USING EARTHCACHES AS A GEOSCIENCE EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH TOOL

In geocaching, users follow GPS coordinates posted on a website in order to find a container of some sort left in a discrete location by another user. The benefits of geocaching include time spent outdoors and increased awareness of geospatial technology. In a distinctly geological take on geocaching, an EarthCache (EC), like a traditional geocache, is developed by a user and placed on geocaching.com for other users to find. However, an EC differs in that there is no container to find, no logbook to sign, and no items to trade. Instead, an EC is a location where people seek to answer questions about geoscience.

The task of the EC developer is to choose an appropriate location, determine the lessons to be learned at the site, and write instructions for users. Developing an EC is inherently a teaching activity, and can yield meaningful experiences for both the users and the cache owner when done well. An EC is fundamentally a place-based, immersive field experience. Geoscientists who are knowledgeable in excellent field sites are already a step ahead in setting up an EC. Such experiences place the learner into the position of being small in relation to the object of study, a scaling that has valuable impact on the ability to learn new information.

All EC require the user to answer some sort of geology-related question(s) at the site. Developing a quality EC requires careful attention to asking good, relevant questions, which often include observations and simple measurements. In the EC I have developed, I have asked users to estimate the thicknesses of rock units, to comment on the attitude of planar features, and to identify types of geologic structures. These caches have been found hundreds of times over the past few years. The answers and comments given by users serve as an assessment of how well the cache description and questions are serving the users. Incorrect answers help the cache owner to consider how to re-write the cache description so that it is clearer and more accessible.

Public outreach and education is critically important for societal understanding in geoscience because few people take a formal geology course at any point in their education. Developing an EC is an easy way for experts in geoscience education to promote geoscience education, increasing awareness of features of the Earth, and inspiring the public to be more aware.