Off the grid

You’ll need

Pens or pencils
Clipboards
Stopwatch or phone
Clues
Local map
Challenge sheet, app, or method of recording check ins
Printed maps

Before you begin

Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There's also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help.

Planning and setting up the activity

Select four to eight checkpoints across the area you’ll run the activity in.
Create clue cards that help participants identify the checkpoints.
Decide how teams will prove they have visited the location – is it a group photo, collecting a code word or meeting someone there?
Divide everyone into teams and provide each team with a map and challenge sheet.

Running the activity

Gather everyone together and explain that teams must travel across the area using only their observation, communication, and navigation skills. Tell teams if they’re allowed to use public transport or not.
Tell teams they may not use phones, navigation apps, or online maps during the challenge.
Give each team their first clue.
Teams must work out where the checkpoint is and travel there.
At each checkpoint, teams should complete a challenge before receiving their next clue.
Encourage teams to ask for directions, use local maps, read signs, use public transport and observe landmarks.
Award bonus points for finding alternative routes, helping other teams, or solving bonus puzzles.
Continue until all checkpoints have been completed or the time limit is reached.
Bring everyone back together and compare routes, decisions, and discoveries.
Celebrate creative problem solving and teamwork.

Reflection

Many people rely on technology to find their way around. Ask everyone to think about how they navigated without using their phones. What helped them find information? Did they use maps, landmarks, signs, or local knowledge? What did they discover about the area that they might otherwise have missed?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

You must run your activities in line with the Safeguarding Code of Conduct for Adults (Yellow Card) and report any concerns to the UK HQ Safeguarding Team.

Visits away from your meeting place: Complete a thorough risk assessment and include hazards, such as roads, woodland, plants, animals, and bodies of water (for example, rivers, ponds, lakes, and seas). You’ll probably need more adult helpers than usual. Your risk assessment should include how many adults you need. The young people to adult ratios are a minimum requirement. When you do your risk assessment, you might decide that you need more adults than the ratio specifies. Think about extra equipment that you may need to take with you, such as high visibility clothing, a first aid kit, water, and waterproofs. Throughout the activity, watch out for changes in the weather and do regular headcounts.
Hiking and walking: Follow the guidance for activities in Terrain Zero, or the guidance from our adventurous activity pages.
Outdoor activities: You must have permission to use the location. Always check the weather forecast, and inform parents and carers of any change in venue.

Make it accessible

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.