Geocaching: A High Tech Treasure Hunt

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/edgoodwin/ 

This previous summer, my family and I got into Geocaching, a type of treasure hunt except instead of using a map to find the "treasure", you use your GPS. It was a great way for our family to bond and we had a lot of fun doing it. There are over a million Geocaches across the world and they increase everyday. Anyone can make a cache!

I started to think about how you could incorporate Geocaching into a classroom and realized the possibilities are endless! To begin with students would learn about geography, coordinates, longitude, and latitude. They also would gain experience working with technology as they use their GPS to track down their cache. Geocache allows you to use GoogleMaps to spot all the caches close in your area. Once you choose a cache to attack, you then must plug the coordinates into your GPS to begin your journey!

On another level, you could teach a history lesson using Geocaching. Say you want your students to be able to put themselves in the shoes of a famous explorer. Beforehand, you could create several Geocaches within a confined area, such as a park or even within the school boundaries, for the students to discover for themselves! Give the students the coordinates, and send them off. In each cache they find, could be historical information or an activity for them to complete before moving on to the next cache. You could even make it a competition, seeing which team could make it to all of the caches first!

Another option would be to have the students themselves come up with the caches for each other. They could decide what they wanted to leave inside their "treasure box" and even choose their location. Once again the students would be learning all about geography in a fun and interactive way.

No matter what you choose to do with Geocaching in your classroom, it is evident that building teamwork would be present. Whether students are creating their own caches or having to find all the caches first, they will have to work together to problem solve.
I would hope that my students would enjoy the experience as much as I enjoyed doing it with my family this past summer and maybe even pass it on to their own families, so they can be apart of the high tech treasure hunt as well!

Comics in the Classroom??

When it comes to the selection of reading material in a classroom, graphic novels, commonly known as comics, do not readily come to mind. Schools are now taking a step back and re-looking at the benefits of using graphic novels in the classroom and with this rise came a creative technological advancement called Comic Life by plasq.


First, take a look at this clip from the CBS Early Show in 2005.  A school in Maryland decided to give comic books a chance in the classroom and saw the benefits they provided for students reading and writing skills.
Comic Books in the Classroom


plasq decided to take this traditional idea of graphic novel and apply it to technology with their products, Comic Life and Comic Life Magiq.

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/inju/


Comic Life now makes it simple for students to create their own comics with a few clicks of a mouse using digital pictures and editing tools. It doesn't just stop at comics either, the possibilities are endless. I can only imagine how students could express their creativity given the freedom to interpret a class project using Comic Life.


Here is a quick tutorial about the basic principles to Comic Life and how to use it.



plasq.com also gives some helpful suggestions for how teachers can incorporate Comic Life in the curriculum of students learning and also for teacher use.
Some of the ideas and topics include:

• Creating class newsletters
• Coming up with class rules and policies
• "A day in the life of..."
• Math flashcards and puzzles
• Life Cycle Maps
• Scientific Method
• Yearbooks

You can find more inspiration from plasq here.