Some of the PDFs from the class that I am teaching:
www.hoaglun.com/content/Class1.pdf
www.hoaglun.com/content/Class2.pdf
www.hoaglun.com/content/Class3.pdf
www.hoaglun.com/content/Class4.pdf
www.hoaglun.com/content/Class4_with_answers.pdf
Some of the links that I am looking at as part of research for the Middle School
class.
Before the GPS:
http://www.nasm.si.edu/gps/before.html
How does GPS work:
http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/howgpsworks.php
How does GPS work:
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/travel/gps.htm
Triangulating from Satellites:
http://www.trimble.com/gps/howgps-triangulating.shtml
Hows does GPS work:
http://www.tomtom.com/howdoesitwork/
The fourth satellite:
http://www.tomtom.com/howdoesitwork/page.php?ID=21&CID=6&Language=1
The distance of the satellites:
http://www.tomtom.com/howdoesitwork/page.php?ID=20&CID=6&Language=1
The location of the satellites:
http://www.tomtom.com/howdoesitwork/page.php?ID=19&CID=6&Language=1
How does GPS work:
http://www.tomtom.com/howdoesitwork/page.php?ID=8&CID=2&Language=1
Alternative satellite systems:
http://www.tomtom.com/howdoesitwork/page.php?ID=9&CID=2&Language=1
Heavens Above - What is above us:
http://www.heavens-above.com/
NASA - J-Track 3D:
http://science.nasa.gov/Realtime/jtrack/3d/JTrack3d.html
How does GPS "triangulation" work:
http://www.how-gps-works.com/faq/q0110.shtml
GPS - Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System
The almanac consists of coarse orbit and status information for each satellite in
the constellation, an ionospheric model, and information to relate GPS derived time
to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Words 3 through 10 of subframes 4 and 5 contain
a new part of the almanac. Each frame contains 1/25th of the almanac, so 12.5 minutes
are required to receive the entire almanac from a single satellite.
GPS satellite info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_satellite
While Cristy was doing piano lessons with the students Ben, Joe, and I escaped for
about 90 minutes of geocaching.
The second attempt at this location was much better. Thanks to our friend Kelly
for helping us on this one. The last time we were here it was frozen so the location
did not appear to hold a cache.
N 45° 07.156 W 094° 29.369
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=6eb14980-2efa-420c-a023-64494e9b1039
Ben and I were out running errands (picking up some supplies for his brother's project)
and decided to pick up a random cache while out and about. Random meaning that we
go to one of flashing POI (point of interest) in the GPS and look for the cache
without any info or hints.
After coming home it appears that several other people have not been able to find
it as recently as last weekend.
The dark color and how it was hidden make it easy to overlook while staring right
at it. Ben was really impressed with the size of the cache. It is the second smallest
that he has found. It is a fun cache because you drive right by it on the highway
but it is kind of out of the way to find a local road to get you back to the location.
It was slightly frozen in the snow/ice but we were able to free it in a couple
of minutes.
N 45° 31.077 W 094° 13.551
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GC1HDNG
Jacob, Ben, and I were out running errands this afternoon. On the way back home we
had both of the GPS units turned on. We heard a beep that indicated that there was
a cache within 5 miles. This was Jacob's first attempt at trying to find a cache.
This was a pretty neat micro cache. It was not located where I would have expected
it which was nice. While the boys were looking around I went back to the truck to
get my jacket and stumbled across it without meaning to.
Look for the unexpected and you can find it in less than 5 minutes.
N 45° 02.567 W 094° 21.283
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=7ca0812c-7823-4aab-808c-e0efb9b08d98
Ben is pretty excited as we have found 10 caches in 3 outings in just less than 30
days.
Here is a link that will bring up all of notes so far:
/Blog/CategoryView.aspx?category=Geocache
Stop 4 of the day with the boys. This was a 10 minute search as the GPS was acting
flaky as we approached the location walking on foot. Kind of a neat location. The
little school house was built in 1890 in the community of Murdock, MN.
This is a fairly new cache so the log only has a few entries so far.
Stop 3 of the day. Actually it was a not a planned stop...as we had planned to go
to a different cache in a nearby location. Our GPS beeped and told us that there
was a cache nearby so we decided to try this one with coordinates only... no background
info.
What a great park. This place is a real GEM! Groomed trails in the winter and lots
of awesome trees. We will be visiting this park again as it is only about 35 minutes
away from our home.
N 45° 08.076 W 095° 02.159
Stop 2 of the day was in Atwater. It was nice to be able to walk on top of the snow
without falling thru for a change. It was a nice warm winter day. I was wearing sneakers
and a fleece pullover. It is nice to not have to wear boots and snow pants while hunting
for a cache.
Ben and Joe walked right past this one. It was not visible but it was in the obvious
location for a level 1 cache.
N 45° 08.000 W 094° 47.113
We added TCC's 1K Travel Bug to the cache to keep the bug in motion.
http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?guid=87394f33-a141-48d8-95b4-78a8a19d1973
Nice location. It is once again another nice park in a small town that we did not
know about.
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=4e3a2515-3762-47a6-87e6-d69079a30963
Ben, Joe, and I made a day of riding in the truck taking photos and hunting for geocaches
along MN State Highway 12 in west central Minnesota.
Stop 1 of the day was in Grove City. This was a pretty quick stop. We could drive
the truck within 30 feet of the cache. Someone else had been here recently enough
that we saw some footprints in the snow. I found it (wearing my street shoes) before
Ben & Joe could even get on their snow pants and boots.
The cache was frozen so we carefully chipped away the rotten ice to remove the container.
N 45° 09.237 W 094° 40.925
I did not know that there was a park here let alone a small campground.
This is a good starter cache for a family with eager kids. It was a great way to start
the day!
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=2d25c27d-c1af-480a-8b56-861308ec64dd
