Considering a Geocaching class

[+disenchanted]

I am thinking about offering a 1 hour credit class in Geocaching through the local university. It would involve a weekend. I'd like to ask for some ideas how to best get college students started in this sport. Required equipment would be a GPS receiver (not a yellow etrex).

 

I plan to hide a series of micros on the campus, and maybe an ammo box somewhere in town, but we need more caches around here. We have a good one just out in the country.

 

Point is, although I am completely addicted, I am not all that experienced at Geocaching. I have only 33 finds and am working on my first hides as we speak. If you had two days of eight hours to teach this, what would YOU teach?

[+CYBret]

There are a few people who have done this over the last few years. Hopefully some of them check out the forums and will be able to offer some advice.

 

I've been asked to teach geocaching at the local community college next summer. My plans are for 1 night a week, two hours a night, for four weeks. That seems to be what they're doing with comparable topics at the college.

 

Not exactly sure of the details yet. Hopefully I can get those worked out next week.

 

Bret

[+Team Neos]

Gosh, after CyBret's nice post I hate to post mine, but I'm going to discourage you from doing the class just yet.

 

First, while I see that your area really does have a low density of caches, college students aren't really the people you want to place caches in your area. They tend to drop out, or graduate and move back home, and the next thing you know, your area is saturated with abandoned caches.

 

Second, you have only found a handful of caches, and haven't even hidden one yourself yet. I'm not being hateful--I am a teacher, and I understand how it feels to try to plan a lesson and not really be sure how long things will take, or what all the students will need. If you can't even think of programming to last 16 hours, then you'll feel much more confident when you have a bit more experience. I sat and thought about what a class ought to have and wondered how to get everything in that ought to be done in "just" 16 hours!

 

Now that I have said that, my conscience is clear--Since you'll probably ignore me (I would since you didn't ask me why you shouldn't do it!) and do it anyway, here's what I would consider including:

 

1) How GPS units and satellites work to make geocaching possible

2) How to start an account with GC, pick a caching name, and log a cache.

3) How to use the GPS unit to find a cache

4) How to use the GPS unit to create a route

5) How to create a tracklog

6) How to plan a day of caching (entering waypoints into the GPS, etc)

7) How to upload caches to the GPS

8) Preview of PQs, Cachemate, GSAK, Spinner/Plucker etc to store caching data

9) Camo 101: How to spray paint a camo pattern on a ammo can, the joy of camo tape, etc

10) How to create a quality geocache container: Labels, stash sheet, log book

11) What to put in a geocache

12) How to write a great cache page

13) Where to hide a cache/ how to find a cache

14) How to read a topo map

15) How to read a map

16) Cache log etiquette

 

At a bare minimum, I would show the class how to create an account at GC, how to locate a cache to find, the basics of how to use the GPS, how to find a cache, how to log a cache, and how to hide a cache.

 

P.S. Have you checked into the geotruckers site? Its a specialty forum for truckers who geocache. You can talk with a lot of other truckers there--perhaps there are some in your area that will be interested in helping your cache density problem.

Edited August 20, 2006 by Team Neos

[+Juicepig]

Not in this order, but they should be touched upon as well:

 

17) How to log a TB/Geocoin

18) Basic Survival skills

19) GPS projection

20) Garmin? Magellan? Lowrance? Eagle? which is best for me?

21) Techo-jargon

 

- in unit 9, be sure to show pictures and examples of camoed caches

[+disenchanted]

I never said I couldn't plan 16 hours of curriculum, hell, I could take them caching for more time than that! I just wanted the advice so that I could consider the thoughts of more experienced cachers.

 

Having said that, thanks for the list of topics. BTW, we have a VERY large percentage of non-traditional students at this university. Hoping to get some of those, too.

[+Ambrosia]

I've basically taught 3 courses in geocaching. But if you do not want a curriculum, I'm kinda confused about exactly what sort of advice you are looking for?

[+disenchanted]

I've basically taught 3 courses in geocaching. But if you do not want a curriculum, I'm kinda confused about exactly what sort of advice you are looking for?

Where did I say I don't want curriculum? Quite the opposite.

[+Ambrosia]

I'm sorry, I must have misinterpreted your post above mine.

[+Recdiver]

I never said I couldn't plan 16 hours of curriculum, hell, I could take them caching for more time than that! I just wanted the advice so that I could consider the thoughts of more experienced cachers.

 

Having said that, thanks for the list of topics. BTW, we have a VERY large percentage of non-traditional students at this university. Hoping to get some of those, too.

Non-traditional students would be the ticket. We have a fairly large Continuing Education program at the community college I work at and it has an active Seniors program. They are always looking for new things for the seniors and a bunch of them could out walk me on one of my good days. The more that I think about it I might consider doing that myself. Thanks for the curriculum ideas as well.

[+disenchanted]

great stuff. any other ideas?

[+Fidissimus]

I never said I couldn't plan 16 hours of curriculum, hell, I could take them caching for more time than that! I just wanted the advice so that I could consider the thoughts of more experienced cachers.

 

THOUGHTS:

Taking them caching and teaching them about caching seem to me to be two separate things.

 

As as neophyte myself, I did a lot of "home schooling" on the sport before ever going out and locating my first cache. This is something I've wanted to do for about 4 years. I also knew I wanted to do it right and so took the time to research to varying degrees nearly every topic that was listed above. My point is I think learning about all the components first make it a much more valuable experience. I would worry that you wouldn't have enough time to cover it all in 16 hours in addition to getting out in the field and having them practice cache. I agree with those above that there's a lot of ground to cover before you even take one step out the door!

 

As a former software instructor I'd be sure you really know your stuff before you attempt to teach. Adults ask the darndest questions! Do you think you could answer the more technical questions about triangulation, Apogee & Perigee, transponders, WAAS, etc... you never know what your students will know coming into the class. Some of them will have more knowledge about certain things that relate to a GPS or satellites than others. This is also a challenge that you will have to consider. How to educate those who know nothing on the subject without loosing the interest of those who come into the class with a bit of knowledge already. Also are you comfortable speaking in front of large groups of people? Sometimes it sounds easy, but then when you have to speak it might be a little intimidating. (Also points for public speaking - don't pace, don't constantly shift weight or tap a pen, when pausing to think don't say "uuuuh" or "mmmm" out-loud - this are all very distracting and take away from key points that you are trying to make.)

 

I know you will probably attempt to teach this class anyway, so my recommendation is to BE PREPARED!

 

CLASS IDEAS:

After a basics course on the operation of a GPS and letting them find one or two caches that you've set up (Could all that be covered in day one?) I think for day two it would be fun to split your students into two groups and let each group create a cache and hid it (within a specified area). Then they swap coordinates and search for the other teams "treasure".

 

Also other topics to cover: What all the symbols mean when looking a members found cache list (virtual, multi, traditional, mystery, event, etc...) How to post for help in the forums once the class has ended and they still have questions.

 

REFERENCES:

This is a link to an excellent Power Point presentation on Satellites and triangulation. It is set up as an HTML version, however if you click on the blue link at the top of the page you can download the actual Power Point presentation.

 

If you want an excellent reference on survival, check out: SAS Survival Handbook: How to Survive in the Wild, in Any Climate, on Land or at Sea by John 'Lofty' Wiseman

 

This is an excellent thread for ideas that go beyond the average tupperware or ammo can. Shown last I think it would really get their creative juices flowing and excited about all the possibilities that Geocaching has to offer...

 

Good luck to you and happy caching!

[+suz55tbird]

Wow! I'm trying to imagine what would take 16 hours!

 

The class I took when I first learned about geocaching was an hour. We learned how GPSr's worked, then plugged in coordinates to 3 caches and found them (all were within the park where the class was taught).

 

The classes I've taught have been 3 hours in duration--a half-hour orientation to how to use the GPSr's (the main difficulty is that everyone comes in with a different GPSr, and if you're not familiar with how they each work, it takes a bit to learn them yourself enough to show them...), a handout on the GPS itself and how the receiver gleans the info from the system (which they can read later, if they care!), then we head out to search for nearby caches.

 

And, BTW, what's wrong with the yellow etrex? That's what I've used for my 100+ caches this past year...and I LOVE IT!!!

[Jake - Team A.I.]

I work in the computer lab at one of the local community colleges. One of the students taking a geology class also worked in the lab with me. At the beginning of the semester the teacher told the class that he wanted to show the class this fun thing he just learned called Geocaching. After class Kevin told the teacher that I was a geocacher, and that I might be able to help him.

 

A couple of months passed and it was after spring break when he finally contacted me about putting something together for the class. I ended up going into the class about 5 or 6 times to help them with activities and telling the class how the GPS works and the basic rules of Geocaching. Some of the activities we did were out of order, but it was a learning experience for both the teacher and the students. After we went through the activities the teacher asked the students what order they would have preferred the them to come. These activities would probably be great for labs in a geocaching class.

 

1. A brief summary of how a GPS works.

 

(The school bought 5 yellow etrex's and two GPS60cx's, so these were done in groups of 3-5 people.)

2. Place Your Flag Game. (This is were the instructor marks a location, the students then enter the coordinates into their GPS and try to see how close they come. The trick is, the teacher doesn't actually mark the original coordinates with a flag, but some other very obscure way.) This will give the students a chance to learn how to enter the coordinates into their GPS units manually.

 

3. The teacher hides a number of caches across the campus. (4 or 5 is a good number.) In the cache container, put marbles or write a phrase that the students need to take note of. Or make a puzzle out of it.

 

4. Have the students hide their own cache on campus. In our case of being a geology class, they had to include geological information about where they hid it. Then have the them come back and write their coordinates and hints on the board for everyone to copy down.

 

5. The third round had the student go around and find the caches that the other teams had hid.

 

6. The last thing I did was with the whole class at once. I was showed them different types of cache containers and what you should and shouldn't put in them. Before class, I also hid an extra large Altoids tin and a Micro cache in the court yard and then gave them hints (without coordinates) on how to find them. I told them, once they found it to go stand by the wall. Also, the trick is to find it, but not let anyone know that you have. It didn't take long for some people to get excited and run straight over to the wall after they found it... which gave it away to the rest of the class.

 

In our case, we did a continued some of the games from day to day, so the caches that the students and the teacher hid were left over night and over even the weekend. All the caches survived!

 

When sending the groups out. Have them stagger their starting positions, so that it's not a group of 30 people going from cache location to cache location. Also, let Campus Security know what's going on. I know the Security folks on our campus well, and let them know ahead of time that small groups might be rushing around and beating about the trees and bushes. Also, be very careful about bring ammo cans to school... campus security may have issues with that.

 

While I didn't think that it would catch on with everyone, all but one student said that the activities were fun. They weren't sure if they wanted to buy a GPS so they could caching themselves, they did say if the opportunity came up they'd do it again. One of older students really liked the game and I still get emails from them. There was one young lady that told the teacher that this was a complete waste of her time. She ditched class half of the time I was there anyway so she really didn't effect the rest of the groups enjoyment.

 

Since the class already had a field trip, the "caching" activities were kept on campus. Some of the students wanted to check out the GPS's and go look for some real caches over the weekend, but the teacher didn't have permission from the department to check the units out over night. He's looking into doing that with the Etrex units.

 

The class was mostly students between the ages of 18-22. Since this was a community college, when they drop out of school, I doubt they're going to be moving somewhere out of the community. Besides, this isn't high school, most people that are going to college are there because they want to be there. The only reason non-traditional students would be ideal, is because they probably have the dispos

[+briansnat]

-ethics (everything from fair trading to responsible hiding practices)

[+Mopar]

Psssst.

There is an entire forum here for just this topic.

GPS in Education

I agree you should find some more and hide 1-2 yourself first. It's gotta be hard to teach a subject you don't really know about.

Much of the new cacher angst we see here in the forums seems to come when hiding a cache. They either don't read guidelines for hiding a cache or for some reason they think they should be the exception to the rule. You could easily spend an entire class on just the guidelines, especially the history behind them. Most if not all the guidelines have come about to address previous problems with cache hides.

[Luckless]

Maybe instead of a class you could start a club- do a little team geocaching.

www.geocacher-u.com

[+BlueDevilGrad]

Try the "GPS In Education" topic in this forum. Full of information.

[+JohnnyVegas]

triangulation, Apogee & Perigee, transponders, WAAS, etc

First is not that complicated, WAAS may come up in a question, but the odds that Triangulation, Apogee & Perigee and Transponmders is very slim to none. I have given about 8 seminars on Geocaching and know one ever asked about Triangulation, Apogee & Perigee or Transponders.

Just make sure the people that sign up know this is a Class on Geocaching, not sattelite communications.

 

He is talking aobut Geocaching, not sattelite tracking and communications.

 

I have taught Geocaching seminars in the past, Before geocaching was around I was giving GPS seminars

 

You are going to have to be able to cover the working of the assorted GPSrs that are being used. THis will include just about every GPS made by Garmin, Magellan and Lowrance. When I was giving my seminars I was working as a GPS buyer for an outdoor equipment dealer. We got into the GPS market when the first units hit the market, We sold most every hand neld GPS in the market so I knew how to operate them.

 

Some of our GPS/Geocaching seminars would draw 50-60 people, unless you have someone to help you out you might want to limit class size to about 20 people, it can take a very long time to teach 20 people how to enter a coordinate into a GPS.

 

Subjects to cover, Entering coordinates, starting a GOTO, Editing coordinates, how to delete coordinates,

starting a back track would also be a good item to cover.

 

I would not really bother with how to set up a route, this is not something that will be required for most cache searches. This would be somethning that you would cover in a GPS navigation class.

 

You should also show examples of cache types and types of camouflage.

 

I would highly recomend taking th eclass into the field to locate some real active caches, if there is a park in the area that can support around 6 or 8 caches you might want to hide some real caches for the students to find. THen back in the class room they could set up accounts and log their finds, if the school has a computer lab that you could use for this it would be very usefull.

 

I our seminars we did split the students into two groups and had each group hide a cache for the other group to find.

 

Another topic to cover, read the guidlines before hidding a cache in the real world. I know two of the local cache reviewers, this is the one item that too many cachers do not do before they hide a cache.

 

As far as using GPX sonar, GPS spinner and similar software, in a basic GPS class it would be a waste of time, most of the students are not going to buy a Pocket PC or a PDA for geocaching.

 

You should cover loading coordinates into a GPS directly from a computer with a data cable. You might also want to cover easygps for loading cache into a GPS

 

Keep it simple, if you complicate it the studnets will lose inerest.

 

A few years back I got into Ham radio and a local club had a guest speaker come in to talk about GPS navigaiton, this guy was such a tech weenie he lost most of the class 15 minutes into his talk. He starte to cover Apogee & Perigee, down link and up link frequencies. He did not keep it simple.

Edited August 20, 2006 by JohnnyVegas

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

I applaud your desire to be proactive in increasing the number of hides in your area.

 

Some issues, however, come to mind.

 

With 33 finds you chose the usename Disenchanted. I don't know your reasoning, but that seems to be a bit negative right out of the box. Teachers need a positive, excited attitude toward their subject and absolutely must be able to infuse that interest and excitement into their students.

 

I wouldn't think that presenting 'Hi, I am fairly new at this, and Disenchanted, 'cause I'm not having as much fun as I think I should be, so I want y'all to place some good hides for me to find, and I am here to teach you how' is going to fly.

 

You want to increase hides in your area, but you haven't hidden any. This might indicate that you want geocachers to entertain you, that you feel finding caches is your due, placing them for others not so much. You can't teach anyone anything from that position. Teachers are by definition selfless givers, else they wouldn't work for a teacher's pay.

 

You intertwine motivations, but it appears that the strongest is to get more caches placed in your area. I would submit that teaching a class at the local junior college is about the worst way to accomplish that quickly (Aside from my belief that one should teach something for the love of educating and sharing, not for getting one's personal needs met.)

 

Having found a few caches and maybe read some stuff on the Internet you want to teach the game to others. That's cool. But, no insult intended, you can't teach what you don't know!

 

Look at this forum. Thousands of threads on geocaching, hundreds of thousands of posts, all on geocaching, and nobody can fully agree what it is or how it should be played. Who among us would be a respected teacher of something so nebulous? You are going to, what, read some threads and go teach the stuff you agree with as Geocaching Gospel? Give them the benefit of your personal opinions?

 

I am not trying to be mean or cynical. I promise I am not, but this has all the ingredients of a miniature disaster in the making!

 

Let me suggest this:

 

I ran a fairly successful consulting business for almost thirty years. Sold nothing but opinion and experience.

 

Among other things we did training for corporate and government clients, including some Federal Title III training at Jefferson State Jr. College, Auburn University and the University of Alabama.

 

In 1980 I had a chance to teach a company's employees how to use their FOCUS database software. Their scheduled trainer was sick. I got the call on Thursday. I had never heard of FOCUS. I literally looked it up while on the phone with the buyer, though I certainly didn't tell him that. They needed a teacher in Atlanta Monday morning. "Yes," I said, "I can do that" and quoted a price.

 

I was there, taught the class, got great reviews and we did a lot of business with that company over the years. But I was lucky. Things lined up just right; a friend with the same company here in Birmingham spent long hours over that weekend teaching me the company's use of FOCUS.

 

Having risked my relationship and reputation with one of the largest and potentially most lucrative clients in my area made me aware of how stupid trying to fool folks is, despite having gotten away with it.

 

That was an education for me in a number of ways. One thing I learned is that you can't teach what you don't know. I never tried that again.

 

Instead, I made it my practice to hire folks that were smarter than me and pay them more than I paid myself. I never sent a trainer or consultant in unless he had thourough knowledge of the subject matter. That practice led directly to me being retired young, my house, cars and all bills paid, and able to geocache when and where I want.

 

So, it works. It works in business and it will work in building geocaching.

 

Apply that to your situation. Find someone who really does know geocaching - your Reviewer preferably, or a personable and very experienced cacher, even if they don't live close by, and invite them to help you.

 

Let them teach... you facilitate their teaching.

 

Don't start off teaching formally. Creating a curriculem and making a deal with your local college is a big step. Failing to pull it off well can damage your future relationship with the school, the students attitude toward the college and this game, even damage the aura of the game in the community.

 

Start instead by gathering people, online and off. Is there a state or regional geocaching association within one hundred miles or so? Join them. Get to know folks in their forums.

 

If not, start your own geocaching website - if you can teach geocaching you can certainly stand up a basic free Yahoo site. Mention the site in logs for the caches you find. Read the logs of the caches you have found and send a PM to each owner and finder, telling them you are starting a geocaching association and inviting them aboard.

 

Place some caches. That's the single best thing you can do to promote more caches in your area.

 

Host an event. Invite geocachers from your and every bordering state. You'll be amazed how far folks will travel for a geocaching event! You don't have to spend a dime if you don't want to - reserve a free picnic pavillion in a local park, invite every attendee to bring a food item and you are good to go. The more elaborite you make it the more geocachers you will attract, but start out small, lest you get Disinchanted by a amall early turn-out!

 

Invest in geocaching in your area if you can. Buy five $3. ammo cans, toss in a few trinkets, whatever your budget and desires can afford, and give them away as door or game prizes to your event attendees. They appreciate it and you get new caches hidden! Serves everyone.

 

Invite a reporter or photographer from the local newspaper to attend. Take them to find an interesting cache.

 

Post flyers for the event at local sporting goods stores, at the GPS sales counter at WalMart and so on.

 

Send it to, and go talk to, the PTA, YMCA, local Boy Scout headquarters and troops; make some brief, entertaining 10-minute presentations at their meetings and invite them to your event and website.

 

Send the event flyer and a copy of the event listing, maybe even the listing page for local geocaches, to every school, business and church in the area.

 

Be all-inclusive, don't exclude a group because you fear there may be jerks among them (re the college student advice in a previous post). Assume whoever is interested enough to show up will make a good geocacher.

 

Always have friends and family be your sounding board, even if they don't cache.

 

Read and gain insight in these and other geocaching forums, but as with everything in life, maintain a healthy dose of skepticism. Free advice, especially forum advice, is often worth exactly what you pay for it, and can lead you down unfortunate paths. There is real danger in grabbing onto posts you agree with, rather than listening to the thread overall, which because it usually contains a wide range of opinion will give you more informed insight.

 

My suggestions and the others you will find here are not neccessarily good ideas, and what works for me may not work for you.

 

If, after all this, you still insist on launching a class, do it at your (or a local) church or school, factory, corporate office, Masonic Lodge or even hospital. Most will allow community members to use their meeting hall for free.

 

Get it down pat, be sure you and your materials are well-prepared, then go to the local college with a formal proposal knowing you can pull it off to everyone's satisfaction.

 

Hope some of that helps,

Ed

[Earleheart°]

Show them Goggle Earth.

[+Iowa Tom]

I have taught two geocache classes so far plus I’ve made two caches for my regular students. Both of the official classes were for middle school age kids in a summer enrichment program. The one thing that I found most time consuming and frustrating was getting everyone registered during class time. Maybe it’s just because they were young, but I can say that they are more computer/Internet savvy than a lot of adults, or as my daughter used to say when she was very young, dolts.

 

Setting up an account at school requires Internet access of one’s own e-mail. A lot of people don’t know how to do that. The other thing is, expect problems with registration. It happens. I have been tempted to require a geocaching account as a prerequisite for taking my class! That would solve a lot of hassle right off the bat. Since they are taking it for credit you might offer them extra credit (or at least a donut) for being registered ahead of time. They could e-mail you the proof before the first day.

 

I really like to start them out with travel bugs. That is a great way to remind them over and over again that geocaching is alive and well. I send home a set of instructions the first day telling them what to bring in as a possible bug item along with an idea for a name and a goal. In class we register the bugs (this is another opportunity for frustration as problems do arise – so be prepared).

 

This is a bug with a goal tag that one of my students set up. I provide the tag and use a table cell to make sure the goal will fit the space allowed. Laser ink does not run when wet but non-laser printer ink probably will so spray the water soluble ink after printing with a matt spray. You need to order the tags in advance, obviously.

 

Every time I teach a class I have made a special cache just for the participants. We placed all the TBs in it. The class also got to paint it. I use flat camouflage colors and lay leaves over it as I spray over them. The ghost image of the leaves adds a good amount of camouflage to the cache. The caches I made for them so far are unique. They are made of 4” waterproof plugged PVC pipes. The paint does not stick well to that so I first wrap the PVC with camouflaged duct tape. If the paint comes off there is the tape below. The tape does fade to cyan with time however. I have them do a sloppy job of wrapping the tape onto the tube to add texture. Do make sure it’s stuck down before setting it out. Don’t want water to get under the tape.

 

One thing I did for the kids was I hid a number of Easter eggs. Each egg had a word in it. Once they located all the eggs they had to assemble the words into a meaningful statement. The sentence was, “Thank you for being such good students!”

 

I made this puzzle cache for them to figure out. They really took to that!

 

Having ready to go, a bunch of good cache websites to study is a great asset. That will teach them a lot.

 

I have explicit instructions about how to register on geocaching.com and how to register a TB in Word format with screen captures if you are interested. In the TB section I also explain how to track a TB and so on. I could give you the details for the table cell that perfectly fits the key identifier tag I use for goals if you want.

 

Good luck!

[+disenchanted]

I applaud your desire to be proactive in increasing the number of hides in your area.

 

Some issues, however, come to mind.

 

With 33 finds you chose the usename Disenchanted. I don't know your reasoning, but that seems to be a bit negative right out of the box. Teachers need a positive, excited attitude toward their subject and absolutely must be able to infuse that interest and excitement into their students.

 

I wouldn't think that presenting 'Hi, I am fairly new at this, and Disenchanted, 'cause I'm not having as much fun as I think I should be, so I want y'all to place some good hides for me to find, and I am here to teach you how' is going to fly.

 

You want to increase hides in your area, but you haven't hidden any. This might indicate that you want geocachers to entertain you, that you feel finding caches is your due, placing them for others not so much. You can't teach anyone anything from that position. Teachers are by definition selfless givers, else they wouldn't work for a teacher's pay.

 

You intertwine motivations, but it appears that the strongest is to get more caches placed in your area. I would submit that teaching a class at the local junior college is about the worst way to accomplish that quickly (Aside from my belief that one should teach something for the love of educating and sharing, not for getting one's personal needs met.)

 

Having found a few caches and maybe read some stuff on the Internet you want to teach the game to others. That's cool. But, no insult intended, you can't teach what you don't know!

 

Look at this forum. Thousands of threads on geocaching, hundreds of thousands of posts, all on geocaching, and nobody can fully agree what it is or how it should be played. Who among us would be a respected teacher of something so nebulous? You are going to, what, read some threads and go teach the stuff you agree with as Geocaching Gospel? Give them the benefit of your personal opinions?

 

I am not trying to be mean or cynical. I promise I am not, but this has all the ingredients of a miniature disaster in the making!

 

Let me suggest this:

 

I ran a fairly successful consulting business for almost thirty years. Sold nothing but opinion and experience.

 

Among other things we did training for corporate and government clients, including some Federal Title III training at Jefferson State Jr. College, Auburn University and the University of Alabama.

 

In 1980 I had a chance to teach a company's employees how to use their FOCUS database software. Their scheduled trainer was sick. I got the call on Thursday. I had never heard of FOCUS. I literally looked it up while on the phone with the buyer, though I certainly didn't tell him that. They needed a teacher in Atlanta Monday morning. "Yes," I said, "I can do that" and quoted a price.

 

I was there, taught the class, got great reviews and we did a lot of business with that company over the years. But I was lucky. Things lined up just right; a friend with the same company here in Birmingham spent long hours over that weekend teaching me the company's use of FOCUS.

 

Having risked my relationship and reputation with one of the largest and potentially most lucrative clients in my area made me aware of how stupid trying to fool folks is, despite having gotten away with it.

 

That was an education for me in a number of ways. One thing I learned is that you can't teach what you don't know. I never tried that again.

 

Instead, I made it my practice to hire folks that were smarter than me and pay them more than I paid myself. I never sent a trainer or consultant in unless he had thourough knowledge of the subject matter. That practice led directly to me being retired young, my house, cars and all bills paid, and able to geocache when and where I want.

 

So, it works. It works in business and it will work in building geocaching.

 

Apply that to your situation. Find someone who really does know geocaching - your Reviewer preferably, or a personable and very experienced cacher, even if they don't live close by, and invite them to help you.

 

Let them teach... you facilitate their teaching.

 

Don't start off teaching formally. Creating a curriculem and making a deal with your local college is a big step. Failing to pull it off well can damage your future relationship with the school, the students attitude toward the college and this game, even damage the aura of the game in the community.

 

Start instead by gathering people, online and off. Is there a state or regional geocaching association within one hundred miles or so? Join them. Get to know folks in their forums.

 

If not, start your own geocaching website - if you can teach geocaching you can certainly stand up a basic free Yahoo site. Mention the site in logs for the caches you find. Read the logs of the caches you have found and send a PM to each owner and finder, telling them you are starting a geocaching association and inviting them aboard.

 

Place some caches. That's the single best thing you can do to promote more caches in your area.

 

Host an event. Invite geocachers from your and every bordering state. You'll be amazed how far folks will travel for a geocaching event! You don't have to spend a dime if you don't want to - reserve a free picnic pavillion in a local park, invite every attendee to bring a food item and you are good to go. The more elaborite you make it the more geocachers you will attract, but start out small, lest you get Disinchanted by a amall early turn-out!

 

Invest in geocaching in your area if you can. Buy five $3. ammo cans, toss in a few trinkets, whatever your budget and desires can afford, and give them away as door or game prizes to your event attendees. They appreciate it and you get new caches hidden! Serves everyone.

 

Invite a reporter or photographer from the local newspaper to attend. Take them to find an interesting cache.

 

Post flyers for the event at local sporting goods stores, at the GPS sales counter at WalMart and so on.

 

Send it to, and go talk to, the PTA, YMCA, local Boy Scout headquarters and troops; make some brief, entertaining 10-minute presentations at their meetings and invite them to your event and website.

 

Send the event flyer and a copy of the event listing, maybe even the listing page for local geocaches, to every school, business and church in the area.

 

Be all-inclusive, don't exclude a group because you fear there may be jerks among them (re the college student advice in a previous post). Assume whoever is interested enough to show up will make a good geocacher.

 

Always have friends and family be your sounding board, even if they don't cache.

 

Read and gain insight in these and other geocaching forums, but as with everything in life, maintain a healthy dose of skepticism. Free advice, especially forum advice, is often worth exactly what you pay for it, and can lead you down unfortunate paths. There is real danger in grabbing onto posts you agree with, rather than listening to the thread overall, which because it usually contains a wide range of opinion will give you more informed insight.

 

My suggestions and the others you will find here are not neccessarily good ideas, and what works for me may not work for you.

 

If, after all this, you still insist on launching a class, do it at your (or a local) church or school, factory, corporate office, Masonic Lodge or even hospital. Most will allow community members to use their meeting hall for free.

 

Get it down pat, be sure you and your materials are well-prepared, then go to the local college with a formal proposal knowing you can pull it off to everyone's satisfaction.

 

Hope some of that helps,

Ed

 

There is too much to respond to here, so just let me say that you have made a LOT of assumptions, not only about me, but also my motivations...most of which are incorrect. I'm sure there is some good advice or information in there somewhere, so I will try to go through all that again and see if I can glean it out.

[+Jhwk]

 

15) How to read a map

 

 

I think you need to start there, and how to use a compass. when the nifty electronic tool goes bonk, or the electricity dries up, it would be good to know how to go west back to the road.

[+emb021]

Team Neos and Juicepig list a lot of the topics I would have recommended.

 

Some others:

 

* explain all the size types of caches: pico/nano/micro, small, regular, etc.

 

* explain all the types of caches: regular, multi, mystery/puzzle, virtual, etc.

 

* explain cache series

 

* cover the grandfathered caches now on their own site(s): Waymarking, earth cache, etc

 

*CITO

 

*geocaching events and groups

 

* maybe a brief discussion on what reasons some have to cache: family activity, the trading items, just finding caches, 'number hos', 'ftf hos', 'icon hos', etc.

[+ThePropers]

What do you have against the yellow eTrex? I've been finding caches all over th place with it for years...

 

Or is it because it doesn't have any maps? I guess I can see that, but seems silly to limit a class on "geocaching" to only GPSr's with mapping software. Kindof like me saying I wouldn't teach someone if they didn't have a PDA....you don't need it to geocache with, so why would it be a requirement? Sure it's a nice-to-have, but not a requirement.

 

Heck, I guess to get technical, you don't even need a GPS to geocache with, but really, it's as close to being a necessity as it gets.

Edited August 21, 2006 by ThePropers

[+A-TownWasabi]

REI offers classes in GPS and Map & Compass. These may provide some useful background info. Good luck.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

REI offers classes in GPS and Map & Compass. These may provide some useful background info. Good luck.

Did you notice that the last post was August 2006?

[Green_Traveler]

Wow, what a fantastic opportunity!

 

I am an English teacher and librarian, and I would love to do what you're doing, so let me know how it goes!

 

It seems as though there's been a lot of great advice already. If I have anything to add, it's that students often seem more interested if they're given as many real-world applications for knowledge as possible. That is, if you said to them, "This is the game, and here are real-world applications very similar to the game."

 

You might include a few sidebars about how gps units are used to find survey markers, make hunting safer and easier, and have even been successfully used in survival situations. Certainly the armed forces use them! You could talk about the role of the gps in wildlife conservation, and explain how geocaching promotes our nation's parks. "Cache in, trash out" is a part of geocaching that makes a significantly positive impact on our environment and neighborhoods.

 

Best of luck!

[+BigAl437]

I applaud your desire with what you want to teach. I will be using a curriculum next year called "Educaching" to teach kids in our Homeschool group. It is excellent. I know it is for 4th-8th graders, but it applies using a GPS in all parts of teaching. Check it out when you get a chance. Also, I would like to hear how things go for you if you do go with your original thoughts of teaching a class on Geocaching. Please feel free to contact me.

[+NeecesandNephews]

REI offers classes in GPS and Map & Compass. These may provide some useful background info. Good luck.

Did you notice that the last post was August 2006?

 

Bama that was the first thing I noticed right after the OP's location. I live in the nearby college town referred to and my first thought was "hey!! a local cacher!!" Bzzzt, thanks for playing!! No longer local, at least to me, and the original date then came to my attention!

 

edit to add- Dont know how the "teaching" thing worked out but the OP (now caching as Okiebryan) has made a lot of positive contributions to the game, through his promotion of the Central Oklahoma Geocachers, placing and maintaining caches, hosting events, and adopting and maintaining the Mother Road series of caches that follow the old Route 66 path across the state!

Edited May 3, 2010 by NeecesandNephews

[lilbeardy]

http://product.half.ebay.com/The-Complete-Idiots-Guide-to-Geocaching-2009-Paperback/get some idiots guides to get the kids reading books Buy Used Its cheaper

[+nericksx]

I wonder what ever happened to Disenchanted's (now Okiebryan) class, six years ago? I was reading through the thread and heartily agreed with people who questioned the wisdom of teaching something that you're a newbie at yourself. Now he has over 1500 finds!!! Wow! I wonder what he would tell his 33-finds, 6-years-younger self, now that he's an old pro

 

edit: I see that NeecesandNephews was editing the same time that I was posting and I see that Okiebryan really has become a pillar in the geocaching community. Good on him! Now I REALLY wonder what he would advise his younger, newbie self!

Edited July 10, 2012 by nericksx