Dr. Alice ChristieGPS and Geocaching
The part of Dr. Christie's website I enjoyed the most was the GPS and Geocaching Podcast. Dr. Christie introduced an activity she has created using a GPS (global positioning system) to locate caches that are hidden around the country. She has a website you can go to to locate coordinates for the cache you wish to find. You put coordinates in your GPS and locate the cache. The cache is usually a plastic or metal container filled with trinkets with some significance to the person who hid the cache. Once you find a cache, you read the logbook in the cache, take out one of the items in the cache and replace it with one of your own. Then you fill out the logbook stating the exchange you made and put the cache back in its hiding place.
I think this would be a great way to introduce a geography lesson to the class. In order to find the caches, you have to use directional clues such as latitudes, longitudes, and NSEW. This would be a good project for a field trip for a social studies class. We would have to go to the website to see where some caches are hidden near our school. We could then use a GPS to find the caches. We could then take something out of the cache and replace it with something from our school. Once of the students could fill out the log stating what we took and what we left behind.
It would also be a fun project to create our own cache and hide it somewhere. Each student in the class could bring something from home, an inexpensive item of significance to them to place in the cache. We could then hide the cache somewhere near our school and register our cache on the website. We could go back later to read the logbook to see who has found our cache.
This activity is a good lesson in using technology (the website and GPS) and also in social studies (find the coordinates of the caches).
The best part of Dr. Christie's website is she gives you ideas for lesson plans using a GPS and Geocaching. She also has a tie-in for a lesson in national parks. Since the caches have to be hidden on public land so anyone can go to them, a national park is a great place to hide a cache or to find one. Alabama has numerous national and state parks where caches can be hidden so this would be an awesome field trip experience for a middle or high school class.
Click here for the Official Global GPS Cache Hunt Website
I think this would be a great way to introduce a geography lesson to the class. In order to find the caches, you have to use directional clues such as latitudes, longitudes, and NSEW. This would be a good project for a field trip for a social studies class. We would have to go to the website to see where some caches are hidden near our school. We could then use a GPS to find the caches. We could then take something out of the cache and replace it with something from our school. Once of the students could fill out the log stating what we took and what we left behind.
It would also be a fun project to create our own cache and hide it somewhere. Each student in the class could bring something from home, an inexpensive item of significance to them to place in the cache. We could then hide the cache somewhere near our school and register our cache on the website. We could go back later to read the logbook to see who has found our cache.
This activity is a good lesson in using technology (the website and GPS) and also in social studies (find the coordinates of the caches).
The best part of Dr. Christie's website is she gives you ideas for lesson plans using a GPS and Geocaching. She also has a tie-in for a lesson in national parks. Since the caches have to be hidden on public land so anyone can go to them, a national park is a great place to hide a cache or to find one. Alabama has numerous national and state parks where caches can be hidden so this would be an awesome field trip experience for a middle or high school class.
Click here for the Official Global GPS Cache Hunt Website
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