Category: Learn

Whether you’re about to find your first geocache or your ten-thousandth, you’ve come to the right place to learn more about the game.

/ Eric Schudiske

Everything You Ever Needed to Know about Trackables – A Geocaching.com Presentation

(Click the ‘CC‘ button to watch the video with subtitles)
[Klicke auf dem “CC”-Button, um das Video mit Untertiteln]

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Geocaching.com Trackables let you experience an epic journey, one story and one geocache at a time. Each log from your Trackable is a page in a digital diary. You can see exotic locations, read entries of your Trackable‘s travels, and connect with the geocachers who carry your Trackable from geocache to geocache.

Geocaching.com Trackables lassen Dich eine abenteuerliche Reise erleben, eine Geschichte und ein Geocache zu einem Zeitpunkt. Jedes Log Deines Trackables ist eine Seite in einem digitalen Reisetagebuch. Du kannst exotische Orte sehen, Berichte von den Reisen Deines Trackables lesen und mit den Geocachern Kontakt aufnehmen, die Deinen Trackable von Geocache zu Geocache tragen.

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Before you launch a Trackable on an adventure there are a few things you should know. Watch the latest in a series of Trackable videos, “Logging a Trackable.” See all the videos from “What are Trackables?” to “What to do when you find a Trackable.” You can even explore “The History of the Geocoin” and a story on a Travel Bug that circled the globe.

Bevor Du einen Trackable zu einem Abenteuer aufbrechen lässt, solltest Du ein paar Dinge wissen. Sieh Dir “Loggen eines Trackables”, das neueste Video aus der Serie der Trackable-Videos, an. Schaue Dir alle Videos von “Was sind Trackables?” bis “Was mache ich, wenn ich einen Trackable finde” an. Du kannst “Die Geschichte der Geocoin” und die Geschichte eines Travel Bugs, der die Welt umrundete, erkunden.

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Subscribe to the Official Geocaching.com YouTube channel for the latest tips and tricks in geocaching. Watch the more than 100 videos produced by Geocaching.com on our video page.

Abonniere den offiziellen Geocaching.com-You Tube-Kanal, um die neuesten Geocaching-Tips und Tricks zu sehen. Schaue Dir über 100 Videos von Geoaching.com auf unserer Video-Seite an.

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ADDITIONAL TRACKABLE STORIES:

Share your Trackable stories for a chance to win a rare and coveted Moun10bike Trackable.

Share your Trackable stories for a chance to win a rare and covetedMoun10bike Trackable.

Teile jetzt Deine Trackable-Geschichten mit anderen und habe die Chance auf diesem seltenen und begehrten Moun10Bike Trackable.

Shop Now to Find Trackable Week Discounts of 10% or More

Finde jetzt Rabatte von 10% oder mehr während der Trackable-Woche
(Für Trackables von teilnehmenden Anbietern)

Learn and share Trackable Etiquette

Prüfe und schaue Dir die Trackable Etikette an

Check out the Travel Bug that’s traveled far enough to circle the globe 8 times… and is still moving (and moving, and moving…)

Schau Dirden Travel Bug an, der so weit gereist ist, um den Globus 8 Mal zu umrunden… und er ist immer noch

MAT the Travel Bug

unterwegs (und bewegt sich und bewegt sich…)

Meet MAT the Travel Bug. See how a father is using MAT to teach his girls about the world

Treffe MAT den Travel Bug. Erfahre, wie ein Vater MAT einsetzt, um seinen beiden Töchtern mehr über die Welt zu lehren:

 

/ Adela B /

MAT – the Travel Bug® that Teaches

MAT enjoying the view in New Zealand

Trackable Week highlights a new story Monday through Sunday this week about creative ways to experience Trackables. Geocaching.com Trackables allow people to tag and track an item from location to location. Trackables typically come in three varieties, Geocoins, Travel Bugs® or Promotional Trackables like the “Find the Gecko,” Geico campaign. (Watch a video on Travel Bugs)

See the bottom of this article for a place a share your Trackable stories, links to other Trackable stories and a limited time special offer for 10% or more on individual orders of Travel Bugs through Shop Geocaching and our International Retailers.

 

 

Die Trackable–Woche präsentiert eine neue Geschichte jeweils von Montag bis Sonntag in dieser Woche um mehr über Trackables zu erfahren. Geocaching.com Trackables erlauben Leuten, einen Gegenstand zu markieren und diesen von Ort zu Ort zu verfolgen. Trackables kommen typischerweise in drei Varianten daher, Geocoins, Travel Bugs® oder Werbe–Trackables wie beispielsweise “Find the Gecko“, einer Kampagne von Geico. (Schau Dir ein Video über Travel Bugs an)

Am Ende dieses Artikels findest Du Platz um Deine eigenen Trackable–Geschichten zu teilen, Links zu anderen Trackable–Storys zu setzen und Du findest ein Sonderangebot für einen begrenzten Zeitraum. Spare 10% oder mehr auf deine Bestellung von Travel Bugs im Shop von Geocaching.com und bei unseren internationalen Einzelhändlern.

MAT the Travel Bug® that Teaches

MAT – Where do you want to go today?

Travel Bugs are released into the world every day. Many of them have a common goal, but they all have a different story to tell.

So, who and where in the world is MAT the Travel Bug®?

MAT was the creation of a father whose two girls, ages six and nine, love to travel. The Travel Bug, accompanied by a Playmobil soldier was set free in November of 2011 in Île-de-France to discover the world, cache by cache, and gather as many pictures and memories as possible for the two young French girls.

MAT at the Sydney Opera House

Pierre, a.k.a. DeloDelo, MAT’s owner, says, “MAT is young and brave. I wanted to create a medium to initiate some geographic dialog with his travels. He [MAT] promised my girls that he’d go around the globe and discover people and places. He gave his word.”

That is exactly what MAT has done since he was released into the world a year ago. He has traveled almost 19,000 miles (30,000 km) and seen some incredible places. MAT’s image gallery is not only a collection of the places he visited, but a collection of adventures.

Pierre explains, “Fortunately, MAT was discovered by MAS0N as he and his wife were traveling around Europe. He [MAS0N] is a fantastic guy and extremely gentle. He took MAT with him around his trip and then back to Australia, even sending some special messages to the girls. The morning we discovered MAT and MAS0N doing that 134-meter base jump was just astonishing!”

With MAS0N’s help, MAT has visited the UK, Italy, New Zealand, and Australia, and that’s just the beginning. Currently MAT is in the hands of Koowee, a truck driver, visiting various caches across Australia and collecting pictures for the girls.

MAT’s Abenteur im video

To learn more about Travel Bugs or to live vicariously through each Travel Bug’s adventures, visit the Latest Travel Bug Reports page.

Travel Bugs werden jeden Tag in die weite Welt entsand. Viele von Ihnen haben ein gemeinsames Ziel, aber alle haben eine unterschiedliche Geschichte zu erzählen.

Also wer und vor allem wo in der Welt ist MAT der Travel Bug®?

MAT wurde von einem Vater erschaffen, dessen zwei Mädchen, im Alter von sechs und neun, es lieben zu reisen. Der Travel Bug, begleitet von einem kleinen Playmobil Soldaten, wurde im November 2011 in Île-de-France ausgesetzt um die Welt von Cache zu Cache zu entdecken und so viele Bilder und Erinnerungen wie möglich für die beiden jungen französischen Mädchen zu sammeln.

MAT and MASoN going bungee jumping 

Pierre, a.k.a. DeloDelo, der Besitzer von MAT sagt: “MAT ist jung und mutig. Ich wollte ein Medium schaffen, um einen geografischen Dialog mit seinen Reisen anzustossen. Er [MAT] versprach mein Mädchen, die Welt zu bereisen und für Sie neue Orte und Leute zu entdecken. Er gab sein Wort.”

Das ist genau das, was MAT getan hat, seit er vor einem Jahr in die Welt gesandt wurde.   Er ist schon fast 19.000 Meilen (30.000 km) gereist und hat einige unglaubliche Orte gesehen. MATs Bildergallerie ist nicht nur eine Sammlung der von ihm besuchten Orte, sondern auch eine Sammlung von Abenteuern.

Pierre erklärt: “Glücklicherweise wurde MAT von MAS0N und seiner Frau entdeckt, während diese durch Europa reisten. Er [MAS0N] ist ein fantastischer Typ und besonders liebevoll. Er nahm MAT nicht nur mit auf seine Reise und dann weiter zurück nach Australien, sondern er sendete den Mädchen auch einige spezielle Nachrichten über die Aktivitäten von MAT. Eines Morgens haben wir entdeckt, daß MAT und MAS0N zusammen einen 134 Meter Base-Jump gemacht haben, einfach erstaunlich!

Mit Hilfe von MAS0N hat MAT Großbritanien, Italien, Neuseeland und Australien besucht und das ist erst der Anfang. MAT ist zurzeit in den Händen von Koowee, einem LKW-Fahrer. Er besucht so verschiedene Caches quer durch Australien und sammelt Bilder für die Mädchen.

Für weitere Informationen zu Travel Bugs oder um weitere Abenteuer anderer Travel Bugs zu erleben, besuche die neuste Travel Bug-Berichtsseite.

ADDITIONAL TRACKABLE STORIES:

Zusätzliche Trackable Geschichten:

Share your Trackable stories for a chance to win the rare and covted Moun10bike coin

Share your Trackable stories for a chance to win a rare and coveted Moun10bike Trackable.

Teile jetzt Deine Trackable–Geschichten mit anderen und habe die Chance auf diesem seltenen und begehrten Moun10Bike Trackable.

Shop Now to Find Trackable Week Discounts of 10% or More

Finde jetzt Rabatte von 10% oder mehr während der Trackable-Woche
(Für Trackables von teilnehmenden Anbietern)

Learn and share Trackable Etiquette

Prüfe und schaue Dir die Trackable Etikette an

Check out the Travel Bug that’s traveled far enough to circle the globe 8 times… and is still moving (and moving, and moving…)

Schau Dir den Travel Bug an, der so weit gereist ist, um den Globus 8 Mal zu umrunden… und er ist immer noch unterwegs (und bewegt sich und bewegt sich…)

/ Eric Schudiske /

Geocaching.com Presents: Favorites

[This video contains spoilers with express permission from cache owners]

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Watch the Geocaching.com Presents: Favorites video above to explore how geocachers use Favorite Points to find and reward amazing geocaches. Geocaching Favorites was introduced in December of 2010. The feature allows Premium Members to award Favorite Points to the caches they enjoyed most. Everyone can see how many points a cache has received.  Since Favorites was added to the Geocaching.com website, more than 2.6 million Favorite Points have been awarded.

Some geocachers award Favorite points to historic caches like The Original Stash Tribute Plaque. The location that records the placement of the first geocache ever has accumulated more than 900 Favorite Points. Creative and unique caches with spectacular stories also earn Favorite Points. Geist des Hagen, a clever geocache about a ghost who haunts the woods of Germany, has earned more than 1000 Favorite points.

Premium Members earn one Favorite Point for each ten caches found. You can then award to an exceptional cache in your find history. For every ten caches that you find, you earn one Favorite to award to an exceptional cache in your find history. Basic Members also benefit by seeing how many Favorites a cache has earned in search results and on the individual cache pages.

A geocacher from Maryland, United States says, “as a community we benefit by seeing more and more caches that have creative camouflage, and fantastic locations that we might not have visited, and that’s really what the sports all about!”  Watch the Geocaching.com Presents: Favorites video to find out more and see how you can discover and learn from amazing geocaches through Favorites.

The next Geocaching.com Presents video showcases a difficulty five, terrain five geocache in Germany known as The Rock. It has more than 300 Favorite points. The Rock is scheduled for release on November 3rd. Geocaching.com will continue to release English, Czech and German language geocaching videos in the coming months. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to be one of the first to see new videos. Watch the more than 50 videos produced by Geocaching.com on our video page.

 

/ Adela B /

Geocaching Finds Its Way To the Classroom

By: Kara Bonilla

West Mercer Elementary Students geocaching

Teachers for all grade levels have begun to use the location-based treasure hunting adventure of geocaching as a teaching tool. Teachers say students learning through geocaching enjoy benefits far beyond learning outside of a classroom setting; geocaching makes learning more enjoyable and creates unforgettable learning opportunities for students.

Ellis Reyes, a fifth grade teacher at West Mercer Elementary in Washington, USA, has been using geocaching in the classroom for the past two years. He integrates the activity into several subjects.

Ellis hides different types of geocaches for his students to find on campus and in nearby local parks. One of his favorite ways to utilize geocaching involves using multi-step puzzle caches to teach math. Ellis calls this “GEO-metry Caching.”

A lesson involving geocaching in Ellis’s classroom tasks students to use several sets of skills, especially problem solving and advanced math skills.

Ellis says the students are excited to explore geocaching in school, “The kids love using geocaching to learn. It’s about solving puzzles and creative thinking, and getting out of the classroom, what’s better than that?”

With other subjects, such as language arts, Trackables come in handy for Ellis’ class. The students drop their own Trackables in geocaches close to school. They then follow each Trackable’s movements as a class. Ellis has each student create a background story for their personal Trackable. When the Trackable makes a stop, Ellis has his students add more to the story. Soon, the students develop a narrative about the Trackables journey.

Students develop the required skills in the curriculum and learn critical thinking and spatial concepts with the combination of geocaching and additional lesson planning.

A "GEO-metry" lesson plan from Ellis Reyes

Fourth grade teacher Eva La Mar has had a portion of her classes dedicated to teaching geocaching for the past eight years. At Riverbend Elementary in Oregon, USA, Eva teaches the various tools students need to go geocaching, including directional knowledge, the concepts of latitude and longitude and how GPS signals work.

“I love the sport, the exercise, the thinking that is involved.  Seeing students motivated and connecting with learning is what education is all about.  This is real-life learning.”

Eva also incorporates geocaching into other fourth grade studies. Geology being a fourth grade topic, EarthCaches fit perfectly into her lesson plan. Through EarthCaching and other variations of geocaching, studying the Oregon Trail becomes very real to students. The geocaches students find as a class show the many stops along the trail, helping them understand the concept of “trail-blazing.” Eva’s students love geocaching so much, she says, that most of them have turned geocaching into a family affair. This last year, Eva held a geocaching field trip that both students and parents attended.

Use of geocaching as a teaching tool has become very popular. There are already books and web pages dedicated to geocaching and education, making it easy for teachers to integrate geocaching into their classrooms.

Groundspeak is actively working on a project to create easier ways for all teachers to use geocaching in their classrooms and to share their experiences and work with other educators. There’s even a geocaching guidebook for teachers.

Watch this video of students learning through geocaching:

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/ Eric Schudiske /

Refer a Friend – Help Kids Learn about GPS

Karla

This is Karla. She is a student at a low income elementary school in Texas and a member of the after-school technology club, Tech-Click.

In 2009, Groundspeak was able to provide three GPS devices to Karla’s club through DonorsChoose.org. DonorsChoose.org is an online charity that connects teachers with donors to fulfill classroom needs.

These three GPS devices allowed Karla and others in her club to learn about latitude, longitude, spatial concepts and more. Karla sent us this letter to thank us for the donation:

Now, you can help others like Karla learn about GPS technology simply by telling people about geocaching. From June 1- 30, 2011, for each new member that you refer to Geocaching.com, we’ll donate $1 to DonorsChoose.org.

How it works:

  1. You introduce someone new to geocaching. You can take them out on the trail with you, send them our new “tell a friend” email, write a blog or simply shout about it from the rooftops.
  2. The person that you introduced to geocaching signs up for an account (Basic or Premium) between June 1 and June 30 and fills out the “referred by” field on the account creation page. (Make sure to give them your Geocaching.com username so that they can fill out this field.)
  3. He or she logs at least one geocache between June 1 and June 30.
  4. We give US $1 to GPS-related projects on DonorsChoose.org.

 

The more people you refer, the more money we can donate to classrooms in need, up to a total of $10,000 USD!

Teach your friends about geocaching and help provide students like Karla with the tools they need to have engaging learning experiences.

We will be providing regular updates on the number of referrals here on Latitude 47 and on Facebook. Thank you for helping!

We also wish our brother was as nice as you.

Cheers,

The Groundspeak Lackeys