Published: May 21, 2009 08:02 am      

Waco students go on high-tech treasure hunt

WACO — With spring in the air, elementary students want to get out of the classroom and have fun.

That is what Waco Elementary teachers let their fourth-graders do Thursday, but the students learned even as they had fun hunting for treasure.

The students were divided into teams of three to five and assigned hand-held geopositioning satellite receivers that guided them to treasure caches hidden around the school yard.

The Kentucky Geographic Alliance provided 42 GPS devices that gave students directions to the treasure caches. Clues and distances were provided

“Use the technology and follow the clues,” said Jennifer Martin, a Title I aide who organized the activity. “Your clues and GPS device will lead you to each treasure cache.”

One trail led the students near the school-yard edge where they found glassy gem-like beads in a box covered by the leaves of a small tree felled in the May 8 tornado.

In a cache tucked between a tree trunk and the sidewalk surrounding a set of playground equipment, each students retrieved a set of binoculars called “ecology glasses.”

Old photo film cases containing decals were hidden in a bird feeder in front of the school.

Before heading out into the sunshine, the student learned how GPS systems work, Martin said.

“They learned that the U.S. military maintains 24 satellites that go around the earth each day radiating geographic coordinates,” she said.

The signals were first made available to the public in the 1980s, she said.

Martin cautioned the students that the GPS signals their devices received do not account for hills, walls, fences or motor vehicles.

“If your GPS signal leads you to a wall but tells you the cache is 150 feet away, then you’ll have to go around,” she said.

In addition to learning about and using GPS technology, the exercise prompted the students to compute distances, interpret clues and practice team work, Martin said.

They also read the advice written by fifth graders who recalled their experiences from the year before.

Martin also told the students that learning about technology and geography can lead to interesting, profitable careers.

“Many jobs in geographic information systems (GIS) go unfilled because employers cannot find enough qualified applicants,” she told them. “From the military and architecture to landscaping and surveying, there are many GIS careers.”

Geocaching also can be a fun activity for families and groups, Martin said.

The Kentucky Geographic Alliance, affiliated with the National Geographic Society, offers many other teaching aids to teachers and schools, she said.

Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 624-6622.