Hi Forum Members,

I need your help in developing/reviewing a lesson plan for a very basic wilderness survival class I volunteered to teach to a group of 24 children.

The kids will be approximately 13 years old, boys and girls, from the inner city with very little outdoor experience. I have 3 hours to teach them the basics in both a classroom and field setting.

I have planned this so far:

- Introduction and dicussion on "What is a Survival Situation".
- Rule of "3's"(3 sec. evasive action,3 min. air, 3 hrs shelter,)
- 5 Critical Elements: Fire, Shelter, Signals, Water, Food.
- Knowledge/Experience vs Equipment.
- Field Judgement. "Common Sense" and Tell someone your plans.
- S.T.O.P - Stop (stay put), Think, Observe, Plan.
- Discussion on equipment and Exercise on the 10 essentials.
- Each assemble personal Survival Kit from prepared materials.
- Hands-on Field lesson on starting/maintaining a fire.
- Hands-on Field lesson on basic shelter building (debris-hut).
- Demonstration of field signals: mirror, fire, whistle, air ...
- Wrap-up.

I think my difficulty is that 3 hours is not enough time, but that is all I have available.

The biggest chore in this lesson was preparing the materials for 30 survival kits (e,g, cutting/rolling the wire/cord/fishing line/duct tape/thread, counting the fish hooks/sinkers, waterproofing the matches, folding the aluminum foil, etc).

Any insight you all may have would be most appreciated.

Mike

Doug actually has a section of his site dedicated to Survival for Kids. Make sure to give it a read.

First, let me say I am so jealous it isn't funny. This sounds like a great opportunity.

At three hours, are you going to be doing this all yourself, or will you have assistants? For the fire building, I would want a couple of extra sets of eyes around just for safety. Shelter building is more important, IMO, that fire building under most conditions- I'd cut the fire to a demonstration if something had to be cut for time. And I think you are going to have to cut for time. Have you done a dry run, with +50% the kit assembly time that you think you'll need?

Is this being taught as part of a camp curriculum? If so, can some of this be merged in with?

Also, is that the outline for your lesson? If so, I'd move the field judgment and STOP up to the level of the law of threes, before talking about equipment. Like this:
- Introduction
- Field Judgement.
- S.T.O.P
- Rule of "3's"
- 5 Critical Elements: Fire, Shelter, Signals, Water, Food.
- Knowledge/Experience vs Equipment.
- Discussion.....
If they've seen the toys, they'll be spacing out until the demo in my experiences working with teenagers.

But other than those points, let me say again, I think this is a very cool idea.

Looks like you have a good plan. In my experience of teaching kids survival basics the biggest problem was keeping their attention. (Three hours!!! Are you serious?) My little program is 1 to 1 1/2 hours long with the majority of the time having the kids duplicate most of the survival techeniques they had just watched in Ron Hood's Survival Basics I and/or Survival Basics II. Video's. My approach was to really hammer on the ABSOLUTE BASICS of a debris shelter, fire, water, signal. I happen to agree with the camp that states you are much better off to completely forget about food for the first 72 hours. I also teach very basic survival tools in their pockets or maybe a waist pack; things that kids are more likely to actually do rather than perfect emergency kit.

Good on you SwampDonkey.

At three hours, you will be challenged by the 13 year olds watching the short attention span theater while you try to teach. Good luck. You might have to light a fire under them or whip out a big knife every 30 minutes or so to keep their attention.

I did something similar for a group of 4 year olds and their moms. We spent about 30-45 minutes talking and about an hour or so practicing with gear.

Here are two links:

Pack for Young Kids

Checklists & Safety Booklet

Basically, I just followed the booklet, then we went over the stuff in their packs. To this day, they still use their packs and the contents every time we have gone hiking and camping. They are six now. I am not sure if it will help you as your group of kids is older, but if it does help, then great. And if not, just ignore it.

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

Hi Aloha,

I was lurking on the Forum when you posted the above 2 items this past winter and really liked your inventive ideas. I used them and a lot of information from the main ETS site (e.g. Survival for Kids) when I developed the lesson plan for the first group I taught. I have never tried teaching a survival type topic to children under 10 years old, I would but I have just never been approached to do it. I imagine it would have to be very basic instruction and then turn it into a game to keep their attention/reinforce the message. My wife is better with the young kids, they seem to relate better to me at about 12 years old?

Nice talking to you,

Mike

P.S. I am really envious of the beautiful country you live in, your pictures of Hawaii last winter made the Boreal Forest seem that much colder!

On the where to use the trashbag question... I suppose that depends on how long it has been raining. If it will rain, I put a moisture barrier on the roof; if it has rained but won't, I put it between me an my ground padding; it is raining, has been raining, and will keep raining, I put me in it. :P I'd leave it up to your kids, this is a lab, you're supposed to learn by error.

How bad do you find their attention span? I've known a lot of kids (late teens, college freshmen) with true ADD and ADHD, along with Asbruggers, and I've found that they can pay attention if you capture their interest in most cases.

Having been a camp counselor I'd say the most important thing you can do is keep it interesting for the kids. (Not an easy thing to do) Explain things to them while going on a hike, get them to go find things (pine cones, plants, leaves, etc.) to bring back to the group, have group chat about survival issues, etc. My best advice is to keep them active, engaged, and give them fun responsibilities. Group activities work well. Since attention spans at that age are almost nonexistent, try and give them things to do that they can immediately relate to. Let them make a bow drill, make a solar compass, whatever. The most important thing is to keep them engaged.

Ironraven; excellent idea about the use of the trash bag,
Let Nature Decide where best to use it.

"You recall your victories, you REMEMBER your mistakes!"

I have never met the kids I am about to instruct but I was told they were the best behaved of a much larger group (this trip is like a reward for them). My normal group have their good days and bad but I can usually keep their attention for an hour before they need a break. I actually have 4 hours to work with each group of 12 kids but figure I will loose an hour to breaks and blowing off steam.

LED, I agree with you about having to keep the kids engaged or you will loose there attention. I thought about teaching the bow drill but it can be a very frustrating procedure the first time. In the field exercises the kids are really just going to practice with the items they have in their new Survival Kit (extra items, not the actual ones).

The entire exercise is set-up for them to succeed, therefore building their confidence.

Thanks fellows,

Mike