Inside the Geocache your Watershed Project

What is a Geocache?

Geocaching is an adventure game for Global Positioning System (GPS) users (like high-tech hide and seek or treasure hunting). The basic idea is that individuals and organizations all over the world have set up caches and then share their locations on the Internet. GPS users use these location coordinates to find the caches.

A cache is usually made of a waterproof container with a logbook and 'prizes' inside. Once the cache is found, the logbook is signed, and the visitor gets to take a prize as long as they leave something new. Geocaches can be set up in the wilderness, or in urban areas, and can provide geocachers with a number of different experiences.

Our Goal

The goal of this project is to promote the discovery of local watersheds by students and the general public. The basic concept is to encourage high schools throughout Canada to research their watershed and develop stories or other promotional products that will be used to build geocaches. The students will then hide these caches for the ever-growing "geocacher" community to discover - allowing their knowledge to be transferred in a fun and engaging way. Environment Canada's Know Your Watershed section established in 2005, will serve as an important resource for researching watershed information and providing Geocache Your Watershed material for students and teachers.

Some ideas and goals of this project...

• Provide the public (particularly youth) with information about their watershed and encourage their own outdoor discovery.
• Allow students to research and develop their own watershed stories and hide them in the geocache. These caches will also have web links to existing information such as the Know Your Watershed section and Environment Canada's Water section.
• Allow the development and transfer of water information among educational institutions at the high school level.
• Build upon the success of the Reseau section.
• Engage students to discover their watershed and encourage the public to seek data and information on their watershed and become aware of their natural surroundings as they relate to water.