Tips for Educators: GPS Exercises

GPS can often have a steep learning curve, and therefore it is advisable to familiarize yourself and your students with GPS units and their uses, capabilities, and weaknesses.

GPS manufacturers frequently offer tutorials for their products. Excellent resources for the applications and uses of GPS units can be found through the website for Trimble GPS products, as well as Garmin's site, or the official United States Government GPS tutorial.

Other activities that can help students gain experience with GPS units would be to devise a "scavenger hunt," in which only the GPS coordinates of 4-5 points along a course near the school are given to participants. The students then input the coordinates into the GPS unit, and navigate to each one, answering a question about each stop along the course. Also, having students map their own points can give them experience with marking waypoints and tracking their routes between points.

Other tips, and ideas for laboratory activities or lesson plans are welcome, and can be submitted to us by email. We look forward to hearing from you!

Image Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/