Thanks for the comments fellows, keep them coming!

I am doing this training through my professional association for a group of 24 under-priviliged kids at a remote lodge in Northern Ontario.

I have split the day into 2 - 4 hour sessions of 12 kids each; the session will start with a classroom lecture, this will conclude with them assembling their own personal survival kit.
The material for each kit is already prepared and given to each child in a large cup, they then have to fit all the items into a 3"x3"x1.5" container (like a jig-saw puzzle), the container is then sealed with electric tape, it takes about 1/2 hour to complete this (I have taught it once before to 60 kids). All of this neat stuff will be hidden throughout the first part of the lecture, I learned that the hard way the first time I taught the lesson.

If I get the time I will post on the forum the items in the kit; it was a real conflict between, cost vs required items vs size/weight vs ease of use vs COST.

Ironraven, I like your idea of moving S.T.O.P. and "Field Judgement" up a couple of places, this helps seperate actions/knowledge from equipment, good idea.

I will have one assistant to help in the kit assemble/field exercises and the kids have 4 camp counselors to look after any problems.

Al, Thanks for the first hand advise. I have taught this course once already and that time I tried to teach a more elaborate lesson; some of my teaching was over their heads, this time it will be more basic. As you mentioned I also do a short session on EDC (stuff in your pockets) but for kids in our society now it is hard for them to carry anything sharp or that would light a fire. When I was a teen all of us outdoor-type kids (probably many ETS Forum members also) carried pocket knives and lighters, we thought of them as essential tools, it was just part of growing-up then.

I will have about 1 1/2 hours for field exercises on fire lighting, shelters and signaling.

The signaling lesson will be a group session with all 12 kids, it ends with an experiment on which survival whistle is the loudest, the kids love it!

I plan on further spliting the group of 12 into sub-groups of 6 kids each for the fire-lighting (which I teach) and shelter-building (which my assistant teaches). I hope this will give the kids a more hands-on experience.

Each of them will actually light a fire themselves (very simple method: light commercial fire-starter packet from survival kit with match/lighter, put under dry pine kindling/birch branches = instant fire)! They then get to cook some marshmellows on a stick over their own fire, this puts a big smile on their face and a huge boost for their self confidence. I do a quick mini-lecture/demonstration on other more primitive methods of fire lighting (e.g. sparks, lens, electricity, friction, etc).

In shelter-building they will build one shelter (big enough for 1 or 2 kids) as a group of 6, once completed they have their photograph taken in the shelter so they can show their family at home. Each group of 6 will have some extra items from the survival kit to work with like; cord, wire, fishing line, duct tape, a large orange trash bag and a mylar blanket (I know we all like the AMK Heetsheets but they were out of our price range).

Do you think it is better to incorporate the trash bag/mylar blanket in the roof of the shelter, under the shelter bed or wrapped around the survivor?

My fear is rainy weather on the day I present to the group, it will be tough to keep moral high if we cannot do the field exercises (kids will only listen to an old guy talk/tell stories for so long).

I have one more full group lesson I teach that uses an article featured on ETS this past winter. I read to the students the true story "Maybe Tonight is the Night I Die" by Jack Chesnut about how skier Charles Horton survived 9 days alone in the Colorado Mountains with a badly broken leg. In groups of 4 the kids complete a questionaire about what Mr. Horton did right/wrong, what equipment would have helped his survival/rescue and what is the "Will to Survive". We then take up the exercise as a group, this survival message seems to really sink in with the kids as they can relate to this true story.

Please keep sending your replies, I have a week to finish this thing.

Mike