My students need 10 handheld GPS units to share between small groups of three or four students and 2 packs of rechargeable batteries for the units.
$1,393 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
"Now I see the secret of making the best persons, it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth."
-Walt Whitman
My students are 21st century, tech-savvy learners. However learning isn't just all indoors. Geocaching could open them to the great outdoors-to get addicted to nature!
My students are inquisitive 6th graders.
They come with a love for learning, and a wide range of knowledge of the world. They are active and engaged when learning new things. As students rotate for science with me, a majority of their learning will be inquiry and project-based units. It is a challenge to keep content fresh among all the technology choices, and after a while can get redundant and stale. By adding Geocaching into our science units, this will get them to actively apply math content & as well as speaking & listening skills. Geocaching will connect with students. Many are military children whose parents use GPS in their workplace. GPS units will provide students with a real-world experience that they connect everyday skills such as using a Google Map to using the navigator in their parent's car. Geocaching will boost the environmental science content they will learn from 6th Grade Camp and using GPS in small groups will increase confidence and collaboration of all students.
My Project
I am requesting 10 handheld GPS units to share between small groups of three or four students and 2 packs of rechargeable batteries for the units. Geocaching is an outdoor activity that requires the user to navigate a GPS unit to find a specific pre-hidden cache (or "treasure"). The cache can be just about anything located at a specific location. Most common are tangible containers with "swag" to trade and collect. However, in the classroom Geocaching can extend to virtual caches which may ask the user to observe or record info about historical landmarks or landforms. Users often navigate through trails at a park or backcountry, or may visit a touristy area to learn more about its culture, people or architecture. My students would take quarterly walking fields around our school.
These resources would be used in Science to study human's impact on the environment. Geocaching provides a perfect way to direct them to a geo hot-spot to illustrate a concept (eg. erosion, pollution, land management). They would also be used in Math when students study coordinate planes and integers. Geocaching is a practical method to understand latitude, longitude and elevation.
Who doesn't love finding treasures!
GPS will expand the world of student learning beyond a computer, iPad, phone or video game. Geocaching will give students goals to look forward to. Geocaching will give them confidence and affirmation in math. Geocaching will inspire students to think of making their OWN caches to hide and challenge other hunters. Finally, Geocaching will help increase their love for nature, and bring tech to the outdoors!
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Hughes and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
