Map Scales at BSOC

[HOCOLITE]

Interesting idea Mrs H. I know certainly in the W Mids schools don't think they are ready and upto BSOC so don't enter, and certainly primary schools are less likely to travel unless the event is local. There may be a problem though where you have a couple of good individuals ( I'm talking true school teams here not mainstream individuals )and a number of less experienced, the individuals might qualify but the team might not, you are then getting a division, the team don't go and the experience is lost. So many kids had a great experience, they only took back memories, but they wouldn't get the same at a regional schools event.
Hope that makes sense, I think I can see merits to both structures.

[awk]

From experience my children started O from the ages of 6 and 8 we were 'a new family' never done O before so no help from parents. They never had any trouble with 1:10000 scale and never had 1:5000.I then ran an O club at a primary school for about 6 years we used 1:10000 maps and the children did not struggle, in fact they easily related distance with 1:10000 because 1 cm equates to a football pitch.

Well, there we'll just have to agree to differ. I've seen loads of children having problems with 1:10k maps (a) because of the scale and the difficulty of picking out the relevant information and (b) because they've been presented with the 1:10k map not cut down, taking hours to fold and set up (the latter was a major bugbear when offspring was in that 6-9 age range). Slightly different issues, and the latter could be solved by a cut down 1:10k version, but then if doing that, why not increase the scale too?

The thing is, the good ones do deal with it (although small hands....) but it's surely a case of providing what's best within reason, not asking the children to 'cope'. I can 'cope' with a 1:15k map, but am very grateful that the standard scale for my class is larger as it makes the experience far more enjoyable, and me quicker (when 1:10k symbols are used as well!).

Good points Mrs H.