Geocaching and Education, part 7 - Student Grouping

This is post #7 in a series of free resources for educators interested in using geocaching in education and other community groups like scouts or camps. The material is pulled directly from Educaching GPS Based Curriculum for Teachers. If interested in more resources, check out www.educaching.com.

Sincerely,

Jason Hubbard, Author

Teamwork is a vital part of Educaching. Groups of two to four students are ideal for success. It is a good idea to assign roles to each individual group member to keep each student focused and responsible for specific tasks. Here are some ideas for individual roles within the groups:

• Navigator – This student will be in charge of the GPS receiver and navigating the group to their destinations.
• Scribe – This student will be responsible for writing down any information necessary like waypoints, clues, answers to questions, notes, etc. If you use the field sheets (included in the lessons), every student can write on their own, or the scribe can be responsible for one field sheet for the whole group.
• Reader – The job of the reader is to read any information (clues, articles, directions, etc.) found in a cache.
• Photographer (optional, but recommended) – If you have access to digital cameras, this student can take pictures of the group in action and take snapshots of their findings. For example, the students might greatly benefit in a tree-related hunt from taking pictures of their tree, leaf samples, and bark type for reference and for displaying in a presentation when they return to the classroom. Photographs can also be used to explain to parents, other teachers, and the community just what it is you are doing in Educaching!
• Illustrator – This role may be assigned to a student for several lessons that require drawing of any pictures or figures on the hunt. This role can be assigned in place of a photographer if you choose not to use cameras. 

You can utilize all these roles, some of them, or come up with your own, but make sure students rotate through these roles frequently so that all students can have exposure to the GPS units.