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GPS Applications
4.5 GPS and Geocaching Applications
As mentioned back in the introduction, there’s a lot more that can be done
application-wise if you have access to a GPS receiver. For starters, you could
find the positions of some nearby caches or benchmarks by visiting http://
www.groundspeak.com or http://www.geocaching.com and then tracking them down using the receiver and your land navigation skills. However,
there are a number of different ways that geocaching concepts can be
adapted in different ways to be incorporated into a classroom setting for lab
applications.
The first of these is based on material developed by Dr. Mandy MunroStasiuk and published in her article “Introducing Teachers and University
Students to GPS Technology and Its Importance in Remote Sensing Through
GPS Treasure Hunts” (see the online chapter references for the full citation
of the article). Like geocaching, the coordinates of locations have been determined ahead of time by the instructor and given to the participants (such
as university students or K–12 teachers attending a workshop) along with a
GPS receiver. Having only sets of latitude/longitude or UTM coordinates, the
participants break into groups and set out to find the items (such as statues,
monuments, building entrances, or other objects around their campus or local area). The students are required to take a photo of the object, and all
participants must be present in the photo (this usually results in some highly
creative picture taking). The last twist is that the “treasure hunt” is a timed
competition with the team that returns first (and having found all the correct
items) earning some sort of reward, such as extra credit in the class, or—at
the very least—bragging rights for the remainder of the class. In this way,
participants learn how to use the GPS receivers, how to tie coordinates to
real-world locations, and land navigation skills (to further reinforce concepts
such as how northings and eastings work in UTM).
A similar version of this GPS activity is utilized during the OhioView
SATELLITES Teacher Institutes (see Chapter 15 for more information on this
program). Again, participants break up into groups with GPS receivers, but
this time each group is given a set of small trinkets (such as small toys or plastic animal figures) and is instructed to hide each one and register the coordinates of the hiding place with their GPS receiver on a sheet of paper. When the
groups reconvene, the papers with the coordinates are switched with another
group, and each group now has to find the others’ hidden objects. In this way,
each group sets up its own “geocaches” and then gets challenged to find another group’s caches. Like before, this is a timed lab with a reward awaiting
the team of participants that successfully finds all of the hidden items at the
coordinates they’ve been given. This activity helps to reinforce not only GPS
usage and land navigation, but also the ties between real-world locations and
the coordinates being recorded and read by a GPS receiver. Both of these activities have proven highly successful in linking these concepts to the participants involved.
GPS Applications
4.5 GPS and Geocaching Applications
As mentioned back in the introduction, there’s a lot more that can be done
application-wise if you have access to a GPS receiver. For starters, you could
find the positions of some nearby caches or benchmarks by visiting http://
www.groundspeak.com or http://www.geocaching.com and then tracking them down using the receiver and your land navigation skills. However,
there are a number of different ways that geocaching concepts can be
adapted in different ways to be incorporated into a classroom setting for lab
applications.
The first of these is based on material developed by Dr. Mandy MunroStasiuk and published in her article “Introducing Teachers and University
Students to GPS Technology and Its Importance in Remote Sensing Through
GPS Treasure Hunts” (see the online chapter references for the full citation
of the article). Like geocaching, the coordinates of locations have been determined ahead of time by the instructor and given to the participants (such
as university students or K–12 teachers attending a workshop) along with a
GPS receiver. Having only sets of latitude/longitude or UTM coordinates, the
participants break into groups and set out to find the items (such as statues,
monuments, building entrances, or other objects around their campus or local area). The students are required to take a photo of the object, and all
participants must be present in the photo (this usually results in some highly
creative picture taking). The last twist is that the “treasure hunt” is a timed
competition with the team that returns first (and having found all the correct
items) earning some sort of reward, such as extra credit in the class, or—at
the very least—bragging rights for the remainder of the class. In this way,
participants learn how to use the GPS receivers, how to tie coordinates to
real-world locations, and land navigation skills (to further reinforce concepts
such as how northings and eastings work in UTM).
A similar version of this GPS activity is utilized during the OhioView
SATELLITES Teacher Institutes (see Chapter 15 for more information on this
program). Again, participants break up into groups with GPS receivers, but
this time each group is given a set of small trinkets (such as small toys or plastic animal figures) and is instructed to hide each one and register the coordinates of the hiding place with their GPS receiver on a sheet of paper. When the
groups reconvene, the papers with the coordinates are switched with another
group, and each group now has to find the others’ hidden objects. In this way,
each group sets up its own “geocaches” and then gets challenged to find another group’s caches. Like before, this is a timed lab with a reward awaiting
the team of participants that successfully finds all of the hidden items at the
coordinates they’ve been given. This activity helps to reinforce not only GPS
usage and land navigation, but also the ties between real-world locations and
the coordinates being recorded and read by a GPS receiver. Both of these activities have proven highly successful in linking these concepts to the participants involved.