Geocache Placed to Kick Off Nebraska 4-H’s New GPS Curriculum - <GPS Resources Listed>
The Nebraska 4-H program is breaking into new ground by developing a Global Positioning System (GPS) curriculum, which will be implemented in 2005. The 4-H project manuals will be available in the 4-H office at that time. Discussion about the GPS curriculum began a while ago, but was kicked into high gear when the Nebraska 4-H Marketing Team proposed a treasure hunt idea.
The State 4-H Marketing Team is made up of county, district, and state 4-H staff working together to promote Nebraska 4-H. Their idea was to place geocache boxes throughout the state with 4-H marketing materials inside them. These boxes are identified with coordinates which are placed on the internet. People use these coordinates to find the box using their own GPS unit. Once a geocache box is found, the finders swap a thing of their own for something inside the box, write information down in a logbook and report their findings on the geocaching web site.
The GPS program received another helping hand as the Nebraska 4-H Foundation sponsored a separate geocache box for each county in the state. Washington County’s geocache box has been placed and marked with coordinates of its location. We invite you to learn about GPS devices, finding the geocache box, and having fun along the way. To find the coordinates, you may visit http://www.geocaching.com searching for the Washington County 4-H cache in the 68008 zip code, or visit the Nebraska 4-H Geocache web site at http://4h.unl.edu/kids/ . These two sites that can answer questions about GPS and geocaching, as well as the links below. For personal information about GPS, geocaching, or the upcoming 4-H GPS curriculum, please contact the Washington County 4-H program at 426-9455.
Geocaching Glossary
What is GPS and how it works!:
Main GPS Manufacturers:
Latitude and Longitude:
Maps:
Application of GPS:
Hobbies Involving GPS:
GPS Fun:
- Geochacing This site consists of entries put in by people all around the U.S. of locations containing hidden "Caches." These caches are located all around the U.S. as well, and consist of a waterproof container containing whatever item was left their by the previous geocacher. These caches can only be found using a GPS receiver.
- Great Plains Geocaching Geocaching on a regional basis in the Great Plains. Much more than geocaching!
GPS Software:
- Easy GPS A free download that makes it very easy to enter waypoints into a computer from a GPS unit in order to edit or make routes.
Fun Related Sites:
The links above are suggestions from the Iowa State University Extension-Science, Engineering, and Technology Youth Inititative (E-SET)
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