Past Activities

Pirate Geo-Caching at Blackbird Creek Reserve
(4/24/2008)

Shiver me timbers! Participants experienced the Blackbird Creek Reserve as they discovered the beauty of one of the more pristine waterways in Delaware. This swashbucklin' geo-cache adventure journeyed with the legendary Blackbeard to explore this beautiful estuarine system.

A Photographic and Geospatial Exploration of
The First State Heritage Park at Dover (5/3/2007)

The GIS Conference Committee and The First State Heritage Park at Dover hosted a geo-scavenger hunt among the many historical and cultural sites in Dover that make up Delaware's first "park without boundaries."

Participants formed small teams, equipped with GPS units and digital cameras. A course made up of geospatial coordinates led them around the Park, which included much of Dover's historic district.

At each coordinate stop, they were presented with clues that led them to some factor or facet relating to Delaware history. Their task was to capture photographic evidence that they found at their targets.

In addition, teams were encouraged to capture photographs of the park itself, annotated with GPS coordinates, to be turned over to Park staff to develop an on-line, virtual tour of the park.

The day of exploration included a picnic lunch on Dover's historic Green and was hosted by park interpreters in historic 18th century dress.

photos by Mike Mahaffie

Back to the Future with GPS and GIS (Newark 1937)
(6/2/2006)

Instructors: Tracy DeLiberty (UD Department of Geography) and Tom McKenna (Delaware Geological Survey)

Participants received hands-on experience collecting GPS data in the field, assessing data quality, and migrating data into a GIS.  The workshop was designed for GIS users with little or no GPS experience.

The morning session included:

• lectures on the fundamentals of GPS
• field data collection
• data reduction to a GIS format in the computer lab (e.g., downloading, differential correction, filtering, exporting to GIS)

The afternoon session was a hands-on GPS navigation scramble in Newark to complement topics learned in the morning. A GPS unit and a 1937 aerial photograph was used to navigate "Back to The Future” to landmarks and natural features and visualize  the “Patterns of Change” in Newark.

Photos courtesy of the News Journal/Thomas M. Nutter

Caching in on Cape History
(4/22/2005)

Explore the history of Cape Henlopen in a fun interactive program: a new twist on geocaching!

Participants used GPS units to locate coordinates of important historical and natural history significance at Cape Henlopen State Park. This outdoor adventure guided participants to interpretive stops as they discovered the history of Cape Henlopen.