Geotrekking is the purposeful exploration of a localized collection of inter-related geocachesGeocaching: a civilized treasure-hunting activity enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world whereby geocaches are sought and examined and experiences are logged. (traditional and/or virtual) to support learning.

Geotrekking synergistically combines the engagement associated with the physical activity and problem solving aspects of geocaching with the satisfaction associated with the meaningful expansion of geographicalGeographical Literacy: Understanding of the ‘Where’, the ‘What there?’ and ‘Why there?’ issues with respect to the earth and its natural and cultural features., mathematicalMathematical Literacy: (aka numeracy) The ability to deal with the quantitative aspects of life. The ability to evaluate and accept or reject mathematical statements of others. The skills and foundational concepts to support effective reasoning and problem solving., culturalCultural Literacy: The ability to converse fluently in the idioms, allusions and informal content which creates and constitutes a dominant culture. From being familiar with street signs to knowing historical reference to understanding the most recent slang, literacy demands interaction with the culture and reflection of it., technologicalTechnological Literacy: Knowledge about, and ability to apply, technology., and scientificScientific Literacy: Attitudes, skills and knowledge that support learning, problem solving and communicating with respect to the world around us. literacy.

A geotrekking activity is designed around a sequence, or a web, of traditional and virtual geocaches that are intended to lead a learner through an organized and integrated collection of learning opportunities (within a single curriculum or across the curriculum). It is a flexible instructional design modelInstructional Design Model: A model that offers explicit guidance on how to help people learn and develop more efficiently. that can help teachers to plan, create, and implement meaningful and engaging learning opportunities.

Geotrekking activities may be classified as portable geotreks, fixed-location geotreks or Google Earth™ (GE) geotreks.

Portable geotreks are designed to help students discover, develop or review a collection of concepts or skills from the curriculum that are not dependent upon the location and may be easily transposed to any suitable convenient location (e.g., a school yard).

Site-specific geotreks are designed to lead groups of students through or around a location of interest (e.g., park, monument, city block, etc.), to discover some important features and to participate in some learning or problem solving activities where the location provides some relevant resource to support this learning. While site-specific geotreks are not portable directly, they can be used as exemplars to support the development of similar geotreks for other locations

GE geotreks are virtual geotreks that can be accomplished on a computer using Google Earth™. GE geocachesA cache created in Google Earth are implemented as placemarksA specific location logged in the Google Earth program and image overlays. A GE geotrek will typically include a collection of GE geocaches that have been collected within a folder and exported as KMLGoogle Earth can interpret data formatted in its Keyhole Markup Language (KML) format, based on XML specification. The language is much like HTML, except that it uses proprietary tags as is common for XML data. It is simple to create KML files (click for more info) files and posted on the Web for others to download and use. Although the benefits of the integration of physical activity with other curricular goals and the kinestheticKinesthetic a possible preference for, or improved learning efficiency with, learning opportunities that involve movement. learning opportunities may be diminished or eliminated, GE geotrekking may be a practical alternative when weather, time or other resources (e.g., GPS units) are limited or unavailable. GE geotreks also have the potential to cover very large and distant geographical areas and thereby support activities and learning outcomes that may not be practically addressable within the context of portable or fixed-location Geotreks.

Introducing geotrekking activities into your curriculum can add useful variety to your educational program and has the potential to meet a broader range of student needs. Key features of geotrekking activities that support education include:

• Student selected or teacher suggested paths
• Individual support opportunities
• Groupwork and peer support
• Problem-based learning Problem-Based Learning (PBL) An pedagogical methodology originally used in tertiary education (e.g., medical schools) and now also used to support and enhance K-12 programs. With PBL learners (typically in small groups) work toward the creation of a solution to a challenging problem. The problem is generally incompletely specified (ill-defined), the students are encouraged to document their problem solving process and the teachers provide scaffolding as needed to support the process. At the end of the process, students will communicate their results with the class (or a broader audience) along with other supporting information (e.g., their assumptions, discoveries, reasonings, etc.).
• Addressing multiple learning modalities (e.g., visualVisual a possible preference for, or improved learning efficiency with, learning opportunities that use vision., aural Aural(or auditory) a possible preference for, or improved learning efficiency with, learning opportunities that use hearing., kinestheticKinesthetic a possible preference for, or improved learning efficiency with, learning opportunities that involve movement. )
• Just in time learning opportunities Just-in-time (JIT) learning opportunities: Providing the learner with opportunities to access resources, examples, demonstrations, instructions etc. at the moment that the student needs to master such knowledge or skills. Access to these JIT learning opportunities is typically learner controlled.
  
  Just-in-time-and-place (JITAP) learning opportunities JITAP is an extension of JIT with the emphasis that the JIT learning opportunities are provided at the place where the learner is needing to apply the knowledge or skills - allowing the learner to transfer understandings of abstractions and examples to the authentic task in front of them.
• Linking curricular content (concepts and skills) to significant experiences
• Integration of content areas
• Meaningful applications of technology
• Performance assessment rubricsRubric A scoring guide listing the criteria for assessment along with descriptions associated with various levels of mastery or proficiency. Typically categories for assessing each criteria might include "not yet meeting expectations" "minimally meeting expectations", "fully meeting expectations" and "exceeding expectations" and checklists

And the teacher doesn’t have to do it all!. Small groups of students may be challenged to construct individual geocaches to review curricular content and these caches may then be combined into a geotrekking activity to support the learning of the class.

On this site we offer an evolving collection sample geocaches created by us and others to support learning at various grade levels and in various topics. We invite you to download and adapt these activities to meet the needs of your students in your communities. We encourage you to use the feedback form to submit descriptions and reflections on your classroom geotrekking experiences along with suggestions for improvements (both for this site and the geotrekking activities presented on it). We also encourage you to develop and share your own geotrekking plans (both portable and site specific).

Under teacher resources you will find links to documents and sites that further describe geocaching and geotrekking and related publications. We also examine some of the logistical issues related to preparing for and undertaking geotrekking activities with your classes.

Our latest presentation on Geotrekking given at the NCTM AGM in Salt Lake City on April 10th, 2008.