EARTHCACHING - USING GEOCACHING TO TEACH THE PUBLIC ABOUT THE EARTH

Finding a way to attract the general public to become more aware of the importance of science in their environment is a difficult task. The broad socio-economic spread of our society, the range of educational backgrounds, and the vast choices that our society offers to members of our community make it difficult to capture groups to raise awareness. To really make an impact, structured activities are needed, through which the science message can be promoted.

Other than some family-based museum programs, there are few opportunities for families to participate in self-directed informal education activities. One such activity, however, is Geocaching. Geocaching is an outdoors phenomenon that is growing rapidly worldwide. It is an adventure game for GPS users and consists of the creation and placement of physical caches by players, and the subsequent searching and locating of these caches by other players. All the details about each cache is recorded on a website. Currently there are more than 121,000 caches hidden worldwide.

EarthCaches are education-based virtual caches. The cache is the location itself, and features a unique geologic formation or process. Caches are located in both urban and rural settings, on private or public lands such as national parks and forests. People who search for the EarthCaches obtain educational notes about the sites and activities related to the site from the website. EarthCache visitors will log their findings on the web site after their visit. Many will go on to develop their own EarthCaches and therefore increase the impact.

EarthCache sites illustrate the wonder and importance of geosciences in understanding environmental and natural resource management. Positive science-based learning experiences may influence the education and career choices made by the next generation of citizens.

The project has also taken on another dimension with a school program being developed in association with National Geographic Society. This will open up the use of EarthCaches into the school community as it links earth science lessons with the use of technology in the classroom.

Earthcaching has been developed by the Geological Society of America in association with Groundspeak INC, Subaru and other partners.