Schools back to the old treasure hunt – but with GPS

Thanks to geocaching, a high-tech sport that employs global-positioning technology, adventurous students and teachers could be soon treasure hunting again as part of learning in the NZ curriculum.

During a geocaching hunt, GPS co-ordinates help the geocachers find household containers, known as geocaches, hidden somewhere in the great outdoors. When they find them, they register the find in a logbook and then share their experience with the geocaching community online.

Head of digital technology at Papatoetoe High School, Gerard Mac Manus, led a group keen to try out the technology at the PPTA professional conference in Wellington last month.

MacManus’ Get Lost geocaching project is an innovative take on the MoE’s guidelines on education outside the classroom – a way of working with technology outside school walls.

“ I have a passion for technology and I am keen to share this with teachers,” he says.

After attending an “exciting” geocaching workshop, he began to make connections with the directions for learning in the New Zealand curriculum.

MacManus, who has a background of orienteering, hopes to bring the skills of the old treasure hunt back to NZ classrooms.

He says the combination of technology and outdoor adventure will enhance learning.

Students have to solve technological puzzles and questions through map reading, locating GPS waypoints and marking where they are on the map.

Self-perseverance and self-motivation to complete the puzzles and caches are key factors in the project. MacManus says it was amazing to see how students related to others, looking after each other and the teachers.

Catherine Swain, a Hobsonville resident, manages a geocaching online store and has been a fanatic for the past two years. She thinks geocaching is a fantastic way to engage students in outdoor learning.

“It is amazing how much you learn,” she says.
“I have never been too hot on the compass, but now I can track long distances.”

She says geocaching has also improved her observation skills and is a great way to stay active.

Swain says a major part of geocaching is the environment. “A lot of geocaches are [hidden] at parks and beaches where there is a lot of rubbish, so you take a bag with you and pick up the rubbish.”

Geocaching offers different levels of difficulty. Level one is an easy terrain everyone can do; at level five geocachers must climb mountains or cross rivers.

The pastime has become a worldwide phenomenon since it started in the United States 10 years ago.

According to the geocaching.com website around 1.3 million geocaches are hidden in more than 100 countries and an estimated two million adventurers hunt for them.

The containers vary in size, from thumbnail size to big lunchboxes and are hidden anywhere in public – except underground.