PDA

View Full Version : In need of advice



05-23-2007, 05:24 PM
I was approached by our local middle school's school based mental health therapist and asked if I could put together something for his summer program. He said that I would have one day, around three hours, and somewhere around fourteen kids(ages 6-12). He said that we would be able to travel. I was thinking of putting a simple multi-puzzle cache together as well as giving them materials explaining what geocaching is as well as the creed, CITO, etc... He kind of left me fuzzy on some details but I'll have them ironed out in a couple days. I've never done this sort of thing before and really want to do it right. If anyone has any suggestions or links to material I would be very grateful. :?

Team_Pink
05-23-2007, 06:20 PM
Must be something in the water!

If you learn anything, I'd appreciate you passing it along as I will be working with the same age group near the last of June.

DAFT
05-23-2007, 08:59 PM
Everything you need to hand out can be found on the geocaching.com web site. And there is a lot of stuff on this site.
We are retired teachers here in Arkansas, and from our experience I would suggest lots of "hands on" experience. Our young grandsons (ages 9-10) love to hunt for caches. So maybe hide more than one multi cache.
Have samples of several types of cache containers; travel bugs, geo coins, etc. Show some devious camo containers. Impress upon them the ethics of being a good geocacher.
I am new at this, just beginning last Feburary, and have already given two short seminars to adults to introduce them to the sport. Adults love the actual hunt too!
Good luck!

DAFT

geowoodstock
05-30-2007, 10:01 AM
I took a class the Arkansas Game and Fish did at a retreat last year on GPS101. It was quite interesting and actually taught me a lot about my GPS. (Even though mine is a Lawrence and they used Garmin-I think).

I would have to get my notes out to be sure, but let me try it: One thing the instructor explained was how the satillites work. He used three pieces (is that how many it takes???) of kite string and four volunteers. One person was the spot on earth with the GPS holding one end of the strings. When one sat was obtain, he showed how it could be anywhere on the globe. When two were locked in it narrowed it down to like anywhere on a imaginary line on the globe. Once all three were locked in, then it pinpointed it to a specific spot (within the 3-10 ft allowance).

The instructor had some caches set out as an activity that can be done with the GPSs. Besides the fact that several were just 5 gal buckets set out under a tree...The bad part was that the whole class did together. We had about 20 people looking for one cache at the same time. That did not show how much fun the hunt is.

Also, as a Girl Scout Trainer (training the leaders) we were going to do a Geocaching101 class. It didn't make, but hopefully we can offer it again soon. Most (ALL) of the material we had came from geocaching.com. We were going to have different cache types to show as examples and hunt some dummy caches (ones we put out on the grounds) for practice. Of course we were going to be able to find some actual caches in the nearby park to show what it is really like.

Also..you might have some examples of what MIGHT be in a cache too.