Report Copyright Infringement View in OSM UK

Description

Demonstration of how GPS is in our everyday lives and using what.three.words as a way to show the power of this technology.

Resources

Leaders - need a leader or two , or leader and parent helper, both with a smartphone with the what.three.words app installed. Somewhere outside with enough space to hide a leader and a scout from the rest of of group.
Search and rescue principles from other badge resources to show the basis of the exercise.

Instructions

Create two teams from the group, one team are responsible for hiding, the other must find the chosen member(s). From the first team, select a scout and the leader/helper to go outside and hide somewhere far enough away that they cannot be seen immediately.
The second group, after waiting for 5 mins, use the basic search and rescue techniques to find the 'hiders' - they agree in their group which approach they will use from the option provided to them from the Search and Rescue resource guide. If using sight and sound, they must listen out for audible clues to help to locate the 'hiders'.
This group team leader must time the team from the start of their mission to find the 'hiders', to the point they are located.

Once both groups are back together, the teams swap activities - hiders become seekers, and vice versa. This time, the hiders go outside and find somewhere obscure to hide, then once they are successfully hidden, they make a call to the other group (leader or helper's phone to the other leader/helper). Using the what.three.words app, the hider provides the what.three.words location code to the other team.

The other team, as soon as the call comes in, start their timer. They open the what.three.words app, type in the code given to them, then using the phone to guide them, go out to search for the hiders. Once found, the timer stops.

When both teams are back at base, they compare the two times - basic search and rescue vs. GPS enabled search and rescue to see the difference in time between the two.

With this comparison, the group discuss the merits and benefits of the app, having a GPS enabled device in your pocket (for those with their own or access to a smart phone) and how this technology enabled emergency services to be far more responsive and what this means to those in trouble.

Talk about other aspects of GPS in daily life - emergency call system on the Apple Watch, GPS data in vehicles - for insurance, to track if stolen etc.

Tags

• navigation
• emergency scenarios
• emergency services
• gps
• mapreading
• search and rescue
• technology

Badge Links

• Emergency Aid - 999
• Geocaching - GPS benefits
• Navigator - Locate