Keeping Your Advantage: Terrain and You, Week IV [Monday, Period 4]

[atreideslioness]

"Hello, students," Ghanima said as they gathered in the Danger Shop. "Today, we're back in a slightly more familiar climate: the prairie."

"Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type. Temperate grassland regions include the Pampas of Argentina, and the steppes of Russia and Central Asia," she said, the Danger Shop starting to cycle through various landscapes as she spoke. "This type of terrian is found on many planets, and in many varieties."


"Lands typically referred to as "prairie" tend to be in North America. The term encompasses much of the area referred to as the Great Plains of the United States and Canada. In the U.S., the area is constituted by most or all of the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, and sizable parts of the states of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Minnesota. The Central Valley of California is also prairie. The Canadian Prairies occupy vast areas of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta."

"While the prairie might seem harmless, there are a number of dangers," Ghanima continued. "Flash flooding, prairie fires, and wild animals can all strike at any time, no matter how safe you might feel."

"Don't camp by a river, stream, or dry creek bed, no matter how tempting," she cautioned. "Not only can floods spring up at any time, but predators often frequent those areas at dawn and dusk. If you see wildcat or bear tracks, or any tracks bigger than your hand, really, go in the opposite direction. You don't want to stay there."

"A good way to deter predators is to keep your food in closed plastic bags in your pack, and don't leave crumbs around. If you're lucky enough to have a tent with you, keep it zipped when you sleep, no matter how hot it is," Ghanima said. "If there's nothing there for them, most animals will leave you alone."

"If conditions are dry, try not to light a fire. Grasslands burn like you would not believe, and the last thing you want is to be caught in an inferno."

"But enough of the doom and gloom. Sometimes, the danger isn't immediate. Sometimes, it's as simple as getting lost." Ghanima turned around, looking around the vast, featureless landscape. "When dealing with grasslands, you have a severe lack of landmarks. You can try orienting yourself by the sun - which, on this planet, rises in the East and sets in the West for those of you that are new - but the sun shifts its alignment bit by bit every day. The much more accurate method of finding your way is the art of celestial navigation, also known as astronavigation." A wave of her hand, and the Danger Shop settled to one landscape and switched to night, the stars sparkling above them.

"On Earth, your best bet is to steer yourself by the North Star," she said as she pointed it out, making it pulse for a moment. "It is the fixed point that does not change."

She went on to explain how to use your fingers to count the degrees, and how you could use that to discover longitute and latitude. "Some of this may be familiar to some of you from sailing," she said, "but it works well for any landscape where you don't have landmarks to work with, and nowhere to stop for directions."

"Your assignment is to find your way to a campsite, about two miles due East of here," she said, handing out star maps and flashlights to people, including a bi-lingual one for Kenshin if he was there. "Once you get there, you'll find supplied for pitching tents, and s'mores. Of course, you'll still need to get your own firewood, and find a way to get the fire started."

"Now hop to it!" Ghanima laughed, clapping her hands. "There's chocolate waiting."

[OCD is ready and waiting!]

Comments

Sign-In #4

[atreideslioness]

By starlight!

Re: Sign-In #4

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

Re: Sign-In #4

[solo_sword]

Jaina Solo

Listen to the Lecture

[atreideslioness]

Pay attention, chat with friends, try to pick out constellations!

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

Firekeeper was listening, even if these particular dangers were something she already had plenty of experience dealing with.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[solo_sword]

Jaina was paying attention, since while navigation was nothing new to her, this sort of setting was, and she really hadn't paid much attention to anything like stars here.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

Fiona listened, but it wasn't anything she didn't know. She'd been tested on these sort of things several times over her life. Some of the constellations she knew were ones she hadn't gotten to see since the prairie had less light pollution than Del Sombre.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[wannabehunter]

Jo didn't miss the prairie at all, but looking around she did feel the slightest pang of homesickness.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[puppy_fair]

Oooh. A class on dealing with the dangers of the plains? Zack could totally use this one back home, too!

Even if the sky was completely different. Oh well. That was what the map on his phone was for.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[momslilassassin]

At least it was something he was good at. Ben listened carefully to the instructions about the constellations--he wasn't as familiar with the stars here as he'd like.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[future_sandworm]

The prairie was infinitely preferable to snow, while providing plenty of dangers, clearly. Leto listened to make sure he remembered the important facts.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[saikyou-no.livejournal.com]

Kenshin was paying attention; though he was no stranger to navigating by the stars, a prairie environment wasn't exactly something he'd had any much exposure to.

It seemed simple enough, but...

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Hello, Missouri, didn't miss you," Dinah muttered, then settled in to listen.

The Assignment!

[atreideslioness]

Grab your flashlights and star maps, you're heading out!

The Hike!

[atreideslioness]

Grumble, argue about directions, trip over a rock and get fake-poison ivy (which will wear off at the end of class). But the longer you dawdle, the less time you'll have for treats!

Re: The Hike!

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

True, the stars here were not the ones they'd grown up with, but it would have been foolish of Firekeeper and Blind Seer not to learn how to navigate using them during their several moonspans here.

Firekeeper couldn't actually read the words on the map, of course, but there were enough people around who knew that she couldn't that she figured they'd let her know if there was something of utter importance on there.

Re: The Hike!

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

Fiona didn't concern herself with a partner for today. If someone wanted to join her, they were welcome to tag along but she got going immediately, star map in hand and her eyes on the lookout for good brush to make a fire.

The Campsite!

[atreideslioness]

You made it! Now it's time to pitch the tents, and try to get a fire started. If you fail completely, Ghani will step in, but she's going to make you work for it first.

VICTORY!

[atreideslioness]

The fire is going, safely, and you can break out the s'mores kits. YUM.

Talk to the TAs

[atreideslioness]

Once they ping in.

Re: Talk to the TAs

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri was there, studying her star map very intently and, as usual even though it never gets mentioned in narrative keeping a lookout for anyone who might be bothered by the assignment or having trouble of some sort.

Re: Talk to the TAs

[likethestore.livejournal.com]

K-Mart was also there, studying her map and occasionally glancing up to look around at the other students.

Okay, more than occasionally. She took this seriously, dammit. Maybe too seriously, but hey.

Talk to Ghanima

[atreideslioness]

She's around, both before and after class.

OOC

[atreideslioness]

I'm slow today, as I have massive projects falling on my head. Best way to get my attention today (and Ghani's) is to shoot me an email or hit me on gchat.

Re: OOC

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

...I have no idea why I read that last bit as "hit me on the head with a goat".

I think I may need to take remedial reading comprehension or something, because wtf.