Geocaching

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Geocaching is a relatively new (circa 2000) outdoor recreational/sport activity. As a recreational activity it is growing popular and is even making its way into education. GPS has opened the world to active learning. Using GPS units students can locate remote locations with ease. Teachers are beginning to realize how GPS can help them meet curriculum goals through interdisciplinary experiences.

Contents

[edit] What is it?

Geocaching is a game/sport that individuals or groups of people participate in to find hidden "treasures". While there is no gold or valuables involved (except for rare occasions) participants do often trade items from geocache to geocache. Geocache, the term, is a combination of geography (latitude and longitude) and cache (a storage container that comes in many sizes).

[edit] How to Participate

Geocachers (cachers) use websites (see Resources below), waypoints (coordinates), maps, and GPS receivers to locate hidden caches. Caches are located throughout the world and are very often found within your neighborhood or nearby parks. Cachers will visit a website such as www.geocaching.com search for a cache near their location or soon-to-be location, view the cache information page, download the waypoint (latitude and longitude coordinates) to their GPS device and prepare to drive/hike/bike/kayak/canoe to the cache location. Many cachers will take a print out of the cache's web page for hints and additional information. Cachers also might bring small items (trinkets) to trade with items within the cache they are seeking.

For a more detailed information and suggestions visit Finding Your First Geocache.

[edit] Other Caching Activities

CITO (Cache In, Trash Out)
thumb Cache In, Trash Out
Because caching involves humans traversing in the outdoors there is concern that the local parks and environment be polluted with litter. The CITO program is a movement within the sport of geocaching that encourages participants to clean up the areas where they are caching. Many caches contain plastic bags that can be reused for picking up trash along the way. To learn more about CITO visit www.cacheintrashout.org.


Benchmark Hunting
Benchmarking is when participants seek out Benchmarks or Geodetic control points used in land surveying, civil engineering and mapping. Visit the Benchmarking page has more information.

[edit] Variations of Caching

Waymarking - www.waymarking.com
Waymarking is the activity of marking locations of interest. There are, typically, no caches located at these sites. Waymarking locations may be a landmark or just a beautiful location to visit.
Earthcaching - www.earthcache.org
Earthcaching is a spin off of geocaching and are educational sites to learn more about geological formations at the particular site. While there are fewer earthcaches, educators might find this type of cache helpful when planning to use caching as an activity for students.
Trackable Items
Geocaching has many games associated with it, such as Travel Bugs, Geocoins, etc. These games add a layer of connectedness to the activity in that participants can track these items to see where they end up. For instance, the owner of a Travel Bug might create a bug by purchasing a dog tag with a tracking number on it and send it on an expedition to baseball parks (see The Rocket)

[edit] Curricular Connections

Math
Because geocaching is based on using triangulation of satellites and a GPS receiver to find locations, GPS and geoaching lend themselves well to connecting math concepts. For examples on how some cachers are using geocaching to teach math, visit Magic of Nine cache for an example.
Science
Navigating and locating sites to explore scientific concepts such as ecology is an ideal use of GPS outside of the classroom. Planting caches in locations where students can discover and observe decomposers, human impact,
Social Studies
Students can use GPS to locate and document historical landmarks or sites of significance in their community. Using GPS coordinates, teachers can take students on a virtual tour of events leading up to a war through Google Earth.
Physical Education
Students can use GPS as a way to chart and track time, distance and mark waypoints along hiking & biking trails, kayaking/canoeing waterways, and locations and resources for camping. A partnership between the physical educators and content area teachers is ideal where the PE teachers can provide some training on how to use GPS (reinforcing classroom concepts of latitude and longitude) and the content area/classroom teacher can work to ensure alignment with curriculum.

[edit] Resources

Finding Caches
GPS Receivers
Related Links
  • GPS - Article in this Wiki
  • EasyGPS - Article in this Wiki
  • Useful Links - List of links from the Geocaching.com website.
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