Schoolscache Update – GPS/Geocaching

Back in April 2010 my then class placed a travel bug -TB in a cache outside the school boundary. The TB ( an individual trackable item) had a goal to get to Birdsedge First School and our partner class near Huddersfield, England. Over the course of the year the class was also able to observe via Google Earth and Google Maps the progress ( and sometimes lack of) as fellow cachers physically found and moved the TB to the next cache on the global journey. In late December the TB was retrieved from Birdsedge School cache and the journey was complete.  A real success for both schools.

Birdsdge First School

Birdsedge First School


So what did the students experience and learn.

1. Through the use of Google Earth students have engaged with world geography as the TB travelled through NSW to the UK and through nine or so cache locations. At each stop the class discussed location, geography, travel and reflected on distances travelled.

2. Geocaching and sending TBs on a mission relies on other people helping to achieve the goal. If it wasn’t for fellow cachers moving the bug on we would never have reached Birdsedge. A great opportunity for learning about teamwork, personal goals and human nature.

3. Opportunities for international collaboration and understanding are very evident. Students can email or share a blog with their partner school and compare similarities and differences. For my class, seeing photos of Birdsedge and the cache under heavy snow while we sweltered through a hot summer highlighted seasonal change and the opposing seasons.

4. We lost a TB on its return journey from the UK and also have another that started in the UK, reached the US and was then returned to Europe… it’s still there!

Additionally the use of the Garmin GPS receivers has allowed the stage 2 students to move from orienteering styled mapping activities to hiding and finding caches within the school grounds. In teams students communicate, share and explore their local environment using GPS technologies to navigate and measure.

More to come…