Math Geeks Unite...How GPS works

This video does a beautiful job of illustrating how GPS works, especially from a mathematical perspective. What a great way to teach students or yourself!

Geocaching and Education, part 9 - School Safety

This is post #9 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

A Word about School Safety

      I once heard a story about a schoolyard in England being flooded with police cars, caution tape, and a bomb squad. What looked like a plastic pipe bomb was found hidden in a tree on campus. Could what looked potentially dangerous actually have been just a harmless geocache? It was in fact a geocache. This story was told to me while having a conversation with my principal. When I approached him about hiding containers on school grounds, his first concern was (and rightly so) avoiding unnecessary suspicion and promoting student safety. In this day and age, this is timely advice to consider. 

      Be sure you secure your building administrator’s permission regarding the hiding of any containers on the school grounds. When speaking with the principal, be very specific about what types of containers you will be using, and attach labels in case an outsider finds a container by mistake. The last thing you want or need is for someone in the community to be alarmed by finding a mysterious container while walking on school property. You can avoid this by being straightforward with the school staff and maybe even local police so that there are no surprises about what you are hiding. Also, it is a good idea to be straightforward with your students that you and only you have permission to hide containers at school. Many students might be excited about the concept and may try to hide their own containers on school grounds. This is not safe or acceptable, and the students need to know that you will be doing all the placement of educaches.

Geocaching + Prezi

As an educator and a presenter, I have grown to love prezi. If you are unfamiliar, you need to become familiar! In a nutshell, it is an online software application to create and share "zoomable" creative presentations. However, it is a completely different and creative take on the old drab and boring slideshow approach. Here's an analogy: Powerpoint is to linear presentation as Prezi is to infinite zooming canvas. I found this prezi on Geocaching and just had to share. It will give you a great idea as to how a prezi looks and feels, and it is a great teaching tool for students and adults alike when it comes to the great sport of caching!
Enjoy,
Jason and the Educaching Team

An introduction to Geocaching on Prezi