Geocaching in the Classroom: A Few Ideas

1.  Break students into small groups and hide flags that represent different countries based on the number of groups you have.  Give students coordinates for a specific cache and then have them look up information about the country their flag represents.  Social Studies

2.  Hide different caches throughout your town based on historical events and markers.  Within each cache provide a brief narrative about the location and coordinates to the next cache.  Only give students coordinates to the first cache.  Social Studies 

3.  Hide a variety of caches on school grounds near different types of plant life.  Have students find each cache and identify the plant life where they are located.  Science

4.  Break students into groups and then hide caches in different locations on the school grounds.  Give each group coordinates to one of the caches.  Once the cache is found, students should write a description of what they see when they are facing a certain direction (South, North, etc.). Geography/Language Arts

5.  Create questions based on a novel or selection students have read in class.  Hide a number of caches (5-6) on school grounds that each contain questions and 4 note cards that list a possible answer and possible coordinates to the next cache.  Students must choose the correct answer to receive correct coordinates to the next cache.  Make incorrect coordinates take students to locations that could obviously not contain a cache (i.e. concrete sidewalk).  Language Arts

6.  Place math problems in a number of caches and hide them on school grounds.  Break students into groups and provide each student with a clipboard, scratch paper, and an answer sheet.   Give students coordinates to each cache.  As students find each cache, they should solve their math problem and record answer on their answer sheets.   Math

Classroom Geocaching in Action: