Geocaching
Resources
- Geocaching Workbook
- Be Prepared (App)
- Scoutmaster Bucky's Merit Badge Advancement Quick Reference
- Scoutmaster Bucky's Acknowledgement Form
Geocaching Requirements Current Scouts BSA requirements
as of March 8, 2025
as of March 8, 2025
1.
Do the following:
a.
Explain to your counselor the most likely hazards you may encounter
while participating in geocaching activities, and what you should do to
anticipate, help prevent, mitigate, and respond to these hazards.
b.
Discuss first aid and prevention for the types of injuries or illnesses
that could occur while participating in geocaching activities,
including cuts, scrapes, snakebite, insect stings, tick bites, exposure
to poisonous plants, heat and cold reactions (sunburn, heatstroke, heat
exhaustion, hypothermia), and dehydration.
c.
Discuss how to properly plan an activity that uses GPS, including using
the buddy system, sharing your plan with others, and considering the
weather, route, and proper attire.
2.
Discuss the following with your counselor:
a.
Why you should never bury a cache
b.
How to use proper geocaching etiquette when hiding or seeking a cache,
and how to properly hide, post, maintain, and dismantle a geocache
c.
The Leave No Trace Seven Principles and the Outdoor Code as they apply
to geocaching.
3.
Explain the following terms used in geocaching: waypoint, log, cache,
accuracy, difficulty and terrain ratings, attributes, trackable. Choose
five additional terms to explain to your counselor.
4.
Explain how the Global Positioning System (GPS) works. Then, using
Scouting's Teaching EDGE, demonstrate to your counselor the use of a GPS
unit. Include marking and editing a waypoint, changing field functions, and
changing the coordinate system in the unit.
5.
Do the following:
a.
Show you know how to use a map and compass and explain why this is
important for geocaching.
b.
Explain the similarities and differences between GPS navigation and
standard map-reading skills and describe the benefits of each.
6.
Describe to your counselor the four steps to finding your first cache. Then
mark and edit a waypoint.
7.
With your parent or guardian's permission*, go to www.geocaching.com Type in your
city and state to locate public geocaches in your area. Share with your
counselor the posted information about three of those geocaches. Then,
pick one of the three and find the cache.
* To fulfill this requirement, you will need to set up a free user
account with www.Geocaching.com.
Before doing so, ask your parent for permission and help.
8.
Do ONE of the following:
a.
If a Cache to Eagle® series exists in your council, visit at
least three of the locations in the series. Describe the projects that
each cache you visit highlights, and explain how the Cache to
Eagle® program helps share our Scouting service with the
public.
b.
Create a Scouting-related Travel Bug® that promotes one of
the values of Scouting. "Release" your Travel Bug into a public
geocache and, with your parent or guardian's permission, monitor its
progress at www.geocaching.com for 30 days.
Keep a log, and share this with your counselor at the end of the 30-day
period.
c.
Set up and hide a public geocache, following the guidelines in the
Geocaching merit badge pamphlet. Before doing so, share with your
counselor a three-month maintenance plan for the geocache where you are
personally responsible for those three months. After setting up the
geocache, with your parent or guardian's permission, follow the logs
online for 30 days and share them with your counselor. You must archive
the geocache when you are no longer maintaining it.
d.
Explain what Cache In Trash Out (CITO) means, and describe how you have
practiced CITO at public geocaches or at a CITO event. Then, either
create CITO containers to leave at public caches, or host a CITO event
for your unit or for the public.
9.
Plan a geohunt for a youth group such as your troop or a neighboring pack,
at school, or your place of worship. Choose a theme, set up a course with
at least four waypoints, teach the players how to use a GPS unit, and play
the game. Tell your counselor about your experience, and share the
materials you used and developed for this event.
