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 ONE DAY ACTIVITY: GPS SCAVENGER HUNT |
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THEME: GPS SCAVENGER HUNT
OBJECTIVE: Perform a 6 to 8 hour GPS scavenger hunt within a local wildlife area.
GOAL: Several goals:
1. Youth perform a GPS scavenger hunt using waypoints to navigate to interesting wildlife/geographic locations.
2. Youth to practice Leave No Trace principles while following GPS waypoints using trails
3. Identify habitats in sensitive wildlife areas.
TEACHING RESOURCES: backpack stoves, Trail maps and GPS units. Animal / plant / bird identification sheets. Leave no trace checklist. Field Guides for wildlife and tree/shrub identification
MISC RESOURCES: Small day packs, Tarpaulins for shelters, pens/papers for documenting wildlife and trees/shrubs
LEADER PREPARATION: Leaders must have outdoor skills experience in setup and navigation of GPS units, map reading, stoves, cooking, Leave No Trace and must be versed in tree/wildlife habitat identification.
Leaders must be familiar with use of "Google Maps" and generation of GPS files that can be imported/exported to/from GPS units.
High Level Overview.
1. Leaders and scouts gather at start point
2. Parents/Leaders drive to the Kanata March Highland Trails in Kanata High Tech area
3. Break into patrols, distribute equipment evenly between youth in the patrols
4. Setup GPS units and confirm all are registering correctly. Obtain the different GPS waypoints/paths/maps for each patrol.
5. Scout Patrols depart into trails following different paths. (2 hour walk to a common meeting point for lunch)
6. While on the hike, Scout youth note wildlife/habitats/trees/shrubs they come across (for Chief scout requirements)
7. Scout Patrols meet up at the "common area" for lunch.
8. Break for lunch - Setup a sheet of plastic for shelter for protection against wind
9. Cook lunch behind shelter on backpack stoves and practice Leave no trace principles.
10. Build an Innukshuk from loose rock for a picture opportunity
11. End of lunch break. Patrols are given different GPS waypoints and a GPS Quiz.
12. Patrols depart on trails to identify GPS waypoints and to document what they find. (3 hour GPS scavenger hike)
13: Patrols meet back at an assigned destination point
14. Scores from Quiz counted up and a winning patrol declared.
15. Drive home with stop at Tim Hortons for hot chocolate.
COST TO PARENTS: Packed lunch and $2 for a hot chocolate drink at Tim Hortons on the drive home.
YOUTH PREPARATION: The youth had to be dressed appropriately. Ditty bag, survival kit
**SPECIAL NOTE**
We ran this event on the last weekend in November just after the first snow fall so it was cold, windy and damp.
This event took 9 hours to complete - mainly because the lunch time break took longer than we had anticipated and the Scavenger hunt took longer than we had anticipated. Our GPS devices indicated that some of the patrols walked 16Km.
The scouts were exhaused at the end of the hike - but all thoroughly enjoyed the outing and the hot chocolate drink on the way home made it special for them.
The highlight of the day was discovering a Canada Goose that had been freshly killed by an animal. We came across the goose shortly after it had been killed as the blood was still fresh and the wild cat tracks were fresh in the snow. The scouts were really intrigued when we told them that the animal that killed the Canada Goose was likely in hiding and watching the scout youth as they examined the fresh kill. We suggested that perhaps it was looking at the scouts as a possible meal. After this little episode the scouts hurried on, wiser in the ways of the animal food chain.
We used this activity to touch on many of the Chief Scout Voyageur and Pathfinder Outdoor requirements.
THEME: NOTES ABOUT THE ATTACHEMENTS
There is an Emergency/Action plan. This document is the approved plan from 1st Stittsville Delta Troop. Use it as you see fit, however your own Group Commissioner will need to approve it.
The GPX files work on Google Earth. Start Google Earth and then drag / drop them into the application and you will see the ALL of the Kanata March Highland Trails that we mapped out for this activity. Please note that there are over 30Km of trails. We did nto travel over them all.
The "Miscellaneous-GPS-trails.zip" file contains a variety of GPX/KMZ files which were generated by our GPS units as we walked trails in Kanata and mapped out trails for our scout youth
| Description: |
ZIP file
Containing GPX/KMZ files for trails in Kanata. |
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Download |
| Filename: |
Miscellaneous-GPS-Trails.zip |
| Filesize: |
60.65 KB |
| Downloaded: |
28 Time(s) |
| Description: |
ZIP file
Containing images of maps. |
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Download |
| Filename: |
GPS-Scavenger-hunt-misc-files.zip |
| Filesize: |
2.44 MB |
| Downloaded: |
32 Time(s) |
| Description: |
PPT File
Maps showing the emergency pick up points that we would use if there was an issue. These iamges are in the Emergency plan. |
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Download |
| Filename: |
Emergency Pick up Points.ppt |
| Filesize: |
1.08 MB |
| Downloaded: |
26 Time(s) |
| Description: |
PPT FILE
Various maps that we generated for our scout youth to use |
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Download |
| Filename: |
MAPS OF KANATA MARCH HIGHLANDS.ppt |
| Filesize: |
2.54 MB |
| Downloaded: |
39 Time(s) |
| Description: |
PDF file
This is a map of the Kanata March Highland trails that was kindly supplied by the Kanata Mountain Biking Association (KMB). We used this map as a basis for recces and then building our own GPS trails. |
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Download |
| Filename: |
Kanata Mountain Biking Trails.pdf |
| Filesize: |
1.08 MB |
| Downloaded: |
28 Time(s) |
| Description: |
ZIP file
Containing 4 documents.
2 x BMP images of trails
2 x GPS files
(GPS-Trails-final.gpx)
(My-places-start-final.gpx) |
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Download |
| Filename: |
Cleaned-up-Scavenger-Hunt-GPX-files-and-Trail-Maps.zip |
| Filesize: |
132.63 KB |
| Downloaded: |
27 Time(s) |
| Description: |
ZIP file
Containing the following three MSWORD DOCS
1. GPS Scavenger hunt Environmental Ethics document
2. GPS Scavenger hunt questions
3. Tree/birds/wildflower questions |
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Download |
| Filename: |
GPS-Scavenger-Hunt-Program-Requirements.zip |
| Filesize: |
4.55 MB |
| Downloaded: |
28 Time(s) |
| Description: |
MSWORD DOC
Emergency/Action Plan for this activity |
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Download |
| Filename: |
Emergency-Plan-GPS-SCavengerHunt-Nov28-v003.doc |
| Filesize: |
2.2 MB |
| Downloaded: |
28 Time(s) |
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  Tue May 10, 2011 9:26 pm |
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