A great tool to help students understand GPS tracking.

Geocaching CAN be implemented in the classroom without an exorbitant outlay of money, time or energy. Those with Smartphones can download the Geocaching app and within minutes be on their way to a Geocaching adventure. Those with a Garmin or other Global Position System (GPS) can obtain latitude/longitude coordinates from geocaching.com and seek out their treasures. Below are some ideas and suggestions for ways to integrate geocaching into ANY content area’s curriculum. Idea #1: Create a class Travel Bug and deposit it into a local cache. Follow the bug’s journey and map the route. Idea #2: During a field trip, take a side trip to a nearby cache. Idea #3: Plant a class cache and watch as visitors log in from all over. Create a map documenting visitors. Idea #4: Research the history of local landmarks. Create a cache at a location that describes the history of that site. Idea #5: Investigate and locate Earthcaches via Google Earth Idea #6: Conduct a GPS Scavenger Hunt on your school property Idea #7: Identify different varieties of trees in a nature preserve (or on your school grounds) and record their coordinates. Then challenge other students to find the trees given specific coordinates. Idea #8: Create a cultural cache. Fill a cache with items reflecting your region. Encourage visitors to log their reaction/responses to share with your class. Idea #9: Organize a community CITO “Cache in Trash Out” Day Geocaching can be a wonderful tool to enhance student understanding of geography, location and place, science and nature, scientific inquiry, mathematical concepts, physical education, problem solving, teamwork, critical thinking as well as language arts activities.

The kids and I enjoyed being able to search and find caches close to school. We often took walking field trips to a cache. It really fostered team work and communication as a small group had to share one device. The interface was clear and easy to use, clues and information is very easy to access. The free app really is not conducive to group work outside of the school - go for the paid.

Although Geocaching is labeled as use for older students, I felt it perfectly appropriate in my 5th grade classroom. Geocaching.com is a great tool for extending the concepts of geography and coordinate geometry outside of the classroom. It gave students a real-world application to using GPS and latitude and longitude outside of locating faraway places on a map. By learning about GPS and triangulation, students were able to calculate hypotenuses and relate that back to how GPS triangulates locations using latitude and longitude. I loved how geocaching gave students an opportunity to see Math and Geography used in the real world. I would like to see Geocaching.com offer teacher accounts so that this tool can be used more effectively in the classroom. For example, currently, each student needed to set up their own account and download their own Android app in order to locate nearby geocaches. It would be great if a teacher could set up an account for his/her classroom and add their students. This would ease the use of geocaching in the classroom.