High Tech

Hide & Seek

LEARN:

1. Create a presentation on "letterboxing basics." Include letterboxing "etiquette" and terminology (mystery boxes, hitchhikers, cuckoo clues, Easter eggs, and personal travelers) as well as the equipment and supplies you'll need to take along with you.
2. Letterboxes and caches are hidden all over the world—and on the Internet in the form of "virtual" letterboxes and "virtual" caches, which can be "found" and logged into online. "Find" one of either type and log your results online to its originator. NOTE: Virtual caches require you to actually visit a physical site in order to answer questions about it online.
3. Geocaching is a treasure hunt using a GPS (global positioning system) unit. Prepare a presentation on what geocaching is. Include the rules of "etiquette" governing the sport and how to "speak the language," with words like datum, waypoint, travel bug, spoiler, hitchhiker, and geomuggle. Describe what equipment and supplies you should carry with you when you go, and what to look for when you get there. Explain what to expect if you're attempting to find a micro-cache, offset cache, or multi-cache.
4. Know the basics of GPS—what does it stand for, what presidential directive in 1996 made games like geocaching possible? Next, discover how GPS receivers work to determine your location, and how they spawned the sport of geocaching. Check out "GPS: The New Navigation" by PBS (www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/longitude/gps.html). Understand how longitude and latitude create a waypoint, and how waypoints are used as the basis of geocaching. If possible, visit a store that sells GPS units and have a clerk describe their use and compare various features.

SHARE:

1. Organize and host a "Let's Get Letterboxing" event for a group. Lead a presentation on "letterboxing basics" including a how-to-use tutorial about compasses and topographical maps. Plan and lead the group's hunt for its first letterbox.
2. Create a virtual letterbox for those who are physically unable to search outdoors. For example, contact a local hospital and organize a virtual letterbox hunt for sick children. Introduce the group to letterboxing basics and guide them through their online letterbox hunt.
3. Organize and host a "Go Geo!" event for a group to find a geocache. This will require the use of a GPS unit which can be purchased for about $100 at a local outdoor supply company or major discount chain. Lead a presentation on "geocaching basics" including a how-to-use tutorial about the GPS unit and topographical maps. Plan and lead the group's hunt for its first geocache. Practice "Cache In Trash Out" (while out geocaching, bring a bag with you to pick up trash along the way).
NOTE: The geocache your group "hunts" for cannot be one you have already found individually or created ("DO" activities No. 1 and 3).
4. Create an earthcache about a specific, extraordinary geoscience feature in your area so others can learn about and appreciate how our planet has been shaped by geological processes, how we manage the resources and how scientists gather evidence to learn about the Earth. See www.earthcache.org for review and approval. Your Earthcache must follow GSA guidelines and include a set of educational notes and the details about where to find the location (GPS coordinates)—if your site meets the guidelines and is approved by the GSA, it's then submitted to the wider Geocaching community through www.geocaching.com. Your Earthcache site's visitors will leave an electronic log of their comments about what they learned from visiting the site.