Introducing GPS and Geocaching Lesson Plan - 3rd Grade

Third grade students participated in a WebQuest to learn about GPS and geocaching. Using pre-selected Web sites, they researched GPS, learned about satellites and GPS receivers, and read about the sport of geocaching. Each student then researched and answered a specific question on a class VoiceThread.

Students also had fun putting their new GPS knowledge to work as they searched for caches around campus. Working with partners, each group was assigned a cache to locate. Once the cache was found, they used an online graphing tool, Create a Graph, to create a bar graph of the cache's contents.

Travel Bug Tip - Make Your Own

My second grade students again released a set of travel bugs. This year's group decided to keep their bugs in the United States, and I am happy to report that after two short weeks, three of them are on the move. Two arrived in Maryland after visiting the Capitol, Washington Monument, the Library of Congress, and Arlington National Cemetery. The other is on a train to NYC. Both of the geocachers who picked up our bugs have written to my students and taken lots of pictures along the way.

If you are considering sending off a travel bug, I'd like to suggest something that has worked out very well for us. Instead of finding an object to attach to the tag, make your own and include the mission of the bug with it. (Laminated tags at your local copy store work well.) Also, let people know that the bug was created by students. I truly feel having this information included with the bug has helped move all of them along so quickly. Since March 2009, our eight bugs have been in 18 states, three countries and have traveled more than 22,000 miles!

GPS and Geocaching WebQuest

I'm so excited to get started with geocaching again. This week, I am reintroducing my 3rd graders to the sport. This class of 3rd graders learned about geocaching through the travel bugs we released last year. They also spent some time geocaching on our campus. But their knowledge of GPS and how it works is superficial. I have created this quick WebQuest to give students a history about GPS and how it works. They will also review important vocabulary related to GPS and geocaching. Finally, they will be creating a VoiceThread to share what they have learned with other teachers and students.