On most days, the playground and soccer field behind Brighton’s Council Rock Primary School are just a place to laugh, smile and have some fun for the many students who play there. But on Nov. 29, the area turned into an educational tool, helping students take a walk through the past.

In an activity 50 years in the making, second-graders used some new-age technology to learn more about the school as part of its yearlong celebration of its 50th anniversary.

Blending today’s technology with history lessons of the past, about 20 children got their hands on global positioning system units — the same kind of GPS technology that we use in our cars to find out where we are and where we’re going — to take a walk down memory lane.

Despite the decades difference between their age and the opening of the school, students were chatterboxes of excitement as the remote-sized instruments were handed out.

Shouting out “cool” and showing off the bright green GPS units to one another, the second-graders tested out the compasses on the technology by doing a quick lap around the group or swinging their bodies back and forth to see what happened when they moved.

“I liked (that) we can use the technology because ... it was cool,” said Felipe Hanuch, 7.

Leading the activity was Brian Smith, an instructional technology specialist for Monroe No. 1 BOCES. Smith programmed specific points into the GPS units around the playground to which the students had to go. Once they were in the spot, they had to find a hidden clue that taught them about something from the school’s history.

First, students found a box that contained a railroad spike from tracks that used to sit alongside the school. Now, the tracks are gone and the space is a walking trail. Judy Wegman, an extended studies teacher for Council Rock, explained to students what the spike was used for and gave some history about the tracks.

“I like that there used to be a train next to the school,” said Maggie Lytle, 7. “It was fun to find the treasure and learn what used to be at the school.”

From there, it was off to a nearby maple tree, which was growing in its spot before the school was even built. To learn how old the tree is, students used a tape measure to find out the circumference and later used those findings in the classroom to estimate the tree’s age.

Wegman said that the activity was important because, not only did it blend multiple lessons from the classroom, it managed to introduce new technology to many of the students.

“We want to expose kids to as much technology as possible because it’s in their life at home and we want it to be part of their learning life at school,” she said. “We’re in an information age now and information is coming at them from all directions and they're going to be exposed to all kinds of technology. If we want them to be using (technology) in meaningful ways, we have to start at a very young age teaching them that there is a purpose for a specific type of technology.”

Smith also pointed out the need to get younger kids interested in new technology, especially something like a GPS unit. He said people of all ages already see GPS in cars, boats and airplanes so they’re already partly aware of it. It’s just a matter of turning that into a fun, learning experience.

“At the primary level, it’s more about exposure and especially something like GPS ... they can be exposed to it in a useful way in schools,” he said.

During the activity, some students proudly admitted they had used GPS before. Rachel Wager, 7, who learned about GPS in Girl Scouts, said she had fun with Council Rock’s version, although the “treasures” she found this time around weren’t as palatably pleasing as before.

“We did the same thing, only the treasure was candy,” she said with a smile.

Brighton-Pittsford Post writer Bryan Roth can be reached at (585) 394-0770, Ext. 270, or at broth@mpnewspapers.com.