Day 3: Geocashing in w/ AmerIndians

Another day in the life of a GAETI institute survivor. Fun, informative and engaging. Geocashing was a fun way to utilize a GPS to locate "clues" to add to our breadth of knowledge about a particular topic all relavent to both the location and the question. I did notice a few items that should be cautioned with this activity: 1. Uniform GPS units should be utilized to ensure everyone is on the same page along with precalibration and clearing of sites used to eliminate cheating as an options (wayports should be cleared). Very fun interactive exercise, I think if students are broken into groups each person should have a specific task to ensure that everyone is engaged. Off to the library we learn of the evolution of music over the ages in the Templeton Museum and the growing U.S. Grant collection that had a lock of Frederick Douglas's hair. Doctoral candidate Ryan Semmes shared that I contact Meg Henderson (mhenderson@library.msstate.edu) to get the library archives to visit my school to share information with my students, good resource! Nick Timmerman spoke on the image of AmerIndians. Was good to see a fellow classmate in presentation mode, I invited him to speak w/ my students in the fall should his schedule permit. Google Earth, our final activity (Geographic Information Systems ~ Tool for performing geospatial analysis and displaying spatial data, a database, map information and a way to link the two), gave us all an opportunity to explore ESRI's implementation of GPS machines and the pros and cons of GPS systems. I consider it to be akin to a calculator in a math class. Many students don't know how to navigate a map or use a compass to locate places on a printed map. It is a great use of technology. Our assignment: locate 4 coordinates for a virtual class assignment. I'll use 4 points from the Freedom Riders: Washington, D.C. ~ 38@54'26N 77@2'12 Birmingham, AL ~ 33@31'14N 86@48'08 Jackson, MS ~ 32@17'55N 90@11'05W New Orleans, LA ~ 29@57'06N 90@04'16W Students love to prove teachers wrong, tell them one of the coordinates "might" be off but you don't know for sure which one it is and they will be quick to find that teacher mistake faster than their assignment not knowing it too is part of the assignment... win-win teacher! Hope this blog was more helpful and informative about the GAETI and not just my personal trials and ordeals but hey at least you got to learn a little bit more about who? Yours truly!