Taurus,

While all that is indeed useful information, you have to remember the audience that you're instructing. My concern is that much of this information will be well beyond their attention span, if not over the heads completely. I actually have some experience with scouts, as I serve as a unit commissioner for my district.

Lono offered some very good suggestions, namely getting your hands on the BSA Handbook as well as the Scoutmasters Handbook. I would add that there is a "Wilderness Survival" merit badge (and a corresponding booklet to accompany it) that would be very helpful for you to review.

I have taught wilderness survival to boy scouts (as well as scoutmasters) before as part of an outdoor weekend, and even the scoutmasters become overloaded pretty fast. Spending an entire day on the subject with two additional days to practice is a tall order, as you'll need to change things up quite frequently. At best figure no more than twenty minutes on any given subject before you'll lose them.

As a general suggestion, I would limit your training to simply touching upon the major requirements of the WS merit badge, as well as the seven priorities (as BSA sees them -- see #2 below) and be sure to break things up with plenty of hands-on instruction, activities, and breaks:

1). Basic first aid (frostbite, hypothermia, heat exhaustion/stroke, dehydration, rule of 3's, insect bites, etc.)

2). The 7 priorities (STOP, first aid, shelter, fire, signaling, hydration, food)

3). Attitude (don't panic, maintain positive attitude and good morale)

4). Scenarios (describe what steps to take to address basic survival given various likely scenarios)

5). Survival kit (outline the basic items to include in their survival kit and how to use and maintain each)

6). Fire (show/discuss different means of fire starting)

7). Signaling (show/discuss different means of attracting attention)

8). Shelter (show/discuss different types of natural shelters that can be built in the wilderness)

9). Protection (outline steps to protect oneself from insects, snakes, wild animals, etc.)

10). Hydration (show/discuss methods of purifying water in the wilderness)

11). Clothing (outline various clothing choices as they relate to scouting activities in the extreme heat or cold, layering, materials, etc.)

12). Food (show/discuss wilderness options (although keep in mind the BSA strongly discourages scouts from ever eating anything that they find in the wilderness)

The idea here should be to spark the boys interest in the wilderness survival merit badge activity, not to hope to have them complete all the requirements in a single day (or even a weekend).

Be sure to keep things fun, simple, and try to schedule hands-on activities that require the boys to work together as a team.

Feel free to PM me if there is anything I can do to help you out.

Jim