If you want a project to do (in regards of lightweight backpacking) try this...

http://www.pcthiker.com/pages/gear/overviewpepsiGstove.shtml

I found this site last week, and have made 10 stoves so far. Only cost is some JB Weld and denatured alcohol ($7 total). I've been having a blast making these in the garage, and can bring 2 cups of water to a boil in less than 5 minutes with less than 1.5 oz of fuel.

I'll never buy another stove again.

One hour is not a lot of time to cover all of that material. I recently spent 45 minutes at our troop meeting reviewing my PSK. Last year, I brought a box full of pieces and parts I was collecting to assemble my PSK. The boys had their doubts that was going to be able to fitt it all into an Altoids type tin. (Actially, I think the other leaders were more skeptical than the boys <img src="images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />). SSo this year I brought the assembled kit and emtied it out to prove that I had done it. I intended to open it anyway to add adhesive honing paper in it.

As I pulled out items, I would ask the group to suggest possible uses for an item. This demonstrated that many items had multiple uses. It also let me drive home the idea that one's brain is the most important tool. I also reviewed the STOP acronym and the hierarchy of priorities, both of which are part of the requirements for the marit badge (visit <a href="tp://www.meritbadge.com]MeritBadge.com[/url]" target="_blank">tp://www.meritbadge.com]MeritBadge.com[/url]</a> for a complete list of requirements).

I also learned from the process. I fist wrapped electrical tape arround my tin, one piece along the two halves seam to seal it, another spiraled around the narrow dimension. I then wrapped duct tape around the long dimension. Finally, my paracord wrapped it all again. When I removed the duct tape, it made a mess of the electrical tape as it stuck to it. So I've repacked the duct tape inside the kit using the waxy backed paper from an address label sheet as backing.

I also wondered about how I would keep my items unpacked in a true emergency situation. My kit is packed so tightly that the electrical tape helps to hold it together. Some of the contents would find their way in pockets or into my pack iff I have it. I wondered specifically about the electrical tape as it's difficult to keep untangled and clean. I've decided I would find a sturdy twig before I opened the kit (if time allows) and rewrap it in a small spool to stick in my pocket.

Anyway, I found that both the boys and I learned something . BTW, I signed up as the troop's merit badge counsilor too. I intend to work the requirements into our camping schedule this summer.

Let us know how the lecture turned out and what you did.

Your post reminded me of an "Aftermath" column in Flying (Aftermath is a monthly column which examines a fatal accident to see what caused it and to provoke the reader into thinking what might have been done differently.) The writer made a tremendous understatement, IMO, in saying the weather forecast for the night in question was probably "the most daunting" forecast this pilot had ever seen - a solid line of thunderstorms with numerous reports of tornados on the ground. Anyway, the pilot (and his trusting passengers) took off, attempted to navigate through, and were never heard from alive again.
The most telling part of the story was that the NTSB, in their report, included part of a written report they had obtained from another small aircraft pilot who had filed a flight plan along a similar route. This pilot had heard the weather report and told his passengers they weren't going back to Florida that night. Instead, they went to a motel, got up the next morning, ate a leisurely breakfast, filed a flight plan, took off and "were never in cloud" the whole way.

"Get-there-itis" can be a fatal condition.

Roll your own <img src="images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Ice cream: ((>

Beer: }:={_()

I'm probably much too late, but a 1-hour talk on anything complicated is best used as a "sales" talk to get them interested in learning more. Not that you're selling anything (financially, anyway) but presumably you do want to get them interested enough to either invite you back or do further study on their own (or as a group).

Don't underestimate the difficulty of teaching knots, especially to people who have no prior experience. On the last Wilderness Survival weekend we ran, the other instructor (an ex Naval officer) reduced one of our most reliable and intelligent 16-year old cadets to tears by trying to teach 5 knots in 2 hours. (He wasn't bullying her; she was simply frustrated trying to copy his expert movements. She was struggling to understand the bowline, and he'd already moved on to the sheepshank.) There's a lot more to teaching knots than tying one and expecting everyone to copy you.