7th+Grade+Geography+Day+5

[7th Grade] [7th Grade Assignment Sheets] Geography] Language Arts] Math] Physical Science] Geography Unit Plan] Day 1] 2] 3] 4] [ 5 ]

**Teacher**- Stephanie Taylor
 * Class**- Geography
 * Grade Level**- 7th
 * Topic-** Geocaching

Handheld GPS or PDA or laptop computer with GPS capabilities Water-tight container with small notebook Large, safe outdoor area for geocaching Computer and overhead to look up websites and watch video as a class
 * Materials/ Technology needed **

17.A.3a Explain how people use geographic markers and boundaries to analyze and navigate the Earth 17.A.3b Explain how to make and use geographic representations to provide and enhance spatial information
 * State and/or National Goals **

Students will be able to locate their latitude and longitude coordinates. Students will be able to use their understanding of latitude and longitude to navigate to a cache. Students will be able to write a response to leave at the cache site.
 * Learning Objectives **

Students will be assessed based on their ability to work well in a group, find the cache, and leave a written response.
 * Assessment(s) explained **

Discussion of Technology- Students will be discussing technology in their science classes. The class will go over the definition of technology that they learned in Science. Technology is a way of changing the natural world to meet human needs and solve problems. Students will be asked to think about what types of technologies are used in geography and what types of problems the technology helps solve. The teacher will explain that the students will be doing an activity in which they use technology to solve a problem. (5 minutes)
 * Introductory Activity **

1. Introductory Activity (5 minutes) 2. Watch welcome to geocaching video on geocaching.com (3 minutes) 3. Prepare for geocaching- Divide students into groups. There will be as many groups as there are GPS devices. Explain the rules and directions to students. Give each group an index card with the coordinates of a cache on it. Hand out the GPS and use the coordinate feature to find the coordinates of the user. (10 minutes) 4. The class will navigate to zipinfo.com to find student's latitude and longitude coordinates together. The class will then compare their Zipinfo coordinates with the coordinates on the GPS. The class will discuss why the two are different and make sure that everyone knows how to read coordinates. (7 minutes) 5. The class will go outside and locate the caches. Students will leave a message in the logbook in the cache. (15 minutes) 6. Closure activity (10 minutes)
 * Instructional procedures (including time) **

Students will return to class and discuss how the activity went, their thoughts and opinions on it, and what they learned or realized from the activity.
 * Closure Activity **