New
Geocaching Competition
POSTPONED until Winston Science 2009 Main Events
Location: TBA
[Competition is open to students in Grades 9-12]
[“Contestant” is defined as a team of three or four students]>
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New Geocaching Competition POSTPONED until Winston Science 2009 Main Events Location: TBA [Competition is open to students in Grades 9-12] [“Contestant” is defined as a team of three or four students]> |
Equipment
Teams are required to provide:
Preparation for the Competition
1. Many of the caches are off-trail, so make sure to be aware of your surroundings. If you’re concentrating on your GPS unit, look around occasionally for obstacles
2. Bring and drink plenty of water. .
3. Let someone know where you’re going and when you’re coming back.
4. Be sure you have practiced geocaching before you begin this competition. There is nothing like a little experience!
5.START POINT: Side walk area east of the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science [Location of cardboard boat competition]
The “Hunt”
1. Teams will assemble at the START POINT at 10:30 AM, Sunday, November 23rd. If you’ve done your research, follow the map as much as you follow the GPS unit. It’s inevitable that you will lose signal from time to time.
2. It’s always good to have a compass on hand if your GPS unit doesn’t have one.
3. Teams will be given a list of Geocache sites to find. Teams must stay together during their search.
4. When you get close to the Geocache (within 300 feet, which is the length of a football field), make sure to check your GPS unit signal. Sometimes the signal will have an error between 25-200 feet. Don’t concentrate as much on the arrow as the distance decreasing, as you get closer to the site.
5. For the last 30 feet, use a compass or direct your buddy in the direction of the cache. In some cases we’ve had good luck circling the site with the GPS unit to get a good area to search.
6. The final 30-100 feet is the hardest. It helps to think like the person who hid the cache. If there are stumps around, investigate around the base. Check for a pile of rocks. Some stashes, especially in people-trafficked areas, are pretty ingeniously hidden, so it helps to know the container they used. Use care in opening the Geocache. Every site is being observed by Winston Science staff.
Now you have found your Cache
(1) First, read the instructions within the cache. Then, take an item and leave an item, and enter your team captain’s name into the log book found in the cache. Write legibly.
(2) Make sure to seal the cache and place it back where you found it. If it had some rocks covering it, please replace them. It’s pretty straightforward. Use care to leave the cache site in the same or better condition than when you found it.
(3) When you have discovered all the sites on the Geocache list, return to the START POINT and turn in the objects retrieved from the cache.
(4) In any event, teams must return to the START POINT no later than 3:00 PM.
Evaluation
A team’s efforts will be evaluated by the staff to see if you did the following: