Teacher Guide: Lesson 18.5

The Weekly Reader Connections feature on Kids' Place Houghton Mifflin Math provides your students with additional information about the topics that appear in the Curriculum Connection feature in their student books.

The article “Orienteering Is the Way to Go” introduces students to orienteering, the sport in which the participant uses a compass and a map to navigate through the woods.

Typical orienteering courses vary not only by length, but also by difficulty (as suggested by the numbers of control points). The table shows the approximate length of each kind of course as well as the number of control points.

Kind of Course (by Color)	Length (in km)	Control Points	Type of Navigation
White (Beginners)	2–3	8 to 10	usually all on trail
Yellow (Advanced beginners)	3–4	10 to 12	usually on and near trail
Orange (Intermediate)	4–7	12 or more	some off trail, some on trail
Green (Advanced/short course)	4–7	12 or more	mostly off trail
Red (Advanced/long course)	7–9	15 or more	mostly off trail

The Word Wise activity focuses on the Latin derivation of the vocabulary word “terrain.” Students are asked to find and discuss the meanings of related words having the same derivation.

The Data Hunt activity explains how ratios and proportions are used in orienteering maps to determine the actual distances between control points. Most orienteering maps use the scale 1:15,000 or 1:10,000. Students are asked to complete this table using the 1 cm:10,000 cm scale by starting with the ratio 1 cm:100 m.

Control Points	Map Distance	Actual Distance
2 and 3	2 cm	200 m
5 and 6	4 cm	400 m
7 and 8	5 cm	500 m