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Geoscouting Activities

 

Boy Scout Activities

Patrol Activities
Patrols can use GPS related games in a wide variety of ways, both at troop meetings and on troop or patrol outings. As in the NYLT course, learning to use the GPS unit is a great way for the Patrol Leader to model EDGE. Patrols can use GPS use and geocaching to support patrol outings, including public geocaching trips, hikes with a geocache assisted theme, advancement (described below) and more.

Troop Activities
Geocaching is easy to build into a troop meeting night, especially as a part of the inter-patrol activity section of the troop meeting. Geohunts can be themed to any topic – a shortened version of a hunt for Eagle Merit badges, or hunting for Rank Advancement is always popular. In addition, the boys can have a lot of fun building cache containers in troop meetings, designing puzzle caches and setting themed courses for each other. Teamwork should be encouraged, and while competition is fun, Troop leaders can and should reinforce the concept of helping other Scouts succeed whenever possible.

Troop Organizes Introduction to Geoscouting!

John Combs, Scoutmaster of Troop 325 of the Miami Valley Council, exposed his senior leadership of the troop to Geoscouting recently. They were very excited about getting going. At the next meeting the Scouts along with support from the adult leadership put together their first Geoscouting troop event. John said of the outcome "Troop had near record attendance during a traditionally lightly attended summer meeting. Coincidence?"
Off we go!
   

Follow the arrow!

Found it!

Here are the details of the simple event that Troop 325 put together:

Purpose: To introduce Scouts to using GPS receivers and geocaching.

Object: To find as many of the 12 "Scout Law" geocaches as possible in a 45 minute time period

Rules:
Safety First!
All team members must stay together.
Involve everyone on the team.
Respect for the Environment and Private Property.
Protect the integrity of the game pieces.
Have fun!

Setup:
Hide 12 film canisters (each containing one point of the Scout Law) over a 12 acre tract of church property. Locating skills needed varied from simple to challenging. Give each of the four patrols a GPS with preloaded waypoints.


   

Outcome: The patrols worked well together, sharing who got to carry the GPS receiver. They found most of the points of the Scout Law, but they will have to do it again to completely find them all.

Everyone had a blast and even the parents got involved in the game! They can't wait to do it again!

Troop had near record attendance during a traditionally lightly attended summer meeting. Coincidence?

Fun? Yeah!

Troop 325 Photo Gallery

 

District and Council Activities

Geocaching events are fun and relatively easy to put on for quite large groups. One prime location for a District, Council or Inter-council event is at one of the Council’s summer camp properties. We describe a simple event themed for Boy Scouts, with the objective to find “Merit Badges” to reach Eagle rank. These can be hidden at the actual sites where the event occurs at camp – swimming by the lake, Rifle at the range, etc. Care must be taken in placement of the caches, as described in the safety rules – for example, one could hide a cache OUTSIDE of the rifle range but never in an area where Scouts should not cross without a Range-master present.

  It is recommended that 30-50 caches of varying difficulty be hidden for a 3-4 hour long event. Additional “finds” above the 21 required for Eagle rank count toward Palms. This type of event can easily accommodate hundreds of participants.

  This type of camp location has the added advantage of showcasing the Council’s properties and camp facilities to encourage summer camp attendance as well as off season use.

  The Website will describe other games and Team building events for Troops, Districts and Councils. For example, we have supplied the rules for an easy version of the “Win all you can” type game that uses geocaching to reinforce the concepts of planning, team communication, cross-team communication and the “win” for the larger group. This has been piloted for adult trainers as well at the Western Region Area 3 Training Conference with rave reviews.

 

International Geoscouting WSJ

Geocaching was introduced at the 21st World Scout Jamboree on July 27, 2007. As part of the Elements Programme, geocaching was organized as a activity for each of the four Zones of Elements, Earth, Wind, Fire and Water.

Elements Team

Magellan Navigation donated the necessary GPS units to make this happen. With Magellan eXplorist 500's we have been able to put up four courses and train staff to run this activity.

Wind Team

The short course involving four waypoints takes participants on a tour of the Zone displays. They need to capture key clues along the way to solve a puzzle at the end which allows them to open a locked box to claim their prize.

Water Zone

We have Scouts from all over the World now getting exposed to geocaching and geoscouting and how much fun it is. This is a great day for Geoscouting!

More detail here>

 

 
 

 
 
 
 
           
   

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