Ironraven,

I pretty much agree with everything you've said regarding cell phones and people's dependency on them. True, there are people that rely heavily on a cell phone instead of common sense, but the same could be said for almost anything we (as in the people on this forum) carry daily. Do we depend on having a compass rather than using the sun or the stars to tell direction? Why do we carry lighter, matches, and a magnesium rod to start a fire, rather than starting one from scratch? Even a knife, paracord, plastic sheeting, and iodine tablets, compasses, etc, all of that would seem like pretty modern luxuries for a Native American who survived for generations without any of those items. What we think of as being prepared, might be someone else's idea of being gear dependent.

All I'm saying is that it's just the natural evolution of gadgets. It can be really useful to have in an emergency, but it's no replacement for basic skills. I personally don't own one, but I will borrow one on occasion if I think it's really necessary. for example, if driving on a long trip. I carry that in addition to the right equipment, but a working cell phone out in the middle of nowhere when your car breaks down is worth more than all the knives and signal flares you can carry.

I think we've gone a bit off topic now, it might be a better subject for another thread. To answer the original question, I think you've covered most of the bases. You can only teach so much knowledge to a group of boy scouts at one time, no need to go into every detail. The Boy Scout Handbook covers a lot of this stuff pretty well, so anything you teach them in addition to this will be great.