Catching by Geocaching

In current situation very often a stakeholders of youth work (NGO's, trainers, youth workers, youth leaders) feels a lack of new innovative, interactive and attractive methods to deal with different topics and to give an opportunity for young people to develop the Key competences for Lifelong Learning in Europe. Not all “old” methods appropriate to new challenges. Thus, youth work providers missing methods that can help to develop digital and basic competences in science and technology. The recent development of European educational field shows that programs has to engage local communities broadly. Youth organizations from Lithuania Lentvario parko renesansas (Lentvaris park renaissance) and Kūrybinės raiškos centras (Centre for Creative Expression) in cooperation with partners from Germany Evangelische Akademie Sachsen-Anhalt e.V., who has extensive experience in using geocaching in work with young people in Germany decided to bring, test and spread this new tool in a field of European youth work. Aim: To enable 27 trainers, youth workers and youth leaders use geocaching as a young people experiential learning tool. Objectives: - To introduce GPS navigation equipment: - GPS history - GPS coordinate system - Key pad - Mapping system To reflect on experiential learning: - Principles and theories of experiential learning - Outdoor education - To share participants experience - Result of experiential learning in geocaching (social and IT competences) To analyze possibilities to use geocaching as a method to deal with these topics: - Local communities development - Intercultural learning - “Green” skills and habits of youth workers - Cultural heritage exploration and preservation - European citizenship To experience geocaching practically and theoretically: - The phenomenon of worldwide treasure hunting game - Understand the principles of geocaching - Hide and locate geocaches - Learn about types of geocaches - Use geocaching internet platforms (www.geocaching.com, www.opencaching.de) To prepare at least 2 projects under “Youth in action” programme using geocaching. Pratice period: During the practice period (~9mounths) participants will implement different local or international activities using geocaching as a method. They will be invited to share their experiences in e-learning platform. According to participants practice period success additional evaluation meeting might be organised in 2012, Lithuania About geocaching: Geocaching is an outdoor activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches" or "caches", anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook where the geocacher enters the date he found it. Larger containers such as plastic storage containers can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value. Geocaching is often described as a "game of high-tech hide and seek," sharing many aspects with benchmarking, trig pointing, orienteering, hunting, letterboxing, and way marking. Geocaches are currently placed in over 100 countries around the world and on all seven continents, including Antarctica. After 10 years of activity there are over 1.2 million active geocaches published on various websites devoted to the activity. More about geocaching: http://www.geocaching.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocaching