Sacajawea's+Sidekicks

Our Geocaching Lesson Plan

Geocache Adventure: Sacajawea Style Holly Bushhouse, Katelyn Ball, and Bridget Martin The weather for our first ever geocache excursion was perfect: sunny, 75 degrees, with a nice gentle breeze. Leaving Taylor Hall, we first started with the Bell Tower cache. Using our devices to find the first cache, we thought that the position led us to the cache from the other week when a visitor came to Dr. Rokema's class and gave us caches to find for practice. This plastic container behind the reflection pool said Official Geocaching, and that seemed real enough to us! So we considered the Bell Tower cache complete. Next, we headed over to find the Saylor Park cache. On the way we remembered that the visitor also put a cache at "the Well" so on our way we decided to check that out. To our surprise we arrived at the well only to notice that men were cleaning the area and all of the bushes were gone, so we assumed the geocache was long gone as well! Situations like these would be good to keep in mind if planning a lesson for students.

On to the next geocache, at Saylor Park. We were excited for a new find. Following directions we came upon the cache, hidden in an unused electrical outlet box, a small container a little larger that a pill bottle was waiting to be found. After signing our names, and seeing the various items in the container (pennies, a hair band and an old piece of paper), we moved on to the next hunt!

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After successfully finding our first (real) cache at Saylor Park, Sacajawea's Sidekicks made our trek over to the infamous "Camel Cache." When we finally reached the front of the Convocation Center where the cache was supposedly hidden, we met a few of the other groups there searching desperately for this same coveted cache. The hints on the Geocaching App were that the cache was very small and magnetic and that the previous finder discovered it "while sitting and enjoying the sun." So, we decided to "pop-a-squat" on the large black bench outside to see if we could find this mysterious Camel Cache. We began searching every nook and cranny, but alas, our quest was beginning to look bleak. We searched high and low, and we even unscrewed the cap on the handle bar of the ramp to see if it was hidden inside there--no luck. With heavy hearts, as it seemed that our search had been in vain, we noticed a fellow student who was just enjoying the beautiful day on campus and decided we should probably explain ourselves to him. Surely, he must have thought we were a bunch of crazy people crawling on the ground and peeking in every crevice we could find; he laughed and revealed that just in his short time sitting there he had already witnessed three other groups searching for the cache as well but had not been successful. I then asked if he was playing a prank on all of us and hiding it, but he promised that he was just an innocent bystander enjoying the show. We then partnered with some of the our fellow geocaching hunters, Tiffany and Emily, and in a last ditch effort of feeling underneath the bench, Tiffany discovered what seemed to be a screw. Except, this screw popped off! Pure joy overcame her face as well as all ours when she unscrewed the tiny capsule to discover that it was not a screw but instead the Camel Cache! Proudly, we signed our names on the log and began to search for our next conquest: the Kivett Cache!



With pride and accomplishment in our hearts, and a newfound excitement for geocaching, we selected the Kivett Cache for our next hunt. Based on the name of the cache, we used our knowledge of the campus and made our way over to Kivett Hall. While searching for the cache, we unintentionally located a different cache in the bushes that was hidden by the lady who came and demonstrated Geocaching to our Social Studies Class a few weeks ago! Holly and Bridget braved the prickly bushes, pulled out the "Official Geocaching Box," and added the names of all three of Sacajawea's sidekicks to the log sheet. Cache number 3: check! We then moved on to discover the REAL Kivett Cache. As we walked over we discussed as a group that if you were to integrate geocaching in your classroom, you need to be sure that your clues about relative location are clear because if not, your students may run into an issue as we did where they accidentally stumble upon the wrong cache. Clear directions are key for a geocaching activity to be successful.



On our search for the real Kivett Cache, we used the Geocaching App again to find the location. It led us to the tree in front of the library. We circled the tree, looking for the hiding place. We looked in the mulch surrounding the base; we looked in the branches above our heads; we even looked for a hole in the grass. Right when we thought about giving up, Bridget suggested to give another try. Holly looked in the bottom of the tree where the limbs begin branching out and found a knot hole. Although she was a little nervous about putting her hand in a dark hole where unknown critters could be crawling, she gingerly reached her hand in and found a 35mm film canister. The Sidekicks were overjoyed! They signed their names and placed it back as the treasure for another geocache group.

The last cache of the day was located behind Taylor Hall and Butler Chapel. We had seen others looking for this one, so we thought we would give it a shot as well. Once in the area, we searched high and low (literally) for the cache. We looked in the drains, in the tree branches, in the mulch, in the bushes, EVERYWHERE! We even paired up with another team to search. We just could not find it. Katelyn checked the hints and comments section of the cache description page and discovered that someone had dropped it down the drain. Later we found out that it had indeed been dropped down the drain.

If you were to try to incorporate a geocaching lesson into your classroom, it is important to make sure that all the caches are actually where they are supposed to be. It was disappointing for us to search for a treasure for so long just to find out that it was missing. One could only imagine how devastated that a group of elementary students could be if their cache was gone. So whether the caches are teacher-made or from a world-wide website, make sure the caches are where they are supposed to be when students are on the hunt.

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