Students navigate forestry course during wintery conditions
A big learning goal in this class is just how to be prepared for different types of weather, whether it be cold, rain, heat, and how to operate effectively and safely in these conditions. This course is Field Experience in Forest Resources. In today's class, we are going to be introducing map and compass skills. The students will first be introduced to the basics of a compass, how to set their declination, how to make distance measurements on a map, and how to make azimuth or bearing measurements on a map. They will then take those skills outside and make the same measurements outside using their pacing and their hand compass. Pretty much we just learned about how to use a compass, including azimuths and bearings and determining where you're going according to the cardinal directions. This class is really useful for me because everything that we learn, I'm going to be potentially doing in my future career. I'd like to either be a procurement or a consulting forester, so I think being able to go to different plots of land—especially new ones—and use a compass to get your azimuths and bearings will help you understand where you are and get a lay of the land. One of the most rewarding parts of this class is to really see the students grow throughout the semester. Many of the students start the class with very little experience with these skills and techniques, and as the class goes on, we really see the students learn and develop and feel very comfortable outdoors, where maybe at the beginning of the semester some of them were not.
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