us his idea and asked us if we can understand and also support it. So I didn´t felt like a ignorant student, more than a member of his team. His advantage as a veileder was, that he made a lot of experience with map and compass in school and also in the military.
After we finished the map-tour, we had to work with our compass back in the camp. Our task was, we had to hide anything and another team should find it just by using the compass. So Jarle showed us how to set a compass that we can just follow the arrow on it and everyone of our team tried it. I think it is a very good activity, but almost useless during a real hike, because you just have to follow the arrow and the arrow doesn´t care about cliffs, water, …
In the end we made a quiz about map and compass, what was also a very good idea, because the questions weren´t just random questions, they were about the topic of the day and we could use our knowledge and learn some more. And if we knew the answer we had to run in different ways to a point, and the one who was first there was allowed to answer the question. So it was a game that was active, coordinative, for sure fun and also teambuilding.
At the end of the games our team won the price, because of our good pictures. That made the cohesion in our group better, because we won and had a fun time together.