Geocaching activity day.
Students will use GPS devices to understand magnitude and direction
of geographic coordinates.
Warm-up activity:
1. Launch AEJEE and load earthquake data (5 minutes).
Instruct students to launch AEJEE and add the following three files:
country.shp, qks20012005gt4.shp, and plates.shp
Write file names on an overhead to display on the board for students to see.
Prior to class:
Set up a set 10 sets of small orange flags (numbered 1-10) in the Lehigh campus
grass area across the street from the school.
Provide student groups with a list of latitude and longitude coordinates of
the flags.
Make the activity a treasure hunt contest. The group that locates the most flags during the class period is the winner.
Arrange two-three pairs of students (4-6 students) to go with
one adult.
Main Activity - Outside:
1. Review cardinal directions and position orientations.
2. Show students the GPS screen that tracks satellites. Discuss triangulation.
3. Have students walk in a straight line heading north and note
the magnitude change in the latitude or longitude.
Ask students:
As you move North, what changes? Lattitude or longitude? Does the latitude
increase or decrease as you move North?
Repeat for each of the remaining three cardinal directions.
Ask students:
As you move South, what changes? Lattitude or longitude? Does the latitude increase
or decrease as you move South?
As you move East, what changes? Lattitude or longitude? Does the longitude increase
or decrease as you move East?
As you move West, what changes? Lattitude or longitude? Does the longitude increase
or decrease as you move West?
4. Show students the latitude and longitude coordinates of a flag. Have them note their current position. Have them think about which directions they much travel to locate the flag.
5. Upon returning to class, ask students questions about the changes in latitude and longitude as they walk north, south, east and west.
Materials needed:
GPS units (at least one per student pair)
Orange flags with numbers 1-10 placed in areas across the street and other nearby
areas.
Sheet of paper with flag coordinates.
Instructional Sequence | GIS Storm Sewers Unit
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