One of the components in our hunter safety education program is an hour presentation on survival. What do you teach young students about survival in an hour? Basically, we talk about hypothermia, hyperthermia, signalling, and basic survival supplies. We also have an hour to teach basic first aid as well. The best I've been able to do is show my field pack contents and try to explain why I have each one. We try and get the students to understand and recognize a survival situation and not panic. Pretty tough doings in an hour.

That's basically what I do as well, I also show them how easily cotton/vaseline works.

Recently saw a post where someone who has been making PSKs for a while proposed that the only thing in a PSK should be fire starting, water collection/purifiation, and maybe a knife or signalling capability. Anything else is extra stuff.

The idea is a PSK is a last ditch get you fire and water. If you got fire and water, you got life. All else is secondary.

In one hour of surival training, I would stress those ideas. I believe the addition of a large trash bag in the back pocket provides shelter at almost zero cost, weight, and size. Poncho, water collection, rain protection, stuff it with debris to make a matress, stuff it with debris for "down Jacket", etc.

I would also encourage them to learn basic signalling techinques of whistles, signal mirrors, gun blasts, etc.

One hour is not much time to go through everything in detail. I would push the basics and enocourage them to search additional information and give them this and other website as sources.

One other thing I forgot that I do. I give out the survival sheet that Billvann had on his website. This gives them several things to look at on their own time.
good luck,
Hillbilly

I just finished reading Laurence Gonzales's "Deep Survival" and one of the things that struck me was how important the psychology of survival was. A well-prepared and highly trained army captain with extensive survival equipment (US Ranger Capt. James Gabba) died because he failed to realise he was in trouble until it was too late to do anything about it; a schoolgirl with no survival training (Juliane Koepke) survived in a far worse situation, because she immediately recognized her predicament and made a firm resolve to do something about it.

If there's anything wrong with this forum, it's the emphasis we place on our gadgets and toys. The truth is, 99 times out of a hundred, a disposable lighter will be just as good as a windproof, waterproof Colibri with a mag-flint backup.

I was so impressed with Gonzales's book that, if I were teaching a course on survival, regardless of length, I would include an overview of the 5 stages of being lost (which, Gonzales points out, bear an eerie resemblance to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's 5 stages of dying: DENIAL, ANGER, BARGAINING, DEPRESSION and ACCEPTANCE. The most significant difference is that in survival, the last stage - the one you want to get to as quickly as possible - can take two forms: resolve ("Okay, I'm in trouble, I can't expect anyone to rescue me so I'll do what I have to on my own), or resignation ("F&#* it, I'm going to die anyway so I may as well just lie down and get it over with").

Gonzales concludes his book with 15 rules for survivors, which I would at least cover in point form.

Your posts pretty much sum up what we try and teach more or less. Attitude is the first thing, thinking is next, then the gadgets.

I've got expensive gadget kits and cheap ones, and I probably have about the same chance with either type, because I have tried to use the items in both to learn how they work best, and to make do with what I have.

Not too difficult if you keep it simple and are dealing with people who have some outdoors experience.
I teach survival in Australia for Aeromedical Evacution Teams using four simple rules:
PROTECTION - includes:First Aid, Clothing, Shelter and Fire.
LOCATION- Improvised signals and Safety Equipment Aids.
WATER- Preserving(water loss, symptoms etc)and Obtaining water.
FOOD. Last and least important as the others in order.
Includes Procurement, rules for toxic plants and edibility test, Common native food(animal and vegetable), Traps and snares, Cooking and Food Preservation.
A big call to do it in an hour but you can use handouts to cover your information in more detail.
The above is only a rough outline, but feel free to pick it all to bits.
I don't mind friendly debate.
Wazza. <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />