Before the meeting: 

1. Ask the parents and legal guardians in your den if anyone has previously or currently geocached.  If not check with other families in the pack.  If you find a parent or legal guardian who does ask them if they would assist with this activity.  
2. Secure enough smart devices so you have one for every two Cub Scouts. 
3. Charge all devices and have backup chargers for devices. 
4. Check that each device has a GPS or location service and that location services are turned on.  
5. Go to Geocaching site and create an account. Download the app to your smart device. 
6. Become familiar with geocaching and review the information on the website. 
7. Inform parents and legal guardians in the den to visit the website, create an account, and download the app. 
8. Identify an area that has geocaches to find in your local area. 
9. Secure additional adult supervision as needed. 
10. If you need to move the meeting location to get close to geocaches, make sure to inform Cub Scouts, parents, and legal guardians of the date, time, and location of the meeting. 

During the meeting: 

1. Gather the Cub Scouts and have them buddy up. 
2. Explain the basics of GPS. 
   • Share with the Cub Scouts that their smart device is able to locate where they are by a system called GPS.  GPS stands for Global Positioning System and is a satellite-based radio navigation system owned and operated by the United States government.  
   • Before GPS if you want to find a location on a flat surface, all you need are two pieces of information: one to tell you the location based on vertical, and one giving the location based on horizontal.  
   • Bring out the paper map and show that the vertical is called longitude (lines that go north and south), and the horizontal is called latitude (lines that go east and west). When you have the latitude and longitude, you can place a location on a map. (use your fingers to demonstrate this by dragging one finger across a longitude and one across a latitude until they meet.)  
   • Latitude and longitude are divided in degrees (°), minutes (‘), and seconds (“). There are 60 minutes in a degree and 60 seconds in a minute (similar to measuring time). Each degree of latitude is about 69 miles apart. The most accurate location would be using degrees, minutes, and seconds. This gets the distance between coordinates to within 105.6 feet. 
   • Explain that GPS can pinpoint a location to within 16 feet.   Ask Cub Scouts if they were trying to find something would they rather have to look around within 105 feet or 16 feet? 
   • To be accurate, GPS uses a method called trilateration. Trilateration is determining a position by knowing your distance from at least three known points. When your GPS device receives a signal from at least three satellites, this gives the distance to each satellite and a very accurate location. 
   • Now that Cub Scouts understand the basics of how GPS works, explain to them that there is a worldwide game called geocaching and that it’s like a treasure hunt where people hide containers called caches and you try to find them.  When you do find a cache, you may find a prize or little treasure, if you do, you can trade by taking one item and putting one of your items in.  We have Cub Scout patches for you to place in any caches you may find. 
   • Have Cub Scouts open up the geocaching app and look for caches that are nearby.  Have additional adult supervision who will supervise each buddy group. 
   • Give Cub Scouts 30 or more minutes to geocache. 
   • When the time is up, gather the Cub Scouts and have them share what they found and what they liked best.