Alternative environment activities (AEAs) play an essential role in student learning. AEAs are physical activities that occur outside of the traditional uses of the school gymnasium and playing fields. To support our students’ physical literacy journeys, development of fundamental movement skills, strength and endurance, cooperation and communication skills, and other dimensions of wellness (e.g., emotional and environmental), AEAs can be an invaluable component of any progressive physical education program, especially with physical education curricula across Canada encouraging, supporting, and requiring AEAs to be taught. AEA examples include frisbee golf, orienteering, swimming, skiing, skating, paddling, and nature-based physical activities. However, finding developmentally appropriate AEAs for the younger grades can sometimes be a challenge.
So, if you’re looking to add another AEA to your quality K to 6 physical education program—one that has minimal (if any) associated cost—how about considering string orienteering? Connecting the excitement of being outdoors with intellectual, social, and physical challenges, string orienteering affords learning opportunities that include communication, collaboration, exploration, problemsolving, and physical activity, all while offering an innovative variation to the more traditional and advanced sport: orienteering.
Orienteering: A sport requiring students to navigate through a specific environment (e.g., school playground, neighbourhood park, local nature trail), which usually includes a map and/or compass to help students locate control points and arrive at a designated finish line in a specific amount of time.
String Orienteering
A creative way to introduce students to orienteering is through string orienteering, which is an effective learning activity that gets students outside of the regular gymnasium setting and moving around a specific environment while cooperating, communicating, and problem-solving in small groups. A major difference between orienteering and string orienteering is in the name: a string helps lead students throughout the environment from one control point to the next—known as the string orienteering course—offering students an inclusive and accessible learning experience, despite any lack of navigational skills.
Ultimately, string orienteering is an effective AEA due to its simplicity (e.g., minimal equipment), inclusivity, and accessibility. String orienteering promotes learning for all and serves as an efficient way to introduce basic navigation and outdoor skills in an enjoyable, meaningful, and socially engaging way (e.g., fostering teamwork and communication).
Organizing a String Orienteering Activity
When organizing a string orienteering activity, in addition to obtaining enough string to connect the entire course, consider the following suggestions.
1. Creating a developmentally appropriate, accessible, and safe string orienteering course by selecting the environment (e.g., local park or school playground) and marking out various control points.
2. Developing a simple map, noting the starting point, control points, and the finish line.
3. Considering diverse learning needs when planning the course and control points, as well as how much time students will have/need to complete the course.
4. Forming the class into small groups (e.g., 2 to 3 students).
5. Having something that must be retrieved, answered, and/or performed at each control point (e.g., a math question, a stamp for a Learning Passport, 10 1-foot hops).
6. Ensuring each group has a pen/pencil to record information along the course (e.g., answers to questions posed at control points).
Ultimately, the string should lead the students from the starting point to the finish line.
Variations of String Orienteering
Countless versions of string orienteering are possible. In the simplest version, students follow the string around to find all control points. For the youngest students (K to 2), this version is sufficient and allows students to engage in an enjoyable learning activity while being exposed to maps and building confidence while physically moving through an alternative environment (e.g., neighborhood park). Also, the students learn more about map symbols and other simple orienteering-related navigational skills.
To add challenge to the string orienteering course for older students, there are a few modifications that teachers can make, including:
1. Excluding the control point locations from the map, promoting a greater level of problem-solving as students must figure out control point locations.
2. Placing the control points off the string inside the course’s loop.
3. Asking students to add things to their maps (e.g., have unmarked controls along the course to add to their maps).
4. Asking students to answer directional or topographical questions at control points based on reading their map and/or observing their natural surroundings (e.g., Have you traveled west, east, north, or south since the previous control point?).
5. Requiring students to use different movements (e.g., skipping, galloping, walking backwards) to move from one control point to the next.
6. Providing students with a compass and including questions at control points that require them to use the compass.
Guidelines for String Orienteering
The guidelines that students will be asked to follow may change depending on the grade level, developmental level, and/or location of the string orienteering course (e.g., staggered starting points). However, basic guidelines that students should be aware of when traveling along a string orienteering course include:
1. Group members must stay together.
2. Groups must not gather information from other groups.
3. Groups must not disturb other groups.
Each group is responsible for their course travel from control point to control point and for collecting items, recording information, and/or performing various physical activities along the course.
String Orienteering: An Enjoyable AEA for All
To conclude, string orienteering is more than grabbing hold of a string and following it along a teacher’s pre-determined loop on the playground. This innovative and enjoyable AEA is about collaboration, discovery, physical activity, communication and, ultimately, the excitement of completing the course with group members. In the beautiful outdoors, away from the school gymnasium, students can develop new skills and experience a sense of achievement while navigating their way along the course from control point to control point en route to reaching the finish line. More than just a sport, string orienteering offers an opportunity for students to discover, learn, communicate, problem-solve, and connect with nature in an inclusive, accessible, and meaningful manner in all seasons (e.g., snow string orienteering).
Are you ready to string together your newest AEA?
Enjoy teaching string orienteering!
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Brent Bradford
Brent Bradford (PhD) is a Professor of Education at Concordia University of Edmonton (CUE). Brent has extensive teaching experience at the school (2000-2009) and post-secondary (2009-present) levels. He has published widely in the field of physical education and wellness and has co-authored two teacher education textbooks related to Physical Education (2018) and Health Education [2017). In 2024, Brent published an edited volume, The Doctoral Journey: Educationalist Perspectives, and is Series Editor for The Doctoral Journey in Education book series (BRILL).
Nathan Hall
Nathan Hall (PhD) is a Professor at Brock University in Physical Education. His research and teaching are centred around physical literacy and physical education pedagogy. Dr. Hall is highly interested in novel physical activities and the benefits of getting children active outdoors. A central focus of Nathan’s present teaching and research is the incorporation of alternative environment activities (AEAs) in physical education programs.
This article is featured in Canadian Teacher Magazine’s Spring 2025 issue.
