Primitive Navigation - Landmark Navigation

Using their knowledge of the use of a compass, triangulation, and uncertainties, students set off to walk to the bridge at the end of JFK Street in Harvard. 

With a map, handout (attached), and compass, they walk down a street (JFK street in this particular exercise), take a bearing along the street, report it. They then walk to the bridge at the end of the street (could be any location that has a view of a number of distant landmarks). They take bearings to a number of landmarks that they can identify from a map provided. They then estimate the uncertainty in their bearings and then draw lines of position on the map along with a width that represents their uncertainties in the angles. Magnetic declination also has to be corrected for. They draw the lines of position and see how well they intersect at their location, and the range of uncertainty in position that they estimate. This activity is a graphic way of determining position. It also illustrates how one can estimate uncertainties in readings and how these translate into other uncertainties by using a graphical method.

Huth recommends that people pick a location that has a number of readily identifiable distant landmarks that can be represented on a map.