Easter Egg hunts - the GPS way

The traditional Easter Egg hunt went high-tech at one Southern California elementary school this weekend. The News Observer reports that at New Hope Elementary School, first and third graders were in hot pursuit of the plastic eggs not by using their keen eyesight but by checking the coordinates on a GPS unit.

The group of New Hope students ran back and forth across school grounds in search of a dozen eggs while fifth-grader Patrick Wooton called our position numbers.

"It can't be that egg. It says 90 [feet]," Patrick said. "Now we're getting a lot lower!" he continued. "30 feet away."

Once the eggs were found, the students cracked them open and had to answer questions related to spring, such as estimating the temperature outside.

First-grade teacher Stacy Lee teamed up with fifth-grade teacher Amy White and the school's technology specialist to to hide the eggs and load the information into the GPS devices before they began.

As GPS units become more common in schools, teachers have come up with some innovative way to incorporate them into curriculum. The Orange County Schools district bought 32 handheld GPS devices in December with a federal grant.