Escaping down into a canyon to treasure hunt isn’t something you get to do in many clubs. But if leading an exploration Indiana Jones style is what you’ve always wanted, then Geography Club is for you.

At the start of the school year, Geography Club helps you prepare for the school wide Geography Bee, usually held in November. Geography Bee is a fast paced competition where you answer questions about geography.  If you are accepted from the quiz you take in advisory, you get to participate in the school wide competition. Those who place in the top few get to move on to the next round, the regional competition, and and then on to national. Most members of the Geography Club make it to the school wide competition.

After the Geography Bee ends, the club members start geocaching. Geocaching is pretty much a developed version of treasure hunting. Each week, members go into the canyon behind the school and  find the many geocaches hidden behind there. Anyone can hide and make their own caches, as long as they log it into geocaching.com. There are ones hidden in between rocks, in tree trunks, under sticks, pretty much everywhere. We take a GPS that has the coordinates of the geocache fixed into the system and have it lead us there. Since the GPS isn’t very accurate, we have to look around within 10 feet of the location. This is where the fun begins. Try to look for something unusual like a rock out of place or a piece of bark missing from a tree. This is usually a notification that the geocache is there. Then it is all about observing and searching.

Last year, our own Geography Club hid a homemade, waterproof geocache called the Nutty Cache. It is a cache shaped like a peanut that was hidden in the trunk of a tree.

The club members also get to learn about the diverse cultures all around the world. During the end of the first semester and the end of school, they have a Geography Club party. Everyone brings a food from their culture and they get to enjoy the exotic foods.

Whether you are interested in learning more about world cultures, or just purely enjoying the fun of geocaching, Geography Club is definitely a fun way to spend your after school hours. It meets every other Thursday in Ms. Callender’s room (306) from 3:45 p.m. to 4:30 pm, so feel free to drop by anytime. Geography Club is a great way to socialize but still learn at the same time.