Where in the US is Gilbert Gecko?

Spring Year 1 - 3rd & 4th graders

Lesson 1:
Teach the children what GPS is all about - BrainPop has a good introduction.
What are satelites?
What is Latitude and Longitude - Brainpop introduction.

Lesson 2:
What is geocaching?
How does a handheld GPS work?
Break the students into groups of 3 ideally with a GPS for each group.
Hide small caches around the school and have the different groups find them using their Longitude and Latitude coordinates.
Teach them about accuracy and have extra clues to find the exact spot.

Lesson 3:
What are travelbugs?
Travelbugs are objects that put in hidden caches with a special mission of going to different places. We would put one in a cache and ask that it would travel to the 50 different United States.
Have the kids look up different travelbugs on the geocaching website to see what they are and how they work.
(2 travel bugs for the 4th graders - one for the 50 states, one for the 13 colonies)
( 1 travel bug for the 3rd graders - to go to Texas Historical Sites)

Next Year - 4th & 5th graders
4th graders - check monthly to see where their travel bug has gone.
- Different classes write articles on where their travel bug has visited. Research information about the sites they have visited. What would people want to know about these sites? Can you find photos about these sites? Are there any historical significances?
- Make a website with this information.
- Post this new information to the school email list.
- go into Google Earth and make a marker of where the travel bug has gone.
- keep an Excel file with the data of where he has gone, how far it has traveled...
- chart things like which months has it traveled most...
5th graders - same as 4th graders but have them do a news program where they learn how to use digital video camera to create the program to share with the whole school.

Community Event - Have a technology day at the school. Each grade has something they can show off to the neighborhood community. 4th and 5th graders can teach geocaching, show their websites and news reports.