Freshman William Lindo is placed randomly on a map with the other club members looking closely to find any clues to where he might be. As the other members of the Geoguessr club argue and try to fake each other out on where on the map they are, the pin reveals itself on the map and cheers erupt from the people who guessed close on the map. 

Geoguessr, an online game where a player is given a place on Google Maps and has to guess where they are in the world, has a club held every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 p.m. in geography Todd Carpenter’s class. The club plays a competition option where the members join one game and play against the other. The winner is determined by who gets the closest after a number of rounds. 

“You can experience team work or rivalry in a fun competition setting and better learn geography,” freshman William Lindo said. “I’ve learned to identify regions just from what they look like better by playing.”

Carpenter and geography teacher Austen Crane already use Geoguessr in their classrooms as a brain break for their students. Some students showed interest in playing and the club formed. 

“It focuses on identifying domain names on ads and the colors of license plates,” Carpenter said. “What we teach them is how to identify ecosystems and use deductive reasoning to ascertain a general location, and then use the other techniques to try to hone in on a more specific location. It exposes the group to true unstaged imagery of the world that leads to more understanding of the elements of geography.”

To know where a player is on the map they can look at street signs, people, plants, architecture and the surrounding area to get an idea. There are also different modes of the game where you can narrow down the map to certain locations like famous places, cities, countries and continents. 

“Students learn skills like deductive reasoning through clues such as recognizing biomes, natural features, city models and layouts, cultural markers, road signs, and language clues,” Carpenter said. [They also learn] critical thinking through the use of context clues, inferences, and comparative thinking. It is so much fun that nobody even realizes that they are learning.”