Garmin Helps Save the Manatees

Garmin is the first GPS company to post "manatee zones" on its navigational charts of Florida, in an effort to keep boat propellers from harming the blubbery beasts and their habitat.  We worked with the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Tampa Bay Estuary Program's Manatee Awareness Coalition to compile the data, and it's now available pre-loaded and free of charge on any new Garmin chartplotter.

In addition, we're including data for posted homeland security zones (military installations and the like) in Florida... which could potentially save your own bacon.

Peg’s Posts: Customer stories from Sea Otter Classic

In a post earlier this week, I told you how much I love talking to customers at events like Sea Otter Classic and hearing their tales of adventure, training and competition. Meet a big-time Garmin fan who has guidance by Garmin everywhere and every way he travels. Jerry from San Ramon has owned an Edge 305 and immediately upgraded to the 605 with maps when it hit stores just a few weeks ago. He uses his new 605 with our topo cartography for extra detail to guide his 2-wheeled adventures. He also owns a GPSMAP 60Cx handheld, a nüvi 680 for his vehicle and a Garmin GPSMAP 430S, which is a combo chartplotter and sounder for water-bound excursions. Follow the jump for more customer stories and photos.

Peg’s Posts: Garmin loves its customers, they love their Garmins

One of the greatest parts of my job is attending events like Sea Otter and talking to our customers. Hearing their stories about how they’re using our devices to give their training an edge, pace themselves for their next race or bike their way across the U.S. for a cause. Here’s a look at just a few of the customers I talked to at the show. Cathy visited our booth on the first day of the show. She just came by to tell us how much she loves her Forerunner 305, which she uses for running and cycling. Her husband said she essentially won’t run without it, and when the time came to purchase a GPS for their car, Cathy said she’d settle for nothing less than a Garmin. She also heaped praise on Garmin’s tech support for our online analysis site, MotionBased.

Here’s Matt, from Sacramento, who’ll be racing in today’s single-speed cross country race. He came by to get the course downloaded to his Edge 305. Check out the course maps Garmin created for all of the Sea Otter events, which gives athletes the chance to preview the route and see detailed course metrics online, then download to their Edge or Forerunner for course points and real-time pacing during the event. Next is Lisa, from Redlands who, along with her Edge 305, won the short-track event on Friday. Way to go Linda! Saving the best for last, you’ve gotta hear about Chris from Ventura, California.

Wherigo winner gets his coin - and we get to play

In the spirit of showing up on a sweepstakes winner's front porch with balloons, a TV camera and an oversized check, we wanted to do something special for our first weekly winner of the Wherigo Builder Contest. So with a Colorado 400t, his digital camera and a Colorado/Wherigo geocoin in hand - we couldn't find an oversized check - Brad the Engineer traveled to California to meet the creative mind behind "Murder in the Outfield."

Turns out "Murder" has some back story to it. David Brewer, who caches under the name cache_in_pocket, was tipping his hat to a tongue-in-cheek feud with caching friends. And David's mystery was intriguing and entertaining enough to earn him a limited edition Colorado/Wherigo geocoin. To join David as a weekly winner, read up on the rules, build a cartridge at Wherigo.com and send us an e-mail with a link and brief description. Each week's deadline is Tuesday at noon Central.

Geocaching at School

"The Instructional Technology Department of Richmond County Schools in Hamlet, NC has really gotten excited about taking the fast growing hobby of Geocaching and using it as a tool for enhancing instruction. About this time last year, two of my instructional technology facilitators and I attended a workshop on Geocaching. Were we ever excited about the possibilities for our school system!

"When we returned home, we started planning our staff development sessions for educators in Richmond County. We purchased 15 Garmin eTrex Legend GPS units, rechargeable batteries, and battery chargers. Then we scheduled classes. We were determined to use this exciting new tool to enhance the teaching of required curriculum areas as well as introduce the use of the GPS. Participants in our class were introduced to the sport of Geocaching, given background information about how the GPS works, and instructed about the operation and various components of our units. Then they had to locate a number of caches that had been hidden on the school grounds and reflect on their experience. Their next task was to use their creative talents and design caches for their fellow classmates to discover. Finally, they were to create a Geocaching lesson that they could use with their students. Wouldn’t you know that all our extensive, meticulous planning for this wonderful outdoor activity occurred on a day that was gloomy with torrential rains!!! But I told them, “Our GPS units are waterproof!” Even though the participants informed me that they were not waterproof, they put on their parkas and raincoats, grabbed their umbrellas, and off they went searching for treasure. Even with the deluge of rain I had teachers telling me that this was the “best workshop” they had ever attended!

"Our educational Geocaching differs from the sport of Geocaching in that all of the cache finds are directly related to what the teachers are required to teach. For example, in one cache which was located in a tree farm were leaves from different trees that they were to identify. Another cache contained a plastic gray squirrel, a box turtle, a pine needle, a picture of a dogwood blossom, and a picture of the cardinal – they were identifying the state symbols of North Carolina. A third cache was hidden at the base of the school mascot – a great big tiger! In the cache were a tape measure and worksheet and the participants had to measure the tiger’s right paw, his smile, and his right foot. Then they had to measure the same things on each of the team members. Upon returning to class they were to enter the measurements into a spreadsheet and create a graph showing the proportion of the team’s measurements with those of the tiger. These were simple activities, but through the excitement of geocaching, ones that will reinforce learning for our students.

"I’ll be sharing more of our adventures later. I also hope to share with you some of the preparation activities that go into creating a successful professional development activity."

-S. Griffin

Have an interesting testimonial about how you've used Geocaching in the classroom? Send a story and photo to garminblogs@garmin.com. We can't wait to hear from you!