Course Setter for a Day: Sprint Courses with Real Route Choices

With a 'forest' of 30 controls already set out in the schoolyard, each pair designs a sprint course following good course-setting principles, and another pair runs it. Students learn to see orienteering from the other side: the person who designs it.

How to play

1. Course-setting principles: vary leg length and direction, include at least two route-choice legs, avoid entering and leaving a control the same way, and place controls only in safe spots (5 min).
2. Design in pairs: using the 30-control map, each pair draws a 6-control course in red and writes why they chose each leg (10 min).
3. Peer review: another pair checks the course against a checklist and suggests one change (5 min).
4. Test run: pairs swap courses and each member runs it separately; the designers time them and watch their route choices (10 min).
5. Feedback: the runner says which leg made them think, and the setter checks whether the route choice played out as planned (5 min).

Rules

• Use only controls already in the forest: nobody moves one.
• No leg may cross out-of-bounds areas or send runners down stairs at speed.
• Draw the course in red with clear circles, lines, and numbers.
• Critique the course using the checklist, not personal taste.

Variations

Adaptations

• Visual impairment: designs on an enlarged map, and the runner goes out with a guide.
• Limited mobility: sets an accessible course and times runners; their course gets tested too.
• Low confidence: the pair can start from a sample leg from the teacher and modify it.

Learning goals

• Apply basic course-setting principles.
• Analyze route choice from the designer's point of view.
• Give and receive reasoned technical feedback.

Equipment for a class of 25

• school maps: 45
• control markers: 30
• crayons: 30
• control cards: 30
• red markers: 15

Teacher tip

Hang the 30 numbered controls before class and print the map with all of them in purple or black so the red courses stand out. The typical mistake is putting controls too close together with no choice; require at least two possible routes per leg.

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