Teach Caching In Science Class-good/bad Idea?

[Neos2]

I recently bought my husband a GPS unit for his birthday. We started geocaching, and we are already addicted after only three outings.

 

I have a question for you experienced cachers about teaching high school students about geocaching.

 

I teach Earth/Space and Biology courses at a high school. I like to teach hands-on lesson because the kids learn best that way.

The Indiana state standards for Earth/Space require that I teach my students about satellites and about "the ways that space technology has improved our knowledge of the Earth/Universe etc." I also like to teach a unit on map reading, as that helps with several topics that I teach.

The Biology standards include topics on studying different biomes (prarie, grassland, wetland etc) and on ecology & conservation of the environment. I usually take the kids out around the school to observe the various communites and have them map them and check them (and map them) throughout the year for environmental harm caused by pollutants etc.

 

Naturally, when I started geocaching, I immediately thought that it would be a fantastic way to pull all of those things together.

I think that the best way to do that would be to teach them how GPS units work, and maybe show a PowerPoint on geocaching basics. Then take them outside with GPS units and turn them lose to locate temporary caches that I had planted near the school. If the experience was well received, maybe the classes could each sponsor an official cache nearby that we could maintain as a group project. We could even try to find an area that had some kind of environmental issue (such as trash being dumped there) and incorporate a clean sweep or agree to monitor a section of a stream, etc.

 

I would love to have your input on how this might affect geocaching in the area.

 

On the plus side (from my point of view):

I could educate them about what to do if they accidentally stumble across a cache.

Some of them might like it and take it up.

I would incorporate the idea of taking trash out of the area as a matter of course.

They would learn about mapping, satellites, GPS, and in a very fun way.

Students are technologically oriented anyway--this would appeal to them. Kids love to blog--reporting their finds at online sites would appeal to them.

 

On the negative side (from my perspetive):

Not every child that I teach is as sweet and innocent as their mother's think they are. Some of them might take it into their heads to buy a GPS unit and plunder local caches...and yes, they can afford the units--they have no bills!

I have to find enough GPS units to let small groups of students work together and our budget is frozen until further notice.

I would have to provide the 'practice' caches for them to locate with my own money.

 

I appreciate your taking the time to read this and respond.

Suggestions? Ideas?

 

Thanks,

Sherri

[+Eric K]

Sounds like a good idea to me.

 

As far as practice caches, since they are for practice it's not like you have to stock them with anything. You could actually just use landmarks for practice caches and that way they won't cost you anything.

 

I see more positive than negative. If caches are going to be plundered you never know. Usually if people do that they will get bored with that after a while and you will more than likely turn more people onto geocaching that are actually interested in it.

 

The other issue I see is without the money to purchase units it may be kind of hard. If you have a small budget you could get some low end units off of E-bay.

 

If you break them up into groups, depending on your class size, you won't have to have as many.

 

Sounds like this may be time to see if you can get a grant.

[+rusty_tlc]

What lep said.

You might be able to borrow units from REI or someplace.

The practice caches would be temporary so you could just use cardboard boxes with one or two cheap party favors in each. (I would encourage trades.)

 

Let us know how it works out.

[+SnowLeopard]

I would use practice or temp caches to demonstrate. That way, the kids who are interested could get more info to find "real" caches, and the kids who are destructive miscreants would go and destroy something easier to find.

[dampeoples]

Sounds like a god idea to me, I remember reading somewhere that school teacher did just that, and the cache is listed on gc.com, for everyone to visit after the school did.

[+Will+Bill]

Sounds like a great idea! I wish one of my teachers would do a lesson on Geocaching!

[Neos2]

Thanks to everyone who replied--I appreciate the input, and will definitely plan to add this lesson, even if I have to borrow GPS units.

 

Some thoughts...

 

Will, you say that you wish one of your teachers would do a lesson on geocaching--Maybe you could offer to teach the lesson to your class? Teachers love creative lessons, and real-life applications are great. I could see where any Earth Science teacher would like it--or Physics--or even Geography.

 

I appreciate the other ideas, too. Especially the ways to get units. Money is always a problem in schools--I have friends who teach at schools where the budget comes to about 50 cents a student per year for supplies! My school is better than that--usually--but last year and this coming year our money is frozen. NO new purchases without proof of dire need (Taxes haven't been collected in our county, and the school is having to botrrow money for operating costs). So, it is grant writing time. I will be looking for grants that might apply. If you hear of any, try to remember to drop me a note, please.

Of course, I will also look into borrowing units from local dealers...or maybe arranging for local geocachers to come join us those days, and bring their equipment...Where there is a will, there is a way.

As for the cache swag, I think I may have an idea for saving costs in that area, too. I may ask the kids to bring in little items that they would like to have, and use those to fill the caches. I could put in a few school-related trinkets myself (pencils, erasers, whiteout pens, stickers etc) and let people trade items cache to cache. We could set a limit for costs...maybe 50 cents or a dollar, and I could offer to let anyone who doesn't have swag to trade 'work' for me to earn some trade item. (Grade papers, clean desks, stack recyling).

 

And lastly, thanks for not teasing this science teacher about the two spelling/grammar errors in her last post. (Now we know why I don't teach English!)

[+Team Tecmage]

Hi,

 

Have you thought about Benchmarking as well. I think it would be interesting to use Benchmarking to teach a little scientific history- especially if there are a few old benchmarks near you. The wife and I watched Longitude (a long boring movie to kids) but an interesting story of how longitude was measured and used for navigation.

[Neos2]

Benchmarking would also be a good topic. The school that I teach in is located in a town that has kept the designation "town" so that it can remain the oldest town in Indiana.

 

Billing itself as "The Oldest Anglo-American Town in the Old Northwest" or the "Oldest American Town in the Northwest Territory", the city was chartered in 1783 by the Virginia legislature. The original town was composed of 1,000 acres set aside from the grant of 150,000 acres the legislature donated to George Rogers Clark and his men.

 

I know there are strange boundary issues in the area because of the Clark Grant land, which is set at an angle to the "township and range" rectangular system in most of Indiana.

 

On October 25, 2003 NOS’s National Geodetic Survey dedicated a commemorative survey mark in Clarksville, IN, as part of the bicentennial celebration of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

 

I don't know as much as I ought to about benchmarks. How old could the oldest ones be?

 

I know there are some from 1929. Finding those might be a good topic, as well as trying to locate older markers (of other types) that indicate land survey boundaries in this historic area.

 

Might have to team up with the social studies department on this one!

[+Lazyboy & Mitey Mite]

Each year the 6th grade teacher has me come into the classroom and give a little talk about latitude and longitude and then we go out onto the field where I've hidden a couple of caches filled with candy. I get them high on sugar and leave them to their teacher.

[+Torry]

Raymond Park Middle School in Indianapolis has two caches on their grounds;

 

"Hangin' With Ray"

 

"Family Treasure Box"

 

Warren Central High School has one :

 

"C & B Cache"

 

Perhaps you could set one up on your grounds for the class to manage. The typical concerns are that the kids would muggle their own caches so I recommend that they be "log only" perhaps with loggers leaving home co-ords for mapping purposes.

 

Security for the school must also be considered so the cache should be placed away from entrances and playgrounds. A decent-sized micro near the school sign or otherwise away from the kids' areas should work. A virtual could be used but your town has SO many virtuals and micros that it's get lost in the shuffle.

 

You can also tie in the other uses for GPS including the new cars that include them, anti-theft systems, cargo-tracking, military uses, wildlife management, cell-phone operations, emergency responders uses and the like.

 

The class can also map out the school grounds, compute area, elevation, population density during various activities (just check out how kids 'hang out' for a fascinating study in space management and adolescent behavior), computer mapping activities.

 

Since "real" fieldtrips are discouraged these days in many schools due to costs and liability concerns perhaps a "Geocaching Club" could be formed. Many caches in your area are do-able without a long drive.

[+DocMagoo]

Good idea or bad idea? Hmmmmm.....could be a bad idea if you plan on trying to cover the rest of your learning outcomes in the remainder of your school year .... you know ....once you find one, your administrator may never see you or your class again!

 

Seriously, I think it's a great idea to teach satellite technology and map reading. I can only think of the positives here. I know I've approached our administrator about funding for GPSs and he requested that I throw a grant together ..... failing that, would your school board trustees or perhaps the curriculum helping teachers/departments be favourable? Perhaps take it to the PAC/PTA? Several companies also offer discounts for educational institutions.

 

Regarding the possible looting of the caches, it could happen anyways. Perhaps the caches you place might have only the container and a logbook until it's established and you can take a "waitsee" approach, replacing the caches when if is confirmed that they won't go walking.

 

I wish you the best in your endeavours!

[+art begotti]

if you wouldnt mind another student's perspective...

 

i personally love geocaching. one of my teachers actually got me started with it. (my choir director, of all people...) me and my caching friends have teamed up with him and my youth pastor several times to find different caches. (good, since i havent actually bought the gps yet... still using mapquest...) but anyway, one of my friends said, "hey, there should be some sort of geocaching club at school. we could hide and look for caches, do that 'cache in trash out' thing, and you [the choir director] could be the supervisor!" (loosely quoted) and obviously, he gave my friend a really funny look. and i got a picture. (i own him now.)

 

hey, there are sports teams, and theres the national honor society, and the stage crew, and the art club... why not geocaching club? i mean, it's not too hard to start a club at school... i mean, my friend started the high school taco club... (no kidding! i just hosted a shindig over the holiday weekend.) and i think that there would definitely be some students interested in joining...

 

i would suggest sponsoring a club. that way, kids who wanna do it will come and participate, those who dont wanna will probably stay away. then you probably wont have that many problems with terrorized caches and whatnot.

Edited July 6, 2004 by artbegotti

[Neos2]

Thanks again for the responses. Especially the students--if you like this idea, I feel sure that my students will, also!

 

I have started hunting grants. Now comes the part where I have to start doing my homework on costs, etc.

I could use advice on the particular units to buy. I only know the Garmin eTrex Legend, which seems nice enough and is 'sort of' low end...but I could use advice from you folks. In your opinion, what is the least expensive make/model that I should purchase for the uses I have in mind?

 

Money is a factor, as I have said...but we have also learned that it isn't smart to automatically buy the least expensive thing on the market. These units will be used by lots of people, but need to last.

 

Some things I think will factor in:

need to be pretty simple to operate

need to have the features we will use

need to be durable

 

Do you think I am judging my numbers right--With classes of 16-24, I think that I need 5-10 units. (Work in groups of 2-4).

 

Thanks,

PS

I talked to the Physics teacher (Head of the Science deapartment) about this today and he is excited about this idea too.

[+TimInOhio and Brittany]

Just another thing to consider: Garmin was a sponsor at the 2002 GPS Goldrush in Killington, VT, and Magellan is currently running their second annual contest; this year it's called "Cache Her If You Can." Both companies have donated/given away many things to Geocaching organizations and events. Maybe a couple of well placed emails or letters could get you a donation of a (or a few) GPSr units? I'd think that they'd love to support education! You might try the local sporting goods stores, too. They get a write-off, and your class gets something useful.

[GeoStars]

I too, thought of going directly to the source as far as looking for GPS unit donations. Don't know if Garmin would be willing to help out but it's definitely worth a shot. We have a yellow E-trex which was inexpensive ($99 including shipping) and has served us well for over 130 finds. Someday we plan to upgrade but we'll never give up our little E-trex.

 

As far as tying in geocaching with teaching, I think it's a great idea. We homeschool our kids so our *class* is conisderably smaller but we've used geocaching to provide all types of hands-on learning as well as a fun way to get in some exercise.

 

Good luck with your grants!