Signal and survive

Before you begin

• Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
• This activity’s split into four bases – ‘Ground to air’, ‘Morse code’, ‘Tracking signals’ and ‘Rule of three’ – it’s best to set them up before everyone arrives.

Get organised

1. The person leading the activity should explain that preparing for an emergency situation before you set off on an expedition will help if there’s a crisis such as becoming lost, injured, or stranded. These situations can quickly become life-threatening, especially in extreme weather conditions. Being able to signal for help in your group, and being able to ask for outside assistance, are vital skills as they make a rescue much more likely.
2. Everyone should split into four groups.

3. Each group should go to a different base. They should get stuck into the activity there.
4. After 10 to 15 minutes, the person leading the activity should make a signal. Everyone should move to the next base and give it a go.
5. Everyone should change bases every 10 to 15 minutes (when the person leading the activity makes a signal) until everyone’s completed all four bases.
6. Everyone should come back together and reflect.

Ground to air

1. The person leading the base should explain that the ground to air symbols and body signals are internationally recognised symbols for communicating with emergency air crews, so they’re useful to know if you’ll be walking or climbing in remote areas.
2. The person leading the base should show everyone the symbols and signals. They should explain that the symbols should be marked out on the ground as big as possible, so they can be seen from the air. The recommended size is three metres wide by ten metres long (with about three metres between symbols).
3. Everyone should think about the different things they could use to make the symbols. In a survival situation, they could use rocks, logs, backpacks, or groundsheets – or even dig grooves in the ground. Anything that stands out from the ground works.

4. Everyone should split into two groups. Both groups should choose a message they’d like to send to the other group.
5. One group should make their message using the ground to air symbols. They should use whatever’s available to make the symbol, whether they’re outdoors with access to sticks, leaves, and rocks, or indoors with access to jumpers, bags, or paper.
6. At the same time, the other group should practise the body signals they’ll use.

7. The groups should take it in turns to show each other their signals. Does the other group know what they mean?
8. The groups should swap methods and repeat steps four to seven so everyone gets to practise their ground to air symbols and body signals.

Morse code

1. The person leading the game should explain that on a sunny day, reflective surfaces can be used to attract attention. They can be used to reflect the sunlight towards rescue aircraft.

2. The person leading the game should explain that at night, a torch can be used to signal. It’s important that people make sure they have fully charged batteries before they head out on an expedition. Some people have wind-up torches so they don’t have to worry about the batteries running out.
3. Everyone should split into two groups. Each group should have a copy of the ‘Morse code information’ sheet. One group should have a torch or mirror, and the other should have a pen or pencil and a piece of paper.
4. The group with the mirror or torch should choose a short message to send to the other group. They should send it using light and Morse code.

5. The other group should write down the message and use their sheet to help them decode it.
6. Once the group’s successfully received the message, the groups should swap roles so everyone has a turn at sending and decoding a message.

Tracking signals

1. The person leading the base should explain that tracking signals are useful if people need to move location or head out to get help.
2. Everyone should split into two groups.
3. One group should plot a short route in the meeting space. They should wait out of sight at the end of their route.

4. Once they’ve finished, the second group should follow the marked route to find the first group.

Rule of three

1. The person leading the base should explain that the rule of three is a really helpful thing to remember in a survival situation, especially if people are likely to be in the situation for a while before they’re rescued.
2. The person leading the base should read the rule of three. A person can survive: three minutes without oxygen, three hours without shelter from extreme weather, three days without water, and three weeks without food.

3. Everyone should work together to choose a pretend survival situation. They should think about how many people there are, where they are, how far they are from rescue, any illnesses or injuries in the group, and what supplies the group has with them.
4. Everyone should come up with a plan to keep themselves safe in the survival situation. They should use the rule of three to help them decide what to prioritise and think about who might be best at different tasks.