Digital Pirates: Navigating the High Seas of Geocaching in Education

Arrrrr....you ready for an adventure? We certainly were at the eTech 2011conference in Columbus last month. The weather outside was frightful, but that didn't keep the participants from doing an indoor faux educaching hunt. The presentation can be viewed below. Before the conference, I wrestled with the idea of taking teachers outdoors in the freezing temperatures, much like I would if I were to take students out. I decided against it.  Instead, I created a video outdoors while in the Columbus cold to help show teachers some good hiding spots and help explain what Educaching is all about from my perspective.

Open publication - Free publishing - More gps lesson

A few weeks later, the weather took a turn for the better in northwest Ohio at the NWO Inquiry Series. I decided to take teachers outdoors for a lesson called Grand Slam! This lesson can be found in Educaching: GPS Based Curriculum for Teachers and incorporates math and physical education. It was a smash hit, no pun intended. Inclement weather can be tricky, but I learned a valuable lesson: If there is a break in the weather, go for it! The teachers and I were so excited to just get outside after being cooped up for a few months and enjoyed using the lesson as a unique way to capture statistical data like median, mode, mean, and range. So, if it's cold where you are, think about getting them out once or twice, even if you need to suit them up first...chances are, they'll love it and learn!

Toyota Tapestry Grant

This year, Toyota will be awarding 50 grants of $10,000 each! Now is the time to get brainstorming with a few other teachers you know or individually to get some money for technology in your classroom! The award is for any elementary, middle school, or high school science teacher. The grant focuses on environmental education and the subcategories you may choose from are biotic (living factors) and abiotic (nonliving factors pollution, oil, water, soil, and human interactions).

The deadline for your proposal is 11:59pm EST on Tuesday, February 23. You still have time to write a fantastic grant. Think of the possibilities of exploring your environment with GPS! To get you started with possible ideas, the educators at The Science Spot have prepared an amazing plan complete with cache clues and everything to get your students out on an environmental hunt. Be sure to check out this GPS lesson called EarthQuest! Just scroll down the page.

Check out the proposal requirements for the Toyota Tapestry Grant here. Good luck!

Sausage Links?

For some "meaty" online links, check out the new Links Page here at The Educacher blog. I have begun to compile a list of some of the best on the web I've found that relate to the thrill of the hunt, particularly for elementary/junior high aged learners. Please comment to this post with other helpful links you find along the way so that our list can be as comprehensive as possible!
Keep 'em caching!

Something's been bugging me...

Travel bugs are a terrific way to give your students a taste of the real world via a "Flat Stanley-ish" experience. If you've never heard of them, take a second and read up on the Travel Bugs FAQ at geocaching.com. Essentially, you can attach these trackable tags to a small object, register it online (a la Webkinz), place it in an existing geocache, and track its traveling progress online. It's very simple and there are plenty of travel bugs that have been touring the globe for a long time. Check out these great bugs that have somewhat of an educational theme:

Last Letter Morphing Bug
Race to Nome
DJ's Algebra TB of Goodness

Feel free to add any more good ones you find in the comments section of this blog!

If you're feeling up to the challenge, why not purchase a travel bug (around $5.99 USD from Groundspeak) and set your students to the task of creating an educational mission for it. You then could use the travel bug to have students collect information (geographical, mathematical, statistical, etc.) as the bug travels. Even if a travel bug is lost or stolen after awhile, the information remains logged on the web so students can continue to view it. Use the graphic organizer below or create your own to help your students brainstorm a unique purpose for their own travel bug!

Open publication - Free publishing - More travelbug

Rainy Day Blues? Try Terra Clues!

So you've planned this great caching lesson with your students only to find the weather not cooperating! If inclement weather is stopping you in your tracks, there are many indoor options from which to choose. Of course, GPS is not able to be used indoors without some pretty sophisticated (and expensive) equipment. If the computer lab is open, try Terra Clues for Schools: a free google maps-integrated scavenger hunt. Log in for a free teacher's account and you can create your own online hunts or use already-made hunts. You can assign a class username and password for your students to log in with and can even track their progress by their individual sign-in name. I found that some of my students enjoyed this so much that several of them created their own! Try this Tutorial Hunt to see how it works. Then, check out some hunts I stored in my classroom page for my students to have access to. The username is: educaching and the password is woodland. Many of these hunts are educational like exploring continents and oceans or studying Native Americans, but some are just for fun like finding locations from the Harry Potter series or searching for famous baseball stadiums. The idea here is that students are searching and digging for knowledge using Google as a search engine, as well as searching spatially with layers of mapping. Try it out and let me know what you think!

Stay tuned for more rainy day ideas!

Money, Money, Money...

How can money be scrounged up for all those GPS units for your class or school? There are plenty of resources out there. If you're new to the process, you're probably wondering about how many to buy or what type is the best. I am hoping to answer questions like this in subsequent posts, but for now, do some research and try a few of the websites listed in the document below. Also, keep your eye on Apisphere's Geomate, Jr.. For districts who want the most bang for the buck, this little GPS packs a mean punch. For around $70 per receiver, you get a user-friendly, mac/pc compatible, geocaching-ready device. The best part is, Apisphere has a custom cache page where you can create and save your own teacher-made caches on your school campus and easily download the waypoints to your geomate receivers.


There are many options out there and many questions you'll want to research like features, brands, other field tools to purchase, etc. Do not be discouraged by a lack of money in your district. If you believe that using GPS with your students can be a great motivational and educational tool to help your students succeed, like I do, then put in the time to make it happen! Check some of the resources below and let me know others you find so they can be shared.

Happy hunting!

Open publication - Free publishing - More grants

Super Spies

So...want to take your students on a secret agent hunt? Why not use a cypher or code wheel to have them decode messages they find in caches. You could even create a vocabulary hunt where they find the encrypted definition of a word, then crack the code and solve for the meaning of the word!

Click below for a downloadable PDF of a geocaching mystery wheel from 

www.geocacher-u.com.

Check out Geocacher University's web site for some more great ideas and printables.

Let the hunt for learning begin!

Open publication - Free publishing - More cipher