C9

Erin Dwyer
For the Telegraph-Journal

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HAMPTON - Hampton Middle School is hoping to "cache" in on a growing hobby.

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KâtÈ LeBlanc/Telegraph-Journal

Theresa Ketchum-Boudreau, left, and Belinda Oram are involved in a project with Hampton Middle School called Hampton Goes Global. The project recently received $40,000 in funding from the province.

It's called geocaching, a high-tech game - part sport and part scavenger hunt - that has spread like wildfire around the world since it began in 2000.

The school recently received a $40,000 grant from the province's Innovative Learning Fund to develop a website using the Global Positioning System to highlight historically and culturally significant locations in the Hampton area.

Every student in Hampton Middle School, as well as two classes at Hampton Elementary School, will help to come up with a list of possible sites.

They will then research, write descriptions and create podcasts on some 30 chosen locations whose GPS co-ordinates will be posted on a website the students develop.

The website will be linked to that of the Town of Hampton, which is a partner in the project.

"Because geocaching is the cool thing to do, we thought we'd do this project," said Belinda Oram, the District 6 technology mentor.

"And it's a huge project. We are very excited about it."

Geocaching uses the satellite-based navigational network developed in the early 1960s by the U.S. Defense Department to pinpoint locations on the face of the planet.

In 2000, the Clinton administration unscrambled the secure satellite signals, making GPS units for civilians accurate within several metres.

To celebrate the move, a man from Portland, Ore., hid a Tupperware box full of small, kitchy items in a remote location and posted its co-ordinates on the Internet.

Within days, another GPS owner found the cache and began a website.

Geocaching.com is now considered the official website of the sport. When it first went online in July 2000, it listed 75 caches.

This month, there are 698,627 around the world, including four already in Hampton.

By next May, the school hopes to add another 30, which will direct people with a portable GPS and a list of clues to possible places such as Frost Mountain, the Kings County Courthouse and the Hampton Marsh.

"So if people want to take their GPS and put in the co-ordinates, they can come to Hampton and be their own tour guide and use these to guide them to significant places," Oram said.

As part of the Hampton Goes Global project, the school will receive eight new Smart Boards, whose software will allow classrooms to virtually meet with other classrooms working on the project.

Oram said the project will benefit both the students and the town.

Students will learn the latest in technology, from Microsoft Publishing and website development to the Global Positioning System and podcasts.

Through their research, they will learn the history and culture of the local area.

They will gain literacy skills by writing about the 30 or so cache locations and developing posters and brochures promoting the website, and they will be developing connections with their community by surveying residents about possible cache locations.

"It's also promoting relationships between older people, the school and the community," Oram said.

As for the town, it's just another way to promote it as a place to visit and explore, which should boost tourism for the area.

"We are going to promote all the unique things about Hampton," Oram said.

The school hopes to have the website online by May, when it will host a heritage fair celebrating the Hampton area.