KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Boy scouts in the metro are getting an upgrade in how they learn to navigate.
The scouts are using global positioning system technology to participate in geo-caching.
It's the 21st century version of a scavenger hunt. Another cub scout meeting in the park with their troop numbers proudly stitched into their uniforms. Boys huddle for another lesson in life. But this isn't your father's boy scouts.
"I've known how to do a computer since I was one,” said 9-year-old Becker Truster.
Today's tech savvy bunch is learning geocaching. Metro based Garmin donated 40 of its Geeko GPS devices to local scout troops to spark an interest in the practice that began 10 years ago.
"It's great to see these boys grab the technology without me even having to tell them how to use it," said Jake Jacobson of Garmin.
Geocaching is basically a high tech scavenger hunt. Scouts plug in longitude and latitude coordinates into the device and try to find items placed by the person before them.
"It's kind of an update from the Silva compass days and exciting to see kids outside doing things," said Randy Kidder with The Heart of America Council.
There are more than 900,000 geocach sites in the world, of which half are in the United States. The coordinates are posted online. The item can't be buried in the ground but people get creative in their hiding spots. This exercise has the scouts hunting for silver coins.
"If we can get this tech savvy generation off the couch and outdoors and leaning about the environment at the same time it's a win for everybody," said Jacobson.
This taste of the technology seems only the beginning.
"I think the goal is to find all the geocaches that are possible to find," said Truster.
Next year, the Boy Scouts plan to make geocaching into a merit badge activity.
