Comments from Workshop Participants
In this section, I provide verbal comments on workshop participants’ experiences as well as graphic summaries of student responses to the GPS/Geocaching Workshops. Overall, students (adult learners) knew little about GPS receivers or geocaching prior to the workshops, but were eager to learn about new technologies that their students (and their families) might be using now and in the future. They found the workshops to be engaging, empowering, enlightening, energizing, personally meaningful, and relevant for use in K-12 classrooms.
When queried about their experiences with GPS receivers and geocaching to find clues about a specific curricular topic, students commented on a variety of aspects of the workshop. The following are representative comments:
Hands-on nature of the experience
“A great hands-on learning experience. I appreciated being able to participate in the activity instead of just talking about it.”“I liked being able to get outdoors and actually use a new technology to accomplish a goal.”
“I had never worked with a GPS, but we were able to quickly learn by doing and then find all our caches.”
Collaborative nature of the experience
“Working together as a group to figure out a solution to a problem was the key to our success.” “It gave me an opportunity to work with and get to know some classmates and have a good experience with them.” “I had never used these devices so it was nice to have a security blanket in the form of other people to help.”
“I especially like the conversations and problem-solving skills our group developed during this activity.”
Engaging nature of the experience
“The best part of geocaching is the thrill of finding the ‘prize’ and figuring out what it means and how it relates to clues other groups find.” “What I liked most about geocaching was the spirit of mystery. Where is the cache? What is inside the cache?”“It was fun trying to find the caches at the coordinates in the GPS. I like trying to solve mysteries, and it was like a big mystery.”
“The most memorable moment was when I was first to find the cache. Even though it was not a race, I can see my students being as vigorous about it as I was.”
Thought provoking nature of the experience
“I believe that geocaching is a grand way to incorporate technology, physical activity, and logical reasoning.”
“Geocaching was an exciting activity that sparked thought-provoking reasoning in an unconventional way.”
Suggestions for improvements to the workshop
Need for improved student-to-GPS receiver ratio:
“I would have like to have had more trial and error time with the GPS unit to construct my own learning.” “There were too many people sharing one GPS unit. I would have been happiest having one entirely for myself.”
“I would have liked to have had more opportunity to actually use the GPS myself.”
Technical difficulties
“The microwave tower and three-story buildings messed up our GPS and distorted our coordinates.”
“Sudden failure in technology (GPS units) was a hindrance, but it turned out to be a springboard for our learning.”
Participants also identified ways to incorporate GPS and geocaching into K-12 classrooms. Their suggestions include the following:
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Using this model to introduce content in ANY curricular area
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Categorizing and graphing items found in geocaches
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Identifying and establishing "observation sites" to look at trees, animals, soil, etc.
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Having students from other classes go to those spots and compare observations with those from their own site.
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Improving students’ mapping skills
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Teaching coordinates and cardinal directions
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Teaching geography and location concepts
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Teaching collaboration and team building skills
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Incorporate writing prompt into the lesson to describe the students’ experiences
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Teaching higher level thinking skills
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Incorporating technology into social studies, science, or math curricula
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Using GPS units as tools with limitations, not as failsafe pieces of technology
The graphic below (created with Inspiration™), which the workshop participants entitled What We Learned About GPSs and Geocaching, interestingly, does not comment on any specifics of using GPS technology; instead, it focuses on the learning process, zeroing in on five areas participants found most important: collaboration, sense of excitement and engagement, mistakes, discovery learning, and teacher considerations.
Figure 10. Types of learning identified by participants (larger image)
Applying the Model in Middle School Classrooms
This hands-on, learn-by-doing model of professional development is equally applicable in middle school classrooms. Once teachers have experienced this model, and been in the role of learners working with other learners to solve problems, they can apply this model in their own classrooms. Teachers will need to modify the activity to align with specific state and local standards and grade level or developmental levels of their students, but the principles of using GPS receivers, geocaching, and discovery learning remain the same.
Basically, middle school teachers need to follow these steps in planning similar workshops for their classrooms:
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Buy, rent, or borrow GPS receivers (one for each group of 3-4 students). Schools or school districts may soon be purchasing class sets of GPS units for rotating use in classrooms.
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Decide on the curricular focus of the lesson/activity.
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Train a small group of students (from within the teacher’s class or from a group of older students) on the use of GPS receivers. They will serve as mentors to each of the small groups of students participating in the lesson/activity. Schools or school districts may soon identify GPS mentors who can help in any classroom.
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Gather objects or create clues that will foster learning, raise curiosity, and encourage discussion about the curricular area chosen. (See the example of a sixth grade teacher’s unit on US National Parks below.)
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Place these objects/clues in inexpensive plastic containers with an appropriate label.
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Hide these geocaches (with the help of mentors) at least 100 yards apart in the vicinity of your classrooms or other outdoor area to which the school has access.
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Record the coordinates of each geocache in GPS receivers.
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Introduce the lesson/activity to the class.
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Divide the class into groups (with no more than four per group).
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Provide brief instruction on the use of GPS receivers and specify how the mentors will help each group.
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Give each team a GPS receiver containing the coordinates of the geocaches they are assigned to find.
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Send each team and mentor outside to work collaboratively to find their assigned geocaches. Allow time for students to experiment, make mistakes, talk about these mistakes and how to overcome them, find their geocaches, and return to their classroom with their geocaches in hand.
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Facilitate small group discussions (within each team) about the contents of the geocaches and how these contribute to students’ understanding of the curricular area.
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Facilitate a large group discussion (across all teams) about students’ understanding of the curricular area.
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Facilitate a large group discussion about students’ experiences with GPS and geocaching, including suggestions for future GPS/geocaching experiences.
A Family Vacation: Sample Sixth Grade Unit
The following example illustrates a sixth grade teacher’s unit in which students plan a family vacation. Students, in groups of four, explore one of eight possible vacation destinations. In addition, students investigate expenses for travel and overnight accommodations. Finally, each group creates a brochure advertising their family vacation to share with other class members, other sixth grade classes, and their parents. Teachers can easily integrate numerous technologies, including a GPS/geocaching activity, into this cross-curricular unit.
The teacher decides to introduce students to eight vacation destinations through a GPS/geocaching activity. He or she chooses eight US National Parks [http://www.nps.gov/] because his or her standards-based social studies curriculum specifies that students understand the National Park System in the United States. The teacher then locates/creates clues to be placed in each of the geocache boxes. Clues can take many forms including:
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plastic, metal, paper, or wooden objects that suggest ideas about each team’s topic
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pictures from magazines, newspapers, the Internet, vacations, advertisements, etc.
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sketches, drawings, or any kind of art work
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verbal clues written on tagboard
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maps, graphs, satellite images, iTunes, etc.
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online videos (see http://www.discovery.com/googleearth/ for an excellent collection of videos on the National Parks)
Teams of students locate the geocaches and then examine and discuss the contents of each geocache to increase their understanding of key curricular ideas. The charts below summarize possible destinations and clues for each sixth grade team participating in this GPS/geocaching lesson/activity on US National Parks:
Team |
Destination |
Location |
Red |
Yosemite |
Sierra Nevada, CA |
Blue |
Yellowstone |
ID,MT,WY |
Green |
Grand Canyon |
Grand Canyon, AZ |
Yellow |
Glacier |
Northwest Montana, MT |
Orange |
Mount Rainier |
Ashford, Enumclaw, Packwood, Wilkeson, WA |
Brown |
Everglades |
Miami, Naples, and Homestead, FL |
Black |
Badlands |
Southwestern, SD |
White |
Bryce Canyon |
Bryce Canyon, UT |
Yosemite National Park: Sierra Nevada, CA |
image from http://www.nps.gov/yose/historyculture/
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- Yosemite is one of the first wilderness parks in the United States
- It is best known for its waterfalls
- It measures nearly 1,200 square miles (747,956 acres) that includes deep valleys, meadows, and ancient giant sequoias
- 95% of Yosemite is designated wilderness
- Yosemite receives most of its precipitation in the months of January, February, March
- Clouds can build up during the summer to produce spectacular thunderstorm activity
- Its highest peak is Mt. Lyell, 13,114 feet
- Park Visitation has grown from 42 visitors in 1855 to over 4 million in 1995
|
Yellowstone National Park: ID,MT,WY |
image from http://www.nps.gov/yell/forteachers/
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- Established in 1872
- America's first national park
- Only park located in three states: Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
- Home to much wildlife including grizzly bears, wolves, bison, buffalo and elk
- Home to the world's most extraordinary geysers and hot springs, including Old Faithful
- Most of the park is above 7,500 feet
- The 1988 fires affected 793,880 acres or 36 percent of the park.
- The largest 1988 fire, the North Fork Fire, started from a discarded cigarette, burning more than 410,000 acres
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Grand Canyon National Park: Grand Canyon, AZ |
image from http://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/hours.htm
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- A great chasm carved over millennia through the rocks of the Colorado Plateau
- Achieved National Park status in 1919, three years after the creation of the National Park Service
- Park visitation: 44,000 in 1919, nearly five million annually now
- The South Rim of Grand Canyon averages 7000 feet (2134 m) above sea level and the North Rim is over 8000 feet (2438 m).
- North Rim is much less accessible than the South Rim as heavy snows close the road to the North Rim from late October to mid May of each year
- The inner canyon is 277 miles long and includes everything below the rim and is seen mainly by hikers, mule riders, or river runners
- Elk found within Grand Canyon National Park weigh as much as 1,000 pounds (450 kg)
- The oldest human artifacts found are nearly 12,000 years old and date to the Paleo-Indian period
- Park in continuous use and occupation since that time
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Glacier National Park: Northwest Montana, MT |
image from http://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/
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- Established as the country's 10th national park in 1910
- Established as Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park in 1932
- Over 1 million acres including forests, meadows, mountains, and lakes
- Over 700 miles of trails for hikers that follow routes first used by trappers in the early 1800s
- If current trends continue, scientists have predicted that by the year 2030, there will be no more glaciers in Glacier National Park due to global climate change
- Number of glaciers: 37 named; all shrinking in size
- Largest glacier: Blackfoot Glacier - .7 sq. miles
- Number of lakes: 653, Acres of lakes: 27,023, Miles of shoreline: 392
- Largest lake: Lake McDonald (10 miles long; 6,680 wide; 440' deep; 6823 acres)
- Land: 1,013,594 acres with 500+ in private ownership or 1,583 square miles
- Acres of wilderness: 963,155, or 1,489.3 square miles
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Mount Rainier National Park: Ashford, Enumclaw, Packwood, Wilkeson, WA |
image from http://www.nps.gov/mora/
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- Encompasses 235,625 acres on the west side of the Cascade Range
- Located about 100 kilometers (50 miles) southeast of Seattle, WA
- Approximately 97 percent wilderness and 3 percent National Historic Landmark
- Receives approximately 2 million visitors per year
- Mount Rainier is an active volcano that last erupted approximately 150 years ago
- The 14,410’ Mount Rainier is the most prominent peak in the Cascade Range, standing nearly three miles higher than the lowlands
- Fay Fuller, a schoolteacher from Yelm, Washington, was first woman to climb to top of the mountain in 1890; Susan Longmire (age 13) followed her in 1891
- Currently 10,000 men and women attempt to climb to the summit of Mount Rainier each year, about half are successful
- The park contains 26 named glaciers across 9 major watersheds, with 382 lakes and 470 rivers and streams and over 3,000 acres of other wetland types
- Carbon Glacier (in the northwest corner of the park) is the lowest in elevation of any glacier in the lower 48 states at 3500'
- The Carbon River Valley has mild temperatures and receives about 70 - 90 inches of rain a year, which has created an inland temperate rainforest
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Everglades National Park: Miami, Naples, and Homestead, FL |
image from http://www.nps.gov/ever/
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- Is the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States
- Is a low, flat plain shaped by the action of water and weather. In summer (wet season) it is a wide, grassy river, in winter (dry season) it is a dry grassland
- Is technically a river, flowing southwesterly at the rate of a quarter mile per day
- Is designated an International Biosphere Reserve, a World Heritage Site, and a Wetland of International Importance
- Has an average rainfall of 60 inches (152 cm) per year. The rainy season is June – October.
- Boasts 156 miles (251 km) of canoe/kayak and walking trails
- Contains 27 species of snakes, only four are venomous/poisonous: cottonmouth, diamondback rattlesnake, dusky pygmy Rattlesnake, and coral snake
- Is home to rare and endangered species, such as American crocodiles, Florida panthers, West Indian manatee, alligator, bobcats, mosquitoes, American White Pelicans, tree snails, and turkey vultures
- Has more insects than any other group of animals
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Badlands National Park: Southwestern, SD
image from http://www.nps.gov/badl/parknews/
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- Badlands was originally proclaimed a National Monument in 1939 and became a National Park in 1978
- The Badlands National Park is located within what is called the White River Badlands
- Badlands earned its name by being difficult to travel through because of the rugged terrain and lack of water
- Landscape within the park erodes at a rate of about 1 inch per year
- Badlands National Park is 381 square miles or 244,000 acres in area.
- The highest point in the Park, Pinnacles, is 3247 feet or 1009 meters
- The Park contains the world’s richest fossil beds, dating 37-28 million years old
- Bison, bighorn sheep, endangered black-footed ferrets, and swift fox inhabit one of the largest, protected mixed-grass prairies in the United States
- The Badlands climate is variable and unpredictable, with temperatures ranging from -40 F to 116 F. The summers are hot and dry with occasional violent thunderstorms. Winters are typically cold with 12 to 24 inches of total snowfall. Average annual precipitation is 16 inches
- Does not contain any dinosaur fossils, but does have fossils of ancestors of the modern day rhinoceros, horse, pig, and cat as well as early birds, reptiles, and invertebrates
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Bryce Canyon National Park: Bryce Canyon, UT |
image from http://www.nps.gov/brca/planyourvisit/things2do.htm
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- Bryce Canyon is a small (56.2 square miles) national park in southwestern Utah
- Named after the Mormon Pioneer Ebenezer Bryce, Bryce Canyon became a national park in 1924
- Bryce Canyon, famous for its worldly unique geology, consists of a series of horseshoe-shaped amphitheaters and hoodoos: spire or odd-shaped rocks left standing by the forces of erosion
- Hoodoos are formed when ice and rainwater wear away the weak limestone common to the area
- Three distinct climatic zones due to 2000 feet (650 m) change of elevation: spruce/fir forest, Ponderosa Pine forest, and Pinyon Pine/Juniper forest.
- Rim elevation is between 8,000 to 9,100 feet
- Wildlife includes mule deer, Utah prairie dogs, chipmunks, pronghorn (antelope), gray fox, ravens, Steller's jays, Clark's nutcrackers, and short-horned lizards
- The Park is home to three endangered species: Utah Prairie Dog, California condor, and the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher
- In most rural areas of the United States, 2500 stars can be seen on a clear night. At Bryce Canyon, 7500 stars can be seen
- Bryce has high biodiversity: over 100 species of birds, dozens of mammals, and more than a thousand plant species
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Online Resources
There are numerous online resources that explain and support the use of GPS units and geocaching in education. These are divided into a number of categories for easy references for teachers wishing to extend their understanding of using GPS units, geocaching, or GoogleEarth™ in their classrooms. Links to relevant sites are listed below:
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