Teaching Systems of Equations through Geocaching
Using GPS units, or mobile Apps, students work their way through a multi-cache of 3 waypoints, solving systems as they go to find their next clue.
Setup
Obtain a GPS or Mobile App
Locate X number of cache locations in Decimal Degrees.
2 caches = 2 groups
3 caches = 6 groups
4 caches = 24 groups
X caches = X! groups
Pre-Teaching:
Latitude and Longitude
Decimal Degrees
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_degrees
Note that we need to use 6 decimal places for accuracy of this activity.
The App
Setting up the app for this activity requires a couple of steps.
- Tap once on the screen and look to the bottom right corner for the "i" button to access Settings
- Select Setings from the pop-up menu
- Look for Geo coordinates and change that to the last of the options (±D.x 51.499400° -0.1222759°) to use Decimal Degrees
- Tap "Done" at the bottom
- Keep scrolling down to the Maps section and ensure that the first three sliders are set to on (Green)
- Tap "Done" at the bottom
Send students out
Using the App
Here are a few steps to make the experience less open ended.
- Hand out the first clue in class and have students enter the coordinates as a location in the app
- Tap once on the display and look for the flag icon (second from the bottom right)
- Select Manage Destinations from the pop up menu
- Select New Destination then Location
- Give your location a name and enter the Latitude (x) and Longitude (y) coordinates from the solution to your System of Equations.
- Tap "Save" at the bottom, then "Done"
- Make your way to your new waypoint.