Stupid Question, BUT

[jgreer]

My son's have really taken to this, especially the 4 year old who just started J/K. How would I go about getting a travel bug made up for his school that would incorporate some unique feature that we could place when we go south for a vacation in the hopes that every student in the school will take an interest in following the progress around the world and learning about new places?

 

Can individual "school themed" coins or bugs be made and how much would something like this set me back?

 

Thanks for your time

[+TexasGringo]

I don't know about travel bugs but there are GeoCoins.

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=116800

 

You might also try to buy a tracking number from Groundspeak for this purpose....then make your own item with that number on it.

[+briansnat]

You can get travel bugs here, attach it to whatever you like and send it on its way. Don't be disappointed if it goes missing though. About half of mine have disappeared over time.

[+Isonzo Karst]

Production cost of a trackable coin will run into several hundred dollars. You can purchase a number of travel bug tags $5.99 each. Attach something of interest to the school and turn it (them) loose.

[Luckless]

My sister-in-law got a couple for her class. She just got the tags and attached them to something with a note. The note explains the TB's mission which in this case was to ask people to post a description of their jobs when they logged the TB. This was so her class could see all the many types of jobs there were that people were doing. It was her job to teach these students to become job ready. There was/is no guarantee that people would do it, but they worded it in such a way that many did. Some jobs were pretty facinating and they went into much detail for the kids. The kids also got a geography lesson watching the TB's travel around. Please be aware that travel bugs do get stolen and muggled. You may not want to attach the tags to anything special that might encourage someone to want to steal it. Because they do disappear two might have a better chance than one, but you never know. If you send a note with the TB's mission you may want to laminate the note.

Edited October 2, 2007 by Luckless

[+cache_test_dummies]

Don't want to sound discouraging, but I wouldn't set the student's expectations too high. In many cases, travel bugs don't move very quickly, or move very far. If you're lucky, you'll see it move a handful of times during the school year, but on the other hand it might end up in a closet or in an inactive cache and sit idle for months at a time.

 

Not to say it isn't a good idea, just be prepared for something other than a fast-paced trip around the globe.

[+J-Way]

If you have a limited budget, then your best bet is to purchase a few trackable dog tags (briansnat posted the link above). Attach them to whatever you want and set them free. I recommend buying several because TB's go missing all the time; the ones that stay active usually move at a glacial speed, sometimes sitting in caches or on the floorboard of a caching vehicle for months. One idea to make it more interesting is to break the class up into groups (boys vs. girls, popular vs. unpopular, jocks vs. nerds, etc.) and have a "race". Or have races with other classes. Give prizes to the group with the most caches visited before the end of the year, or the most miles traveled, or both. If you have more money, then each kid gets his/her own TB dog tag.

 

I do NOT recommend requiring the achieval of goals (like visiting certain places or getting to a certain cache), because it's unlikely any of them will be fulfilled before the end of the year. Or set easily obtainable goals and give bonuses for achieving them.

[+wimseyguy]

Set up an account for your son's class that the teacher can access. Create a Travel Bug using a school keychain, or perhaps the school mascot if appropriate. Or put out a series of several TB's and have them race back home after the vacation.

On the TB listing page, assign it a unique mission that includes reporting its progress back to the class and requesting pictures, kids love pictures.

 

Perhaps the teacher would be willing to post a map in the classroom to track the progress of the TB's?

[+briansnat]

Don't want to sound discouraging, but I wouldn't set the student's expectations too high. In many cases, travel bugs don't move very quickly, or move very far. If you're lucky, you'll see it move a handful of times during the school year, but on the other hand it might end up in a closet or in an inactive cache and sit idle for months at a time.

 

Not to say it isn't a good idea, just be prepared for something other than a fast-paced trip around the globe.

 

That's why it might be a good idea to release a few and perhaps have a race. Chances are some will last.

[+the hermit crabs]

Releasing more than one is a much better idea, for the reasons mentioned above by cache_test_dummies and briansnat.

 

My favorite series of bugs along that theme have been the KES "Flat" travel bugs released by kids at an elementary school in Maine. They're similar to "Flat Stanley", except each bug is named for one of the kids in the class; the bugs are shaped like paper-doll cutouts with a picture of the student-owner's face attached.

 

We've picked up two of them over the past two years, Flat Mark and Flat Garrett. We've enjoyed watching their travels since then.

[jgreer]

thank you all for the guidance, and if you make it to the turks and caicos, feel free to take the bug(s)

[+Rockin Roddy]

The bugs might just come to us!

 

I have several travelers, most are still actively traveling! I have some that have made it to Hawaii, some in England and even have had a few make their mission already and have been re-assigned! You might have the same "luck"...or not!

 

I do like the idea of multiple releases, maybe if some of the kids were to buy their own tags? or maybe through a few donations, you might get enough to have some fun watching them move around!

 

That said, shoot me your address through my profile (which you can find by clicking on my name to the left of this post) and I'll see what I can do to help out!

[+michigansnorkelers]

Here is a geocoin I ran across last year. I've been following it's progress with interest.

 

"From First Grade to Mexico" Monarch Butterfly Geocoin

 

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.as...fd-2e8dc82f351f

 

You could easily do something like this with a travelbug.

[+elmuyloco5]

Make sure you place your bug or coin in a ziploc and include info as to what the purpose is and what you're expecting. We recently found one that a boy wanted to see pictures of space and aeronautical stuff. We traveled over 1000 miles around our state (not just for the bug) and took all sorts of pictures for him. It helps give purpose to the person picking it up, and I think most decent people would try to help a group of kids achieve their goals.