We've had lots of discussions about what to put in Cub Scout survival kits, and I don't want to rehash those. Just put "cubs" into the ETS search engine and you'll strike gold. Here's a good starting place:



What I'm interested in now is HOW to teach them about their kits so they get a better grasp of the whys and hows.

I've voluntered to lead a night or two dedicated to this and am looking for some advice and tips to make it engaging for them. These kids are 8-10 yo and I want it to be an interactive, hands-on night that will be fun, memorable and enlightening.

THANKS!

I should point out that we're doing this from an "emergency survival kit" perspective, with a special emphasis on winter survival. We'll help them put together a single kit, instead of 2 or 3. It will probably be the size small backpack or fanny pack, so they can carry their psk and fak components, water bottle, extra socks, gloves, etc. as well.

Not sure how I double posted so I'll edit to say that we're building on the Hug-A-Tree program, assuming no map and compass skills, no fire and no knife. YES, they will learn these skills but our Pack has lots of first year Cubs and lots of clueless second and third years, so we;re starting by stepping up the basics to build a strong foundation going forward.

My initial thoughts are to talk about the basics like shelter, signalling, water and food. We'll ask for their ideas, show some examples that they can experiment with, and then give them some essentials to start building their kits. (The last part is on a VERY limited budget.)

Now in my 10th year as a Scout leader with my son, going from Tiger Cub to an Eagle Scout about to receive his sixth Eagle Palm, I've seen what I think is the full spectrum of Scouting.

My first thought is to make sure that you don't try to teach a Cub Scout too much ... to save some of the fun stuff to teach them the higher-level skills in the coming years.

At least in the U.S., in general, Cub Scouts do not work on fire starting skills, nor would they be treating water to make it potable. Knife use comes in the later years of Cub Scouts - which seemed to me about the right time.

As for gear, I've yet to see better advice for kids than what Doug Ritter has posted on equipped.org at the Survival for Kids link:

http://www.equipped.org/kidsrvl.htm

When I taught survival skills to my son's Cub Scout den I also focused on the hug-a-tree notion of survival. The boys' job was to stop, make themselves as findable as possible, stay put, stay warm and dry, listen for rescuers, and if they hear any rescuers, blow on that whistle as hard as possible. I specifically warned them to NOT try to walk to try to become unlost, cross waterways, or climb trees.

I repeatedly told them that they needed to understand that adults WILL be out looking for them. When adults get lost there may or may not be people out looking for them, but when young kids get lost their parents will quickly be doing everything they can to find their child.

Their main way of being found is to find an opening (though I pointed out to them that trees can cut the wind and help them stay warmer), using the whistle, the LED light, and/or the bright bandanna.

One of the hug-a-tree recommendations is to capture a shoe print using foil. While that's a cool idea, I'm not sure how practical that is. I tend to think a more practical idea would be for parents to simply take a digital picture of the soles of children's shoes when first purchased.

One last thought is to make sure children wear brightly colored clothing (including jackets). The current trends for folks to wear dark clothing or even camouflage clothing is not a good thing in my mind. Heck, even when I camp now I tend to prefer a brightly colored tent so that I am more likely to find it when I walk about from the campsite - especially where forests are fairly dense.

Not so much for survival, but Cub Scouts is a good time to start introducing them to a compass. I've mentioned this before here, but when my son was about mid-way through Cub Scouts we started doing a pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey type game with a compass, a white sheet, and some post-it notes. We'd show the boys that the needle on the compass always points north. We show them how to point the compass at a target on the wall, rotate the bezel to box the needle, turn around at random, and then they can carefully turn their body to re-box the needle, which now has them facing the target again.

Then we redo this, but before turning them around we put a sheet over them, tell a story about a heavy fog rolling in, and then rotate them around and tell them to use the compass to turn and face the wall, and then walk to the wall and place a post-it note with their name on it on the wall. When all kids are done doing this we compare where all the notes got placed. BTW, we found it best to have an adult walk near them to help prevent them from running into tables & chairs.

Jackie... there is pretty good educatonal research to change your order of operation a little... have the Cubs tell you first what they know about survival shelters, signaling, etc... and let them "buy in" to the idea you are presenting... then show your examples

assuming a trash can liner or two will be included...weather permitting...have them investigate how "cold" they feel with bare head, then compare... tie a "do rag" or "babuska" head covering with their bandana...cut a corner off a inexpensive can liner (for demonstration) for a breathing and vision hole (add a pair of inexpensive EMT shears until they get their knife permit)... to slip it over their head to conserve heat...nest to a lower can liner

signaling...three blasts on whistle the a 10 Mississippi wait.. my students came up with a pretty efficient passive signal ... I gave them a playing card.. the most effective was covered both sides with silver reflective mylar (potato chip bag)and bordered with 3M reflective tape on edges.. small hole in corner, and snap swivel and mono fishing line to attach to tree limb to move in the wind... set up a pair of adults at a distance huddled at the base of trees... one with the signal and one without...if you could do in daylight, and a flashlight at night I think it would be an memorable demo...

it normally took me a couple of years to fine tune a chem/physics lab... make sure you do your demonstration beforehand to work out the kinks... and an answer of "it doesn't work" is not necessarily wrong

Thanks Ken and Les! This is just the kind of feedback I'm looking for. Hug-a-Tree is the central theme of this exercise so you're bang on in terms of your suggestions.

Les, great idea about the order of presentation. It's a much better approach to add onto what they already know. We'll also have the more experienced Cubs bring their kits in and explain what's in them and when and how they'd use the stuff. Peer-peer learning can be even more effective than adult-youth, as long as the leaders are there to correct misinformation.

I LOVE the environmental experience approach! It's something that has worked well with my son and is something that we'll be doing throughout the year on hikes and at camps. We will be teaching them map and compass work, fire building and knife skills but those will be acquired very gradually

Well, you said emergency survival and winter. One book I think is a great resource is Cody Lundin's "98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive." The book itself is (probably) too much information for them. However, it's some of the most basic, ground-up good (and clear) explanations of the basics of survival.

Based on what Hug-a-Tree and Lundin say about events that turn fatal, avoiding hypothermia and being seen/heard is going to be what's most important. Lundin's book makes it really clear the ways you gain heat and lose heat (convection, radiant heat, etc), and ways to counter the loss and increase the gains (he shows the opposite for a desert/hot environment).

So, showing the boys what are the things that will make them dangerously cold and how to counter them (how to get yourself off the ground, how to insulate themselves, etc). So perhaps show traditional ways to stay warm - tent, air mattress, sleeping bag) and how to improvise/McGuyver it and get similar results by working with what might be available to them.

And I like Les' idea of letting them test in cool to cold weather how much a hat (or lying on the ground vs. lying on insulation, etc) affects how cold you feel.