School Geocaching Club

[+Teahan_family_hk]

Hi,

 

I am new to geocaching and have only been doing it for over a month. I've gotten so much into that I have decided to introduce it to my school as a club. I am a pe teacher. If anyone has any ideas for doing it as a school group (probably about 10 students and their parents) I would be most grateful for your assitance/ideas. I just have one question (at the moment!!):

 

What's the etiquette on signing the log book with so many people finding the cache?

 

teahan_family_hk

[+Lieblweb]

Hi,

 

I am new to geocaching and have only been doing it for over a month. I've gotten so much into that I have decided to introduce it to my school as a club. I am a pe teacher. If anyone has any ideas for doing it as a school group (probably about 10 students and their parents) I would be most grateful for your assitance/ideas. I just have one question (at the moment!!):

 

What's the etiquette on signing the log book with so many people finding the cache?

 

teahan_family_hk

 

Where are you from?

 

With a group...... Come up with a group/team name. Sign the log with the team/group NAME and everyone who logs a find from that group should mention they were part of the 'team/group name'.

[hoosier guy]

What a great idea for several reasons. Tap into your local caching community for help as well. Most cachers are happy to help others learn. Just put them through the normal hoops for any adult school volunteer.

[+Fryguy1111]

For a school idea, you can check out the Geocaching in Schools link by Apishpere (manufacture of the Geomate Jr. My sons use one and with only 2 buttons, it's a piece of cake

 

If this picks up at your school, you can consider the purchase of 6-unit Educaching® Class Pack. It includes lesson programs and the update cable to update the internal cache list, add your own PQ's or cache locations.

 

Edited to say that at Educaching.com there are many different sizes and types of geocaching kits (not just the one I mentioned above) and teaching programs available.

Edited January 9, 2012 by Fryguy1111

[diggingest_dogg616]

I wish my school would've had something like that. I would've liked PE a lot more if there was a bigger emphasis on less stressful activities and solo activites. Please keep with it! I really hope this goes well for you and your group, because it would be a cool thing to have. Technology *and* outside! How awesome!

 

As far as actually adding something helpful, maybe some of the kids or parents will already have a GPS unit, so those that can't afford one and don't have one can use a school one if you can get those (that would be awesome!). 'Kay, that wasn't really helpful, but I tried

 

Good luck!!!

[+badger10]

You might want to check with your local Parks and Rec people. Our local P & R offer group outings and have gps to loan out to those that don't have them. It helps that one of the local Park Rangers is a geocacher and enjoys taking groups out.

[+msrubble]

If you scroll waaaaayyy down the page in the forums, after Dutch-speaking, there is a grouping of subforums called Geocaching and Education.

 

As for a large group find, you can sign the log as LincolnPE or Central 5th Grade or whatever group name. Then in the online log, anyone who was present and has his or her own account can say, "signed as LincolnPE."

[+Teahan_family_hk]

Thanks for the ideas and advice. We will going on our first geocache in February - will let you know how it goes.

[+briansnat]

There is no rule about signing the cache with a group. I've hunted caches with numerous groups, some consisting of 20 or more poeple. In every instance we passed the logbook around and everyone signed. But I've encountered cache logs where a large group signed under a single team name.

 

If nobody in your group has an account, it may make sense to sign it simply as "___ School Geocaching Club", or you can sign it as that and let the students who want to write their own names below.

 

If one or more of the students already has an account here, or plans to start one I would encourage them to sign individually just to get in the habit of signing.

Edited January 15, 2012 by briansnat

[+niraD]

What's the etiquette on signing the log book with so many people finding the cache?

When I've been in groups, sometimes the log is passed around and everyone signs their own name. Sometimes, the log is signed for everyone, but some people have someone else sign for them. (The most extreme version of this is when one person signs for everyone in the group.) Sometimes, the first person signs a group name (e.g., "GBA Kayakers" or "The GBA 21" or "GBA ECR"), and passes the log to anyone who wants to sign their own name; everyone else just mentions the group name in their online log.

 

The more difficult it is to pass the log around, the more likely it is that people will sign on behalf of each other. This can be because the terrain is difficult (e.g., geo-kayaking) or because the log is hard to handle (e.g., blinker logs).

 

The smaller the log, the more remote the cache, and the larger the group, the more likely it is that people will just use the group name, rather than taking up space in the log for each person's name.

 

But I've seen a lot of variation.

[+wuster]

Thanks for the ideas and advice. We will going on our first geocache in February - will let you know how it goes.

 

Hi Teahan_family_hk,

 

I noticed that you are from Hong Kong, you might want to check out the Hong Kong geocaching group on Facebook if you haven't visited the FB　page yet. Most active HK geocachers "hangout" there. We could share w/ u some experience geocaching in HK and might even help u out w/ ur school group if needed.

 

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12544100334

 

Happy Caching!

 

wuster

[+Teahan_family_hk]

Thanks for the ideas and advice. We will going on our first geocache in February - will let you know how it goes.

 

Hi Teahan_family_hk,

 

I noticed that you are from Hong Kong, you might want to check out the Hong Kong geocaching group on Facebook if you haven't visited the FB　page yet. Most active HK geocachers "hangout" there. We could share w/ u some experience geocaching in HK and might even help u out w/ ur school group if needed.

 

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12544100334

 

Happy Caching!

 

wuster

 

Thanks Wuster - I have joined the facebook page already. Unfortunately at this stage the interest hasn't been great. 2 kids who do it already have shown an interest in joining the club.

[+Ambient_Skater]

Unfortunately at this stage the interest hasn't been great. 2 kids who do it already have shown an interest in joining the club.

That is a common problem with starting most school geocaching clubs. If your school currently has an outdoor club or some sort of club remotely related to outdoor activities, I'd advise contacting whoever is in charge and asking if you can integrate geocaching into that club first, and the branch it off into a separate geocaching club later.

[+DonB]

Hi,

 

I am new to geocaching and have only been doing it for over a month. I've gotten so much into that I have decided to introduce it to my school as a club. I am a pe teacher. If anyone has any ideas for doing it as a school group (probably about 10 students and their parents) I would be most grateful for your assitance/ideas. I just have one question (at the moment!!):

 

What's the etiquette on signing the log book with so many people finding the cache?

 

teahan_family_hk

 

Where are you from?

 

With a group...... Come up with a group/team name. Sign the log with the team/group NAME and everyone who logs a find from that group should mention they were part of the 'team/group name'.

If it were me I would have each person set up his or her own account and log each cache individually. That way if they got hooked on caching and went without the group they could log the caches on their own.

[+BigAl437]

I have used the Educaching curriculum and it is great. I taught a group of 6 homeschool boys and it was total fun. They each signed up for their own account and when we did go out to find local caches they could then sign it for themselves. Educaching teaches more than just finding caches. We did this once a month and they are all still at it. We even did a class TB project. We made two TB's One, and also twoand sent them out. They thought this was totally awesome. I would print out info on where they had traveled and show them the next time we met together. Most of them graduate this year and it will be neat if the TB's can make it back for their graduation. We'll have to wait and see. Give it a try.