Michael Freedman
SEYS 753 – Grant Proposal
December 8, 2010


Title:  GPS Treasure Hunt

Goals:  Students will learn about the following:

    Geography -- Students will learn about the coordinate systems (latitude, longitude, and other coordinate systems such as UTM) and about the local geography in the region.

    Mathematics – Students will work with angles, distances and direction.

    Field Work – Students will learn how to collect meaningful data in the field.

Budget:  We are requesting $800 to purchase 10 Garmin eTrex receivers at $80 per unit.

Procedure

1.  Students will form groups of 3 and will make a cache (treasure) of goodies to hide. 
2.  They will pick a hiding spot and place the cache there. 
3.  They will mark the waypoint (location) and record its longitude and latitude.
4.  They may write down a hint or puzzle to provide additional information on the hiding spot.
5.  They can upload this information to the geocaching.com website.
6.  The teacher will distribute the waypoints to the groups and each group will then track down a cache.

Utilization:   The students will use the GPS units to find the hidden caches.

Evaluation:  

1.  The students will be given a worksheet to describe the cache locations and any difficulties they had either hiding or finding the cache.  If they find the cache, they have succeeded.  

2.  This exercise can be modified in several ways.  For instance, the groups can each pick a cache from the geocaching.com website and then find them.