I worked with two classes of 5th graders this year, at the Morse school. The final field trip is scheduled for Friday, the big trip to the deep woods. As when I worked with the junior high for 6 years, this event is improving based on feedback and discussion with the teacher. This time the kids got to say whether they'd each prefer to go fast, medium or at a leisurely pace. They joined a team with similar desires. Each team plans how many landmark controls to get, and how to get their off-trail control. The teams sent emissaries to the negotiating table last week, to assign the off-trail controls. I provide the maps ahead of time for planning, for team and class discussion. Some off-trail controls are nearly in line with the route from the start to the lunch spot. Others are not.
The students have read the 20 biographical interviews with each JWOC team member. They also read Erin's draft ONA article, which is getting shortened due to timing of ONA vs JWOC (probably after), so I present the JWOC section of it here:
It’s championship season and the US juniors are gearing up for the Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC). This year brings new potential and new challenges. The JWOC races will be in the Czech Republic this year. Many of the juniors will be traveling there two weeks early this year to get extra training and preparation for the races. With half a year now of working together on the Junior Standing Team, we will see if that effort has paid off. After the intense week of competition, the juniors will head off to a three-day training camp with a coach from the Czech Republic. After the training camp the Juniors will disperse; some will head back home, and others will continue to race in various eastern European races all the way into August.
The JWOC race will present four unique challenges. The week of competition starts off with the Long. This will be a grueling physical challenge with shorter courses than the typical Long races, but with massive amounts of climb. The Middle Qualification and Final follow the Long. These will also be fairly short races; however, the maps will have lots of rock fields, making it harder to run fast. There will be a rest day after the Middle Final allowing the athletes to catch their breath and rest their legs. The Sprint follows the rest day, and will be held in the city center of Hradec Králové. This will be a fast race with some tricky route choices around the city streets and in and out of the little niches so common in European cities and villages. The Relay is the final event and one of the most exciting for everyone. It is the only team race.
This year at JWOC we have some team goals that we will need everyone’s good thoughts and support to attain. In the Long, we would like to have one finish in the top 50. We would like to have at least four athletes from each team (men’s and women’s) be in the top 100. In the Middle, we would like to have one A-final qualifier, and at least four athletes from each team make a B‑final. In the Sprint, we would like to have at least four people from each team be in the top 100 and one finish in top 70. Each country can enter two teams in the Relay. We would like to continue the success our men had last year with a top 20 finish; for the women, top 30 would be great. Some of these goals are a real reach, and will take a great effort by the athletes. It will require clean fast runs, fearless racing, relaxed character, positive thinking, and flexibility and adaptability to the terrain and the challenges that each race will present. You can follow the team on the US Team blog (usa-orienteering.blogspot.com), as well as on the JWOC event website (jwoc2013.cz). We will also do our best to keep the team members’ AttackPoint logs updated. Positive encouragement is huge to help the athletes maintain their enthusiasm and energy to race. If they feel that there is a community behind them it will give them huge amounts of inspiration.
The teacher told me that reading Erin's comments about JWOC really gave them good perspective for learning about the JWOC team members.
The students are making a banner, made of individual biographical pages and on the back some message from the 5th graders to the team. I'm to bring it with me to Europe. I'll have to remember to bring tape.
The JWOC team will have a fan club this year.