A slight deviation from my physical landforms blogs. I recently experienced geocaching and thought how this kind of activity could really work with students either finding real geocaches or ones set up around school grounds. This could help developing mapping skills and using GPS.
Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location. Some geocaches contain ‘treasure’ inside which if taken must be replaced with an item of equal or greater value. All caches contain a log which is filled in by the finder.
Some research on the internet on how we this could work with students led me to EarthCaching, a concept which could develop students’ map skills but also their geographical knowledge.
FAQ – Taken from http://www.earthcache.org/
How is an EarthCache different from a geocache?
EarthCaches are in effect a type of virtual cache. They have no physical container or log book. However, EarthCaches are different from other virtual caches in so much as they teach the visitor something about the site. An EarthCache is not just a scenic view or a locality. They present some lesson on how that place formed, about why that place is important scientifically or what that site can tell us about our planet.
Why do EarthCaches have to be virtual caches?
The object of an EarthCache is to learn something about our planet. The reward is the lesson, not the trinkets in the container. Also, many EarthCaches are being developed in places where it is against the law to leave a container, such as in National Parks and at Geological Monuments.
I thought this would work really well with physical landforms and could make the topic more interesting and accessible for students. The website has a guide for teachers with step by step lessons on how to use EarthCaches and there is a list of Caches worldwide to give you an idea of the kind of EarthCaches that are around. There are quite a few in the East Midlands if anyone has chance to go looking.
Geography - physical landscapes and processes 