Unit 3 WebQuest Project

"Geocaching" Sends Folks on a Scavenger Hunt

Introduction | Task | Process | Guidance | Conclusion | Questions

Introduction
USA TODAY, July 26, 2001
     N42 DEGREES 02.054 W88 DEGREES 12.329 — Forget the poison ivy and needle-sharp brambles.
     Never mind the 90-degree heat, the sour blackberries or the whimpered entreaty from his 7-year-old daughter, Samantha, issued 10 minutes after leaving the parking lot: "My feet hurt. Can we go back?"
     Dave April is a man on a mission. Clutching a palm-size Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver in one hand and a computer printout with latitude and longitude coordinates in the other, the 37-year-old software developer trudges doggedly through a suburban Chicago forest preserve, intent on finding a geek's version of buried treasure.
     So what if the loot in question may be nothing more than a Tupperware container stocked with a logbook, a tin of Altoids mints and a pack of AAA batteries?
     "This is a carrot to dangle in front of the kids when they say they don't want to go for a hike," argues April, swatting at an errant mosquito as his 10-year-old son, Zach, consults his own GPS unit for the family's latest position.
     "And it's a great excuse to get outside on a sunny day."
     Often equated to a high-tech Easter egg hunt, the adventure game dubbed geocaching ("geo" for geography, "cache" for secret stash) was conceived in May 2000. That's when the Defense Department stopped scrambling the signals beamed to GPS receivers from an orbiting network of 24 satellites designed to track troop movements. That, in turn, allowed sailors, hikers and other recreational users to nail their positions anywhere on the planet within 25 feet, vs. the previous standard of about 330 feet.
     Within a week of the government's announcement, an Oregon GPS enthusiast planted a 5-gallon bucket (containing a slingshot, can of beans and software), posted a notice on an Internet newsgroup, and had his Portland-area stash discovered by two other gadget-crazed techies. That July, Seattle computer programmer Jeremy Irish created a Web site, www.geocaching.com, letting would-be Marco Polos find location coordinates and descriptions of caches placed by a handful of fellow addicts.
     Barely a year later, the hobby draws an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 participants, toting handheld GPS receivers that cost as little as $100. Irish's site, the most popular of dozens devoted to geocaching, has logged more than 4,100 caches in 50 states and 60 countries and adds an average of 200 new caches each week.
     Even Hollywood is taking notice. In a bid to lure Net-based fans to their new movie Planet of the Apes, 20th Century Fox launched a worldwide scavenger hunt that posts coordinates online and offers prizes for the first geocacher to reach a stash.
     The rules of the game are simple: When you find the cache, take something, leave something, and sign the logbook. But as Irish readily admits, the "goody boxes" stuffed into tree logs or under rock ledges are hardly the makings of a Robert Louis Stevenson treasure.
     In keeping with geocaching's geeky heritage, "you see a lot of tech stuff," says Irish, from electronic world-time clocks to a now-antique 9600-baud modem. Many cache owners include a disposable camera, in hopes that discoverers will preserve the moment and leave the camera behind. Among the more unusual items: a roll of toilet paper, a potato masher and a "Marry me, Debbie!" note. (The message, discovered in a cache near Ann Arbor, Mich., on July 3, found its target: She said yes.)
     Many caches are hidden near trails or pathways on public land, within a half-hour's drive of a major city. But as the sport has grown, so have the number of offbeat and/or challenging locations — from a sunken tugboat in the Red Sea (scuba gear required) to the base of a waterfall on the French Polynesian island of Moorea.
     One cache, planted earlier this month near the Cape Scott lighthouse at the northwest tip of Vancouver Island, B.C., puts the "if you hide it, they will come" theory to the test. It requires a rigorous, 15.5-mile hike in often forbidding weather — and, according to the owner's entry at Geocaching.com, "simply consists of a logbook inside a waterproof pouch."
     The "Dutch Clog" cache that April chose for today's outing promises far fewer obstacles. Rated 2 1/2 stars on a difficulty scale of one to five, it's in a popular regional park a short drive from the family's Lake Zurich home, about 15 miles from O'Hare International Airport.
     It should be a cakewalk: Start from the parking lot, follow well-marked trails through a gentle landscape of prairie grass and oak trees, and wind up at the designated coordinates an hour or so later. No need to worry about forgetting where you left the car: April's Garmin receiver, like other GPS devices, includes an "electronic breadcrumb trail" that lets users retrace their steps.
     According to the instructions posted on Geocaching.com, the container is planted about 200 feet off the trail. The site even features two downloadable photos of the hiding place, clues which April — a relative newbie who has found four other caches and planted one of his own — ignores as "too easy."
     Like the game's other predominately male participants, April is not the type who leaves zeroes flashing on his VCR. Already the owner of a Palm V organizer, digital camera and four computers, the self-described "early adopter" couldn't resist buying a GPS receiver to put some technological spice in his family's outdoor adventures.
     "You could call these marriage-saver devices," he jokes. "Every guy wants one because they're cool, and every wife likes them because now they've got a map and know where they're going without having to stop and ask for directions."
     But as the already warm morning seeps into a steamy afternoon, April's wife, Dina, seems more resigned than revved.
     She's still remembering their South Dakota vacation a week earlier, when Dave persuaded another family to help them hunt for a cache in the Black Hills National Forest.
     What looked like 1.5 miles on the map turned out to be a 4-mile slog through steep terrain, with whining kids and skeptical wives in tow. Worse yet, they never discovered the cache with its coveted Roads and Recreation CD.
     "I don't think geocaching has anything to do with finding an actual item," says Dina, pausing to pour a cup of water for the family's golden retriever, Mac, aka Mac the Geocaching Wonderdog.
     "It's the whole hunter-gatherer thing: You're proving you can go into the wild and make it back alive."
     Death, unless it's from heatstroke, seems a remote possibility this time around. And despite the rising temperatures, the hike is a pleasant one, complete with a cameo by a white-tailed deer.
     But by the time Dave and Zach line up their north-south coordinates, Samantha and her mother are dreaming of Dairy Queen and an air-conditioned van.
     They'll have to wait: Though the cache should now be 200 feet off the trail to the east, the explorers are confronted by an impenetrable thicket of brambles.
     "No problem," says the ever-optimistic April. "The trail probably just curves around, so if we keep following it, we can approach the cache site from the east rather than the west."
     Sure enough, the trail does wind back to the north. But after 45 minutes of clambering through branches and poison ivy in what must be the correct location, even Zach loses it.
     "I hate geocaching," he moans, scratching a suspiciously red knee.
     Baffled and dejected, April volunteers to pick up the van by taking a shortcut along a nearby highway.
     He heads east.
     The van is north.
     Recalls a shellshocked April: "I had the distinct pleasure of stopping a passing police officer and saying, " 'Uh, sir, I was out in the woods with my family playing a game that uses these GPS units to point you with an unbelievable degree of accuracy to a given spot on Earth and I, uh, am lost. Can I please have a ride?' "
     Hours later, alone in front of his computer, April discovers his fatal error. By adding an extra zero to the north-south position of N 42 degrees 2.54, he wound up off the mark by eight-tenths of a mile.
     No matter.
     Like Magellan and Columbus before him, April won't let a few wrong turns keep him grounded.
     Samantha and Dina may be tough sells, but Zach is ready to give geocaching another try ... as long as they steer clear of that poison ivy.

• the name of the city to be used for the treasure hunt and a map that participants will use;
• at least five clues that will help treasure hunters find the location. One of the clues must be based upon a quadrilateral, one must involve a transformation, and one must include a circle. (see the Questions for sample clues);
• at least five questions that the participants must answer correctly in addition to finding the location of the treasure. The questions must relate to geometry. (see the Questions for sample geometry questions).

• Select a city and find a map for the city. For help, try these Web sites.
  www.yahoo.com and search for the city you want to use
  www.embassyworld.com/maps
  www.maps.com
  www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll?qscr=mmfn


• Write at least five clues that will lead hunters to the location of the hidden treasure. See the Questions for examples of clues.
• Write at least five questions that require a knowledge of geometry to answer. See the Questions for examples of geometry questions.
• Be creative. Add some additional data, information, or even pictures to your portfolio or Web page.

1. Use geometric figures other than quadrilaterals or circles for your clues.
2. Design a treasure hunt for a U.S. state, a several-state region, or for an entire country or continent.
3. Include the names of tourist attractions in your clues.
4. Trade your project with one of your classmates. Have your classmate try to locate the treasure using your clues and answer your questions. Have your classmate critique your clues and questions.
5. Make a brochure of your map, clues, and questions. Add the names and locations of tourist attractions to your brochure.
6. Make a treasure hunt for your own city or state.
7. Write a different set of clues that will lead to the same location for the treasure.
   

• Present your project to your class or at a family night. At the family night, give parents and students maps of the city you have chosen. Have them work together to find the location of your hidden treasure.
• Present the information on a Web page. Have other students critique your project and help you to make improvements to your project.
• Write a one-page summary of your project, including what you have learned from creating the clues for the treasure hunt.

Lesson 8–6
Alan is creating a treasure hunt for Seattle. Print a copy of the map of Seattle at www.seeseattle.org. Select “maps” and then download the “Downtown Seattle–printable PDF.” (You may want to make several photocopies of the map to use for the exercises in this WebQuest.) Follow the directions that Alan gives as clues for his treasure hunt. Answer any questions and keep your work for this exercise to use in the WebQuest exercises in Chapters 9 and 10.

1. Clue:
   Connect the following four locations with line segments. Try to locate the four points at approximately the center of each intersection.
   Point A: the intersection of Bell and 2nd
   Point B: the intersection of Stewart and 2nd
   Point C: the intersection of Virginia and 4th
   Point D: the intersection of Lenora and 4th
   
2. Question:
   Classify the quadrilateral in Exercise 1. Justify your reasoning using features on the map.
   
3. Question:
   How does the distance along the portion of 3rd street inside the quadrilateral compare to the lengths of the sides of the quadrilateral lying on 2nd and 4th?

Lesson 9–1
Refer to quadrilateral ABCD in Lesson 8–6. Alan gives the following directions for his next clue to the location of the hidden treasure. Follow the directions on your map of Seattle. Answer the questions and keep your work for this exercise to use in the WebQuest exercise in Chapter 10.

1. Clue:
   Use quadrilateral ABCD. Reflect quadrilateral ABCD over the line represented by the portion of 6th Street that is parallel to 4th Street. Label the new quadrilateral A´B´C´D´.
2. Question:
   E is a point on Where will E´ be on quadrilateral A´B´C´D´? Explain.
   
3. Question:
   How will the angle and side measures of quadrilateral ABCD compare to the angle and side measures of quadrilateral A´B´C´D´? Explain.

Lesson 10–1
Refer to quadrilateral ABCD and its reflection quadrilateral A´B´C´D´ in Lesson 9–1. Alan gives the next clue to the location of the treasure. Follow the directions on your map of Seattle and answer any questions about the locations.

1. Clue:
   Label Point F as the intersection of Thomas and Exeter. With radius , draw a circle with center C´. Mark the point where the circle intersects Pine as T.
2. Question: What is the circumference of the circle with center C´? Give the circumference in miles using the scale given on the map.
3. Location of the Treasure: The treasure is located near T. Describe the location of the treasure in relationship to other locations on the map of Seattle.