Caching in our Schools

For all your general chit chat, caching or not.

Should Teacher be Allowed to get Students place Caches That will only live for a few months

YES let Teachers to get Students to place Caches that will not get Maintained.
11
27%
NO not let Teachers to get Students to place Caches that will not get Maintained.
22
54%
Report in to the Reviewer.
8
20%
 
Total votes: 41

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Rigger64
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Caching in our Schools

Post by Rigger64 » 24 July 11 11:13 am

What is your oppinion of Teachers getting students to place caches then pretty much letting them become GeoRubbish.
Here is some info that i have become Privvy to
(All Names & Places have been changed to protect the Inisent)

This is the story:

"Somebody" are a team part of "Some Secondary College".
There is a program that runs there part of their curriculum where students from year 8/9/10 go out of school and participate in other things to do with the outdoors and the community. Geocaching is part of this program, so you will see a lot of caches around this area with owners who have found "Some" caches.
They find a few on the day they participate in Geocaching (the different groups swap around activities) and then they only ever find more if they repeat the activity again or (decide they like Geocaching & team up with a Cacher untill they get there own GPSr).
They then have to hide one, and that is it.
"Some Teacher" is the teacher in charge of it, but does very little to no maintenance anyway.
I don't think they will want you to adopt it, I don't think they will even see your email.
Their caches will just live until they completely stop the program for the year, and then next year the same thing will repeat: more teams will pop up with new caches and they will never be seen again.

Would this be considered "Holiday"Caching?????

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Black Bunny
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Re: Caching in our Schools

Post by Black Bunny » 24 July 11 11:52 am

I see this scenario as no different to a new cacher getting all enthusiastic at the start of their involvement in caching and then their enthusiasm wanes.

I have seen new cachers rush out and place hides only to have their interest wane but do nothing with their hides. These hides are generally maintained by the wider community (if they warrant it) or end up being archived by our reviewers after they fall into the "georubbish" category.

I would hate to see a "draconian" approach taken to new members placing hides (you must have found X caches before placing one) as this is supposed to be a fun & family friendly activity.

It would be better if a local cacher became involved with the particular school and offered some guidance and support to the teacher and students who are involved.

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lemmykc
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Re: Caching in our Schools

Post by lemmykc » 24 July 11 12:53 pm

It is very interesting as even though the teacher supervises every hide, some are very good containers, some are very good spots and some are the complete opposite. Bad containers or a bad location. There is an upside to all of this..... the students are asked to learn about the point they are placing the cache, and then they place info the cache. So even though my vote is No, they shouldn't, I think it is a good idea, just unfortunately not well executed. I will too be interested in the response to this.........

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Rigger64
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Re: Caching in our Schools

Post by Rigger64 » 24 July 11 1:06 pm

Black Bunny wrote:I see this scenario as no different to a new cacher getting all enthusiastic at the start of their involvement in caching and then their enthusiasm wanes.

I have seen new cachers rush out and place hides only to have their interest wane but do nothing with their hides. These hides are generally maintained by the wider community (if they warrant it) or end up being archived by our reviewers after they fall into the "georubbish" category.

I would hate to see a "draconian" approach taken to new members placing hides (you must have found X caches before placing one) as this is supposed to be a fun & family friendly activity.

It would be better if a local cacher became involved with the particular school and offered some guidance and support to the teacher and students who are involved.
lemmykc wrote:It is very interesting as even though the teacher supervises every hide, some are very good containers, some are very good spots and some are the complete opposite. Bad containers or a bad location. There is an upside to all of this..... the students are asked to learn about the point they are placing the cache, and then they place info the cache. So even though my vote is No, they shouldn't, I think it is a good idea, just unfortunately not well executed. I will too be interested in the response to this.........
Good points from both.
Maybe the teacher in questione should read the Guidelines properly??
@ lemmykc
Yes there have been some good hides in some good spots but then some a shockers.
Maybe the Teacher Should if the cache that has been place is not going to be kept by the student maybe it should be adopted out to a cacher that wishes to adopt it to keep it going.
Just my 2c worth less Tax & GST.

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lemmykc
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Re: Caching in our Schools

Post by lemmykc » 24 July 11 2:17 pm

Rigger64 wrote:
Black Bunny wrote:I see this scenario as no different to a new cacher getting all enthusiastic at the start of their involvement in caching and then their enthusiasm wanes.

I have seen new cachers rush out and place hides only to have their interest wane but do nothing with their hides. These hides are generally maintained by the wider community (if they warrant it) or end up being archived by our reviewers after they fall into the "georubbish" category.

I would hate to see a "draconian" approach taken to new members placing hides (you must have found X caches before placing one) as this is supposed to be a fun & family friendly activity.

It would be better if a local cacher became involved with the particular school and offered some guidance and support to the teacher and students who are involved.
lemmykc wrote:It is very interesting as even though the teacher supervises every hide, some are very good containers, some are very good spots and some are the complete opposite. Bad containers or a bad location. There is an upside to all of this..... the students are asked to learn about the point they are placing the cache, and then they place info the cache. So even though my vote is No, they shouldn't, I think it is a good idea, just unfortunately not well executed. I will too be interested in the response to this.........
Good points from both.
Maybe the teacher in questione should read the Guidelines properly??
@ lemmykc
Yes there have been some good hides in some good spots but then some a shockers.
Maybe the Teacher Should if the cache that has been place is not going to be kept by the student maybe it should be adopted out to a cacher that wishes to adopt it to keep it going.
Just my 2c worth less Tax & GST.
That is a good idea, I am sure some people around our area and beyond enjoyed the caches hidden and would happily adopt them....... I know I would and you would to Rigger.

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gmj3191
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Re: Caching in our Schools

Post by gmj3191 » 24 July 11 3:29 pm

This has all been discussed before in an earlier thread, which I can't find.
The teacher knows all about the rules, and will clean up any abandoned caches after the session is concluded.
His name is patersani.

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Rigger64
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Re: Caching in our Schools

Post by Rigger64 » 24 July 11 4:58 pm

gmj3191 wrote:This has all been discussed before in an earlier thread, which I can't find.
The teacher knows all about the rules, and will clean up any abandoned caches after the session is concluded.
His name is patersani.
So in the mean time he is willing to let go to rack & ruin
Well there is one Cache That i have fixed up & Offered to Adopt But have heards nothing back from them.
As far as im coserned that is realy teaching the Students resposibity isin't it??????????????????? ](*,)

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gmj3191
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Re: Caching in our Schools

Post by gmj3191 » 24 July 11 7:35 pm

Give me a list of the caches you have concerns with Mark, and I'll follow up with him.

Captain Terror
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Re: Caching in our Schools

Post by Captain Terror » 24 July 11 7:46 pm

I voted no. I think that there are an awful lot of caches around the area, so quality has and will become more and more important than quantity. Part of hiding a cache is maintenance. You hid it, you look after it. When I hide a cache I hide it for the community. As for the point raised about this being no worse than gun-ho-newbie hiding horrid caches, I somewhat agree. Yes it is no better BUT it is preventable. As an education program that geocaching is being used in, I feel that they should also teach good placement. If that means showing guidelines for caching and not hiding one, then I feel the learning will have been done just the same. This will also tweak interest in the students to hide one and outside of school learn and grow in the geocaching community.

Absolutely well done on teaching the sport. Geocaching holds a lot of potential as it incorporates all sorts of areas, which I'm sure we're all aware of. I think half-ass participation isn't so crash hot though.

As for a minimum find before hiding, I support it. If it doesn't work it can always be lifted.

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Yurt
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Re: Caching in our Schools

Post by Yurt » 24 July 11 8:26 pm

Did you see the last Groundspeak email (last week actually) which 'recommended' new cachers find around 20-25 caches before placing a hide? I'm pretty sure noobs aren't reading that email!

What about the Scouts and Guides? They seem to place caches and often find them (without logging online a lot of the time). As they are generally outdoors-orientated organisations they are more likely to keep it up aren't they? Still may put out lame hides but if they look after them that's okay. Of course a leader would have to take responsibility as we know split responsibility is no responsibility.

I don't think there's any point in having a vote myself as there's no chance of changing Groundspeak's mind on anything is there?

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Papa Bear_Left
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Re: Caching in our Schools

Post by Papa Bear_Left » 24 July 11 9:10 pm

Yurt wrote:Did you see the last Groundspeak email (last week actually) which 'recommended' new cachers find around 20-25 caches before placing a hide? I'm pretty sure noobs aren't reading that email!
It's also in the guidelines, although I'm not sure noobs read those, either.

(Mind you, I wonder how many experienced cachers knew that this recommendation was there?)

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Rigger64
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Re: Caching in our Schools

Post by Rigger64 » 24 July 11 9:25 pm

Yeah i did know that only because im setting up a new cache & wanted to be sure i was within the guidlines.

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Re: Caching in our Schools

Post by PirateRock » 24 July 11 9:31 pm

Black Bunny wrote: ...snip...

It would be better if a local cacher became involved with the particular school and offered some guidance and support to the teacher and students who are involved.
+1 =D>

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Re: Caching in our Schools

Post by CraigRat » 24 July 11 9:53 pm

I'd think it would be better for everyone if they place caches in their school or local area and distribute information about their hides internally, not on a public site.

That way they get to play and have fun, and no-one gets upset at :
a) kids leaving stupid logs
b) cachers going and seeking caches located awfully close to or in school grounds and
c) cache maintenance issues

There's also the risk that depending on the school and type of kids that the local caches near the school might get trashed by some of the kids. This has happened in the past.

I'm aware of a couple of school and scout cache listings (on both GC and GCA) and while the scout ones seemed to go well, some of the school ones had some...umm... odd logs and such.

It is possible to teach geocaching without using a public listing site.

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Re: Caching in our Schools

Post by roundcircle » 25 July 11 1:34 pm

Should Teacher be Allowed to get Students place Caches That will only live for a few months
a> YES let Teachers to get Students to place Caches that will not get Maintained.
b> NO not let Teachers to get Students to place Caches that will not get Maintained.

I think this survey has been worded in such a way that the outcome is predetermined. Both the primary options state the cache will not be maintained, which of course is not acceptable.

It also seems that's not what's occurring, as the teacher in questions is known to the community and willing to do some follow up.

It's a topic worthy of discussion, but the survey isn't balanced.

:gnome

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