Jump Budget: Plan Your Control Route

A planning and power challenge: each team has a budget of 60 jumps to visit controls of different value spread across the field, and it must estimate distances on a map before jumping. Students work on the standing long jump, estimation, and group decision-making.

How to play

1. Spread 12 controls (a cone with a card) worth 1 to 5 points, with higher values farther away. Each of six teams of 4 gets a map with distances between controls and a pencil (3 min).
2. Calibrate (3 min): each student measures one two-foot jump with the tape and the team finds its average.
3. Plan (4 min): with 60 jumps for the whole team, choose which controls to visit, in what order, and who does each leg.
4. Go (6 min): in relay, each member covers their leg with two-foot jumps counted out loud; a teammate keeps the total and the team writes each control's letter on the map.
5. If the team goes over 60 jumps, it loses the last control it visited. The team with the most points within budget wins.
6. Round two (5 min) with 50 jumps: 5-point controls only count if reached hopping on one foot. Wrap-up (3 min): compare plan and reality.

Rules

• A jump with an unbalanced landing gains no ground but still uses budget.
• Jump outside other teams' routes and always look ahead.
• Between legs, the next member starts from the control where the previous one finished.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: by wheelchair, each push counts as one jump.
• Autism or shyness: team accountant role plus a short agreed leg.
• Fitness level: each team splits the legs according to each member's strength.

Learning goals

• Estimate distances and figure out the cost of a route.
• Improve standing long jump technique.
• Make group decisions with limited information.

Equipment for a class of 25

• cones: 12
• cards: 12
• maps: 6
• pencils: 6
• measuring tapes: 2

Teacher tip

Measure the real map distances before class. Stress landing with bent knees to avoid overload.

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