Geocaching
“The sport where you are the search engine."
Prepared by Sheila Adams
Rye Jr. High, Rye, NH, USA
“The sport where you are the search engine." |
Have a GPS (Global Positioning System) and don’t know what to do with it? Try geocaching (pronounced geo cashing). It’s a tech version of a treasure hunt. There are small boxes hidden all over the world. The only way to find them is to go geocaching.
Basic Directions:
Types of caches:
• Traditional – The container has small ‘treasures’ in it.
• Virtual – There’s no container but you have a task to do at the site, for example find
the name of a statue or other landmark.
• Hybrid- This is a combination geocache and letterbox. A letterbox does not require a
GPS to find and there is a rubber stamp, stamp pad and log book inside to record
your visit (similar to a passport).
• Travel bugs – This is a dog-tag like item that ‘hitchhikes’ from geocache to geocache by
geocachers. Each travel bug has its own web page to track its progress.
You can also use the GPS to find exact locations for monitoring projects, such as GLOBE, measure speeds, estimating and measuring distances, orienteering and enrichment.
Getting started with a class:
It’s not easy with one GPS and 25 students so if you can ask the students to bring in their GPS for class the day before it helps a lot. (The day before helps so you can familiarize yourself with that model of GPS. Most students don’t know how to use their own GPS.) Note: some car GPS units do not have the ability to use latitude and longitude data.
I start out with the J-tracking web site that’s listed below. You can select GPS satellites and see their orbit and find out how many there are in space (24). I would then discuss how a GPS works. You may also want to talk about triangulation. There are many websites that can help you.
There may organizations that allow you to borrow a set of GPS, such as universities. Now you’ll want to get the GPS’s in their hands. Make sure you have enough batteries on hand. Share that the GPS (inexpensive model) only receives a signal and needs time to lock on to the signals. As they move with the GPS, there will be a slight delay as the GPS averages the signal. The screen will not be updated immediately. For that reason, I have another student with them using a compass. The compass will always point to magnetic north and the GPS can be oriented with that as needed.
When the GPS is locked in with signals, its screen will change to show the latitude and longitude. Have the students record their site. Then have them move and see if and how the waypoints change. There are several navigation screens available on the GPS’s. Have them go through the various screens to determine their purposes.
The GPS will track the speed for you too. Get the students running to see how fast they can go. This is not easy as they have to read the GPS as they are running.
I’ve also had them estimate distances with the GPS. While walking (or running) you can keep track of the distance. For another project, we needed to know the distance to Florence, Italy. I had them estimate the distance, first by guessing then using the scale in the atlas. We took out the GPS’s, plugged in the latitude and longitude for Florence and hit the ‘goto’ button. It will display the exact distance.
Next, the students need to learn a little about navigation. Discuss bearing, heading, compass points, degrees (and minutes). I have them practice with hiding and seeking each others’ markers on the field. The directions can be as simple as using paces and a compass direction to the more complex where they create landmarks on the GPS.
In the nearby field, I place a sample cache for the students to find. With more practice, they can become very good navigators and anticipate where the cache will be as they get closer in distance.
I’ve involved the families by offering geocaching sessions at nearby locations on weekends. I show them the printout of a geocache registered at www.geocaching.com and let the students lead the group. As with any outdoor activity, we go over safety issues (potential environmental and physical hazards), staying together as a group (responsibilities of the first and last person in the hiking group), sharing the GPS’s, respecting the environment and observing along the way (teachable moments).
The PTA has helped us purchase more GPS units. With the help of the school media generalist, a lending system for the GPS’s has been established, so the students may use them on the weekends and vacations.
This is the low-tech version of geocaching. This sport has been around long before geocaching. Letterboxes are also left around the world. At their website, www.letterboxing.org, you can find directions to these boxes. Some are complex that require good orienteering skills and others are very basic and easy to follow.
A letterbox contains a log book, stamp pad and a rubber stamp. This works like a passport system. You visit the site and stamp your book with the rubber stamp, then you take your rubber stamp you created or bought and stamp their log book.
Web Sites:
J-tracking 3D (shows the GPS satellites around the Earth; go to the spacecraft section then the 3D part) http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/RealTime/JTrack/
Trimble - All About GPS http://www.trimble.com/gps/
How the GPS works http://www.trimble.com/gps/howgps.shtml
How Stuff Works – GPS - http://www.howstuffworks.com/gps.htm
Extensions
GIS/GPS in K12 Education -- Lessons, Software, Resources, Links
http://www.remc11.k12.mi.us/bcisd/classres/gis.htm
GIS free software - http://www.esri.com/software/arcexplorer/index.html
Google Earth - http://earth.google.com/
Letterboxing – http://www.letterboxing.org
Benchmark hunting - http://www.geocaching.com/mark/
Annette Lamb’s web site on geocaching - http://eduscapes.com/geocaching/
Geocaching FAQ’s - http://www.geocaching.com/faq/
GPS Maniac - http://www.gpsmaniac.com/
Adventure GPS Products - http://www.gps4fun.com/
Consider these points: