GEOCACHING

 Exploring our world with GPS

          One of the newest ways to integrate technology in the classroom is through the use of GPS (Global Positioning Systems).  GPS units are navigational devices.  Longitude and latitude coordinates are entered into the device, which then gives detailed directions for finding the location entered.  This technology, once used only by NASA, has become recently available for public use.  It works through the use of satellites.  A minimum of three satellites is needed to triangulate your exact location.  GPS has given rise to a new sport ? Geocaching.  Basically someone hides a cache, a ?treasure?, and posts the coordinates on a website.  Geocachers download the coordinates and the hunt begins.  The caches often have log books for recording journeys and assorted ?treasures?. 

          In Hide and Seek: GPS and Geocaching in the Classroom, Lynn Lary introduces several uses for GPS in the classroom.  One idea she explains is to hide content related caches in various locations in the schoolyard, or in some other open area.  Students can work in groups to solve the clues and find the caches.   Teachers could also hide caches in nearby communities to find out more information about a given locale.  Some caches also have travel bugs.  The travel bugs have directions on where to take it, and its locations and travels are tracked on the web.  Students can track the journeys of travel bugs on a website.  This is an interesting twist to the idea of sending a stuff animal to different classrooms around the area and tracking its route through letters or email.  One twist on geocaching, Lary explains, is to have one cache lead you to another cache, kind of like solving a mystery as you go, a process she calls ?multi-site caching?. 

        One idea I had, that was springboarded by Lary?s article was to conduct a scavenger hunt in downtown Raleigh.  The social studies curriculum in fourth grade centers around North Carolina.  Every year our fourth graders have a walking tour of the downtown area, including the various museums, the State Capitol, etc..  I thought it would be great to have a questionnaire on various topics related to the downtown area.  Each question would have corresponding coordinates.  When the teams of students entered the coordinates they would have to go to the secret location to find the answer to their question.  The questions could be content specific to the Standard Course of Study.  For example, one question could read, ?Which three presidents were born in North Carolina??  The GPS coordinates could guide them to the ?Presidents North Carolina Gave the Nation? statue on Union Square outside the State Capitol where the students could find the answer (Andrew Jackson, James Polk, and Andrew Johnson for the history enthusiast). 

Some site of interest.

Geocaching: www.geocaching.com

Geocaching With Kids: www.eduscapes.com/geocaching/kids.htm

Geocaching With Kids:  www.geocachingkids.com

Lynn Lary?s Site / Lane ESD: www.lane.k12.or.us/insttech/vtc/gps.html

Travel Bugs: www.geocaching.com/track/

NCDPI Division of Instructional Technology: www.tps.dpi.state.nc.us/geocaching/

Powerpoint of GPS Integration: www.vickiblackwell.com/GPS/GPS%20power%20point.ppt

Guide to Purchasing a GPS unit: www.geocaching.com/articles/gps_buying.asp