Using compass bearings

Using compass bearings

Auto-markingPencil and paperOnline interactive
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Working with Students
Further Resources
This task is about reading compass bearings in degrees.

Compass bearings show the number of degrees a direction is from North.

The following questions ask about how many degrees one town is from another.

Question 1Change answer

Mercury bay map
What is the name of the town that is on a bearing of about ...

a)  090º from Cook's Beach 

b)  180º from Whitianga 

c)  335º from Hahei 

Task administration: 
This task can be completed with pencil and paper and online with auto-marking displayed to students.
 
Equipment
Students should have protractor on hand to help with the finer detailed bearings.
Level:
4
Curriculum info: 
Maths, Geometry and Measurement, Position and orientation
Key Competencies: 
Using language, symbols, and texts
Keywords: 
direction, compass, bearings, maps
Description of task: 
Students use a protractor to locate towns on a map from given compass bearings.
Curriculum Links: 
This resource can be used to help to identify students' understanding of compass bearings and maps for Position and orientation.
Learning Progression Frameworks
This resource can provide evidence of learning associated with
Geometric thinking, sets 4-5
within the Mathematics Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Read more about the Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Answers/responses: 
  Y8 (11/1999)
a) Hahei difficult
b) Coroglen difficult
c) Kuaotunu very difficult
Teaching and learning: 
This resource involves working out a bearing from a given location. This involves bringing together two elements: knowing to read the bearing from the origin (town we are getting the bearing from); and knowing that a bearing always starts from North (000 or 0 degrees). 
Students should have worked with cardinal compass points before taking and identifying bearings. They should also have had some experience measuring in degrees, and know the difference between degrees in a bearing (always starting from North) and degrees in a turn from a direction (relative to the original direction). 
 
The resource Compass directions explores turns in degrees relative to the direction someone is facing.
The resource Compass points explores cardinal compass points as bearings from given positions.
Diagnostic and formative information: 
   Common error Likely reason
a)
b)		 Kuaotunu
Hahei		 Measures angles from West rather than North (in an anticlockwise direction).
a)  Hot water beach Students are not reading the 90º as a bearing, but more as a 90º turn from some point on the map. Students see that Hahei looks 90º to Hot water beach if you draw a vertical line down and then horizontal across it could hit Hot water beach.