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The Return of Geocaching 101
John PhillipsBattle Creek Public Schools
@BCGeek
What is GPS?• GPS is a collection of 24 satellite’s that
are in geosynchronous orbit with the Earth.
• The satellite’s send a signal to the receivers that allow them to triangulate your location.
• GPS is accurate down to approx. 6 feet.
A typical car GPS
Roughly a $100 investment. Will work for Geocaching.Image courtesy of Garmin.com
A Typical Trail GPSThis model sells for $99. Very durable, and designed for trail work that is necessary in Geocaching.
What is Geocaching?• A high tech treasure hunt that allows
people to log on to www.geocaching.com and find caches hidden by other members.
Wait… What is a cache?
• A cache is a container that is used for geocaching.
Images from shop.groundspeak.com
How does it work?• Go to www.geocaching.com
• Create a free account.
• Use your zip code to search for caches near your location. (48226 for Cobo)
• There are about 15 caches within a mile of Cobo!
How does it work? Cont.
• When you get on the site, you can get the latitude and longitude coordinates of a cache.
• You can also download the waypoints to different caches.
Sample Cache Page
LingoMuggle
Cach
eTFTC
TFTHDNF
MYSTERY CACHEMulti-Cache
Garmin Nuvi GPS
Image courtesy of Garmin.com
Image courtesy of Garmin.com
Garmin Nuvi GPS
Image courtesy of Garmin.com
Garmin Nuvi GPS
Image courtesy of Garmin.com
Garmin Nuvi GPS
Image courtesy of Garmin.com
Garmin Nuvi GPS
Image courtesy of Garmin.com
Garmin Nuvi GPS
Image courtesy of Garmin.com
How to use a Car GPS
Image courtesy of Garmin.com
The Resulting Map
Image courtesy of Garmin.com
Tips for finding• Use your sense of environment
• Look for abnormal things.
• Trust your instinct.
• They are VERY well hidden.
Education Application• Travel Bugs
– DEN Geocoin 2010– Completely Trackable– Think “Flat Stanley”
• Bugs can have different jobs.– Only for kids.– Other classrooms only.– Finders have to post a quick entry on a
wiki.– Talk about the temperature and weather
when they found the bug.
Cross Curricular• Math
– Students have to solve a problem to get a coordinate. • Science
– Students have to identify the plant material found near or on the cache.
– Samples of rock in each cache.• Social Studies
– Geography– Orienteering
• Language Arts– Writing cache clues.– Maintaining a blog about their travel bugs.
Education ApplicationCa
che I
n,
Trash
Out
Image courtesy of Garmin.com
Educaching.com
Contact Me• I have a blog:
http://denblogs.com/jphillips217
• On Twitter: @bcgeek
• On Skype: jphillipsbc
• On Del.icio.us: http://delicious.com/MrPhillips
