Geocaching
Curricular Ideas
Primary Grades
• First Activity – teach students to use the
devices
• Caches
– Plastic container with candy, stickers, erasers or
other small objects
– Notes “see you homeroom teacher for a treat”,
“Homework pass”, “extra 5 minutes of recess”
Upper Elementary/Middle Examples
• Culminating Activity for a unit of study
– Lisa Foy, FHES, Pirate Unit – integrating all subject
areas
• Student read Teach’s Light or Mystery of Blackbeard
• Each cache contains a question related to the books or
a math question with a pirate theme
#1 If $2000 was collected for the opening week’s performance,
and tickets sold at $5.00 a piece, how many tickets were sold?
How many tickets would be sold in 3 months.
Block 3
#1 The pirates of The Black Pearl are a motley crew. Arrr! Twentyseven of them have earrings, and 25 of them have peg legs. If the
crew consists of 37 pirates, how many have both earrings and peg
legs?
#2 If the town of Bath has 16 historic homes and each mystery
book character (4) visited an equal number of homes alone, how
many homes would each person have visited?
Block 3
#2 Polly wants a cracker. Awk! A box of crackers sitting next to her
perch contains 5 Ritz crackers, 4 saltines, and 7 Wheat Thins. If she
sticks her beak into the box and randomly pulls out a cracker, what is
the probability that she does NOT get a saltine? Express yer answer
as a common fraction.
Note:
Differentiated
Instruction
#3 If you were an author and received $2000 for writing a book,
what would you have left after theses expenses?
Taxes- $122
Internet service $20 a month for 6 months
Paper $32.50
Research travel $174.50
Telephone calls $62.50
Postage $ 16.25
Aspirin $ 5.75
#4 If gold sells for $250 per ounce, and Blackbeard’s treasure
totaled 25 pounds of gold, how much money would you have if
you found his buried loot?
Block 3 (answer #4 above and then answer this problem) If you
had to pay a 40% tax on this treasure, what would you have left
to keep?
#5
Mystery of Blackbeard pages 151
Teach’s Light pages 139
If the author wrote 5 pages a day, how many days would it take
her to write your book?
Block 3 (answer #5 above, then answer this problem) If the
author was paid $9000 for writing your book, what would she
be paid per page?
Upper Elementary/Middle Examples
• Culminating Activity for a unit of study
– Lisa Foy, FHES, Pirate Unit – integrating all subject
areas
• Student read Teach’s Light or Mystery of Blackbeard
• Each cache contains a question related to the books or
a math question with a pirate theme
– After the activity, students write a reflection of
what they have learned/experienced.
Geocaching Reflection
Today we went on a modern day treasure hunt
using a GPS as our treasure map.
I learned….
I was amazed by…
I was surprised to see…
device
technology
cache
mischief
booty
loot
Upper Elementary/Middle Examples
• Review material
– Erin Buchanan, FHES, Landform Review
• Each cache contains a picture and description of a
landform
• Students identify the landform on a log sheet
Student Log Sheet - Example
Upper Elementary/Middle Examples
• Discuss a book
– Cindy Roscoe, Salem, Book discussion
• Each cache contains a photo or image of something
significant in a book students have read
• Students identify the photo and tell how it relates to
the book on their log sheet
– For a second geocaching activity, students
worked in groups to create the caches
Upper Elementary/Middle Examples
• Unit of study - History of the school/
community/county
– 4th Grade Hallyburton
• At each cache, students learned about history of the
area (traveled around the Drexel community)
–
–
–
–
To Protect and to Serve – stop at Drexel Fire Department
Whoo! Whoo! Crash! – famous train trash in Drexel
Brown Mountain Lights – video at Drexel Elementary
Tall, Tall Tree – story of Frankie Silver
Upper Elementary/Middle Examples
• Where Am I?*
– Jason Parker, Salem – Geometry Review
• Students were given a list of geometry terms and bingo
cards
– They were to go out and identify as many of the terms as they
could,
» MARK the location on their GPS device,
» record the coordinates on their log sheet,
» check their bingo card,
» photograph the example they found
*Google Earth & GPS Elementary Classroom Activities Grades 2-6 by Jim
Holland & Susan Anderson
Upper Elementary/Middle Examples
• Where Am I?
– Jason Parker, Salem – Geometry Review
• Students were given a list of geometry terms and bingo
cards
– They were to go out and identify as many of the terms as they
could,
» MARK the location on their GPS device,
» record the coordinates on their log sheet,
» check their bingo card, (prizes awarded for BINGO)
» photograph the example they found
• Students used Photostory to import and label their
photos, and share with their peers
Other Examples of Curricular Tie-ins
– Name 5 three-dimensional shapes you see
– Find 5 examples of the following angles –
equilateral, acute, obtuse,
– Name 3 landforms you see
– Find a habitat, tell why it is a habitat
– Something related to the school campus
• Sum of the digits of a sign – what is the relevance of
the sign
– Baseball trivia question requiring math – taped
to bench on the baseball field
School Clubs
• Girl Scout Troop
– Crystal Smith, Salem
• Girl Scout troop earned a badge by geocaching
– Each cache related to the girl scouts
» Recite the pledge
» Talk about good citizenship with your partner
Technology Integration
• Students use Digital Cameras / Video Cameras
– Create product of learning
Helpful Tips and How Tos:
or things we learned the hard way
• Small groups are a must – each group should
have a different route or order of caches to
follow. It is best to minimize contact with
other groups.
*An alternative is to have double the caches (say 10)
and each group do even or odd numbered caches only
• Have students work in pairs
TIPS – things we learned the hard way
• Cheat notes for group leaders This is
especially helpful if you have volunteers new
to geocaching – you want them to help you
again!
Example of Group Leader’s Notes
Group 1
Please search for caches in this order:
Watson 1
Watson 2
Watson 3
Watson 4
Watson 5 (please bring this cache back to the classroom)
Hints:
#1 – metal key case, No Parking Fire Lane Sign in front of the school, near mobile units
#2 – trash, far upper parking lot, center of the fence
#3 – small plastic container – lower parking lot/walking track – metal drain pipe
#4 – small picture taped to the back of the basketball goal
#5 – fake doggy doo – light pole behind the Pre-K trailer
TIPS – things we learned the hard way
• If doing the activity on multiple days – take
up your caches every day – they will get
taken by others, even well-meaning
custodians
• Swear your students to secrecy about caches
and their location (this works in elementary)