Dear friends and supporters of Navigation Games,

This year we focused on helping educators teach orienteering, which greatly expands our reach and impact. 

Highlights:

• Cambridge: In the ’23-’24 school year, we added middle and high school curricula in addition to the existing elementary school Physical Education (PE) unit. 

• Brookline: We introduced a new PE unit at an elementary school for 3rd - 5th grade students, a professional development (training) session for all elementary PE teachers and an orienteering unit for 7th grade math students. 

• We delivered nine workshops for educators in school districts and at conferences.

• We hosted five visiting resident orienteers (from USA, Norway, France, Mozambique)

• We partnered with the Cambridge Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program.

• We organized 534 classes and events for nearly 7,000 participants.

• We advocated for a focus on school orienteering within the International Orienteering Federation, leading to a successful webinar for knowledge sharing.

• We rolled out our beginning teaching kit with animals by artist Marina Carlson

We could not have done all this without our amazing volunteers, staff, partner teachers and loyal supporters. So thank you to all of you!

Please help us continue our work in bringing orienteering education to schools and youth-serving organizations by making a one-time tax-deductible donation or setting up a recurring monthly donation. Please also request an employer match, from your company.

Through December 31st, your gift will be DOUBLED by several donors, up to $15,000!

You can donate:

• On our website

• Send a check to “Navigation Games”, 116 Henry St, Cambridge, MA 02139

• Via Venmo or PayPal (@NavigationGames) 

And now for a breakdown of our 2023 programs:

Workshops for Educators

• Cambridge Public Schools District, MA

• Public Schools of Brookline, MA

• Massachusetts Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation & Dance convention

• Massachusetts Environmental Education Society conference

• Inside Out Conference (Children & Nature Network)

• Association for Experiential Education (West and Heartland conferences)

• Agenda for Children symposium (Cambridge, MA)

• International Orienteering Federation webinar

Lesson Plans and Materials

• Developed and co-taught a 5-class high school PE curriculum

• Rolled out our new animal pictures by artist Marina Carlson

• Created beginning orienteering activity kits - now for sale on our website! All you need to teach 5 unique activities!

• Updated existing maps, and made new maps, of outdoor spaces in the greater Boston area

School Programs

• Supported physical education (PE) orienteering units in Cambridge, Brookline and Needham. The Cambridge program is a 6-class unit for approximately 500 pupils.

• Provided programming for over 200 middle school students in 13 classes for World Orienteering Week

• Coached 4 middle school teams in the spring and fall, reaching 60 students, and culminating in an end-of-season event

• Supported the Cambridge high school orienteering coach

Outside School

• Private and partner events reached hundreds of people

• Scout outings

• Mass Audubon events

• Cambridge Camping: April vacation week program and summer programming

• Somerville after-school programming

• Malden Summer Festival

• Fresh Pond Day

• Classes and events offered through town recreation depts

• Newton

• Brookline

• Public events in Cambridge in partnership with Cambridge Sports Union, co-sponsored by the Office of Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui

• Spring orienteering event @ Danehy Park

• Vampire-O @ Danehy Park with 174 participants

• Orienteering meet at Magazine Beach

Summer Programs

• International resident orienteers managed 9 teens for 6 weeks from the Cambridge Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program. The teens learned to orienteer, how to deliver programming and then taught classes at city summer camps, town recreation camps and public events. They also assembled our new kits.

Thanks to our partners New England Orienteering Club and Cambridge Sports Union for use of their maps! 

And we're looking forward to 2024:

Do you want to help us with our 2024 priorities? Do you personally know school administrators or PE / math teachers? Do you know outdoor educators? Do you know outdoor people who want to teach orienteering? If so, share your contacts - it could really help us when we:

• Market our PE and math orienteering curricula directly to teachers and administrators 

• Hold workshops for educators, teaching them how to bring orienteering into their classrooms

• Present at math / PE / experiential education and outdoor conferences, introducing orienteering and providing educator training

• Promote the use of our Beginning Teaching kit, with the necessary materials and lesson plans to start teaching immediately 

• Hire a program delivery team member, to train teachers, co-teach classes, run programming and help grow our impact

Other goals that we have for the year are to:

• Continue to develop our curricula, by providing more activities and teaching aides (e.g. videos)

• Further enhance the orienteering software that schools use, so it is more user-friendly and provides better feedback to users

• Design metrics to measure our programs’ impact

Thank you again for all your support, encouragement and enthusiasm! Can't wait to see you all again soon!