If you don't know what Geocaching is then please watch the video below for a quick 2 minute explanation.
If you don't have the 2 minutes time to watch the video - very briefly is it like a hide and seek treasure game where you find hidden caches (treasures) by using GPS coordinates.
After I had found 2 caches then I started to think of how you could use Geocaching in the school environment.
Geocaching.com has millions of geocaches all over the world. They are posted online and people can search for them to find them.
It is a real world context for using a compass, mapping, directions and distance. Brilliant!
However the drawback I can see is that to complete this task then the class would have to leave the school grounds to find Geocaches in their area. Also Geocaching is meant to be hidden from the general public (muggles) and you can not be spotted finding a Geocache in case someone ruins that cache.
So then traipsing 25+ kids around a suburb is not only stressful but not very secret. :)
Not to be deterred though I kept pondering how this could be utilised in the classroom.
My next thought was to find an app that you could plug the GPS coordinates into and then create a "safe zone" geocache setup within the school grounds.
The school that I teach/taught at (I'm currently on maternity leave) has a class set of ipod touches that we won in a competition and also are introducing a 1-to-1 iPad program across most of the school. So GPS apps could be downloaded and utilised very easily.
It wouldn't be very difficult to hide little caches around the school and tie them into what kids were learning about.
e.g.
- We learnt about minibeasts and each geocache could have clues that uses their knowledge about a minibeast to find out where the next cache is.
- It could be maths related and to find the next GPS coordinates to plug into the app they need to complete maths problems.
- Each cache could hold a reading comprehension question and the answers could be multiple choice and include GPS coordinates that they could enter in and then find if they were correct (find the next cache) or incorrect (find a sign saying - go back and have another go)
Kids who enjoy it could then have learnt the skills to enable them to continue geocaching with their family outside of school. Parents who struggle finding things to do as a family would probably enjoy having their child teach them how to geocache.
Geocaching.com has already set up a how to guide for education etc but I have not read it as you have to purchase it. http://www.geocaching.com/education/default.aspx I have just been thinking of these things and not had a class to be my guinea pigs.
I would love to know of anyone else who has implemented something like this with their class.
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