Month: March 2015

This smaller geocache was simple but effective. Placed at the edge of the loch on campus where the wind naturally collected the floating waste against the shore was a great place to engage geocachers with the issue of unwanted plastic and other rubbish that can be a hazard for wildlife. The inquiry was to collect and consider the effects of different kinds of waste on different kinds of wildlife  … and to collect some of it in the litter bags provided in the cache.   Cache in Trash Out! (or CITO in geocache speak)

But there is a debate – which pupils should consider – is geocaching itself a form of ‘organised littering’ ? See:  http://100peaks.com/2012/12/22/geocaching-organized-littering/  or http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=177646

See this Facebook page for an anti-geocaching movement

https://www.facebook.com/GeocachingIsLittering

One response is to make sure geocachers collect litter on route. Some have micro CITO (Cache in Trash out) caches which contain a rubbish bag and a latex glove. Another is Earthcaches : http://www.earthcache.org (which are not using containers at all and look at Earth science topics)

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In our project, local teachers and students of the university were charged with designing some new kinds of caches. Our task was to design caches that would inspire the finder to engage in some form of inquiry in the setting where the cache was located and, by doing so to learn a bit about some scientific concept or process. In doing this, we hoped that geocaching could be made more responsive to the place in which caches are located whilst also enabling the geocachers to learn by doing in a fun and interesting way.

In this cache (pictured above), the cache was cleverly embedded in a very large and very rotten log. The finder was encouraged to go mini-beast hunting and to try to identify the critters with the inquiry tools provided. There was some basic i.d. information in there too in laminated form. Fun for all the family! There was also some information about how decomposers go about their work in the woods and a nudge to help us consider what we might do with all our own household waste. … so place-responsive science-based geocaching with a sustainability twist!