I am slowly teaching my nephew the basics about survival, with a "final exam" being a two night, 3 day stay in woods owned by my father. I have this planned for April/May, which gives PLENTY of time for him to practice basic techniques of water purification, firestarting, shelter construction, etc. My plan is to possibly tape this outing (in increments, of course), with the idea of critiquing our weekend afterwards, to visibly see what worked, what didnt, & why. Now, mind you, I WILL have real stuff nearby (sleeping bags, possibly a tent, lighter, real food, etc), just in case. My father's house is also located close (within visual distance), so, I have a safety net planned. My intent is to show him that, with the stuff in his pocket, and some knowledge, he CAN survive, fairly comfortably. But, I want to show him, afterwards, any mistakes we make, and where we could do better.
My question is, has anyone else tried this? What was the result? Did you actually learn from critiquing yourself? Was it worht the effort of changing tapes & batteries several times?

I also have a nephew that I have been providing a continuous outdoor education too. We are going out backpacking in Feb 07 in order to give him some cold weather training (hopefully it will be a cold 3 day weekend). Taping the experience sounds like a great idea just for the memories if for no other reason.
1 other thought, by taping the outing, we will be able to clearly see what equipment that we are using and thus be able to more easily see what equipment we are lugging around for no real purpose!

Thanks for the replies. As far as re-charging batteries; with my fathers house 1/2 mile away, I may simply charge two batteries, then recharge them in his garage, as needed. We'll see.
I have a mini DV recorder. Complete with remote. Should be interesting!

Great idea - and I've never done it. I do train senior Scouts in Wilderness Survival merit badge. I challenge them to what I call a "One Pound Camp." We go out for two nights and three days when temps will not go below 50 deg. F. Rules are:
- you bring a bag and contents of your choice - cannot weigh more than one (1) pound!
- leader brings bulk water (though you must demonstrate water purification from the "bag") - leaders DO NOT provide cups, pans, etc.
- leader brings food (we use emergency rations, like MREs) (though you must demonstrate the ability to gather food from the "bag") - leaders DO NOT bring any utensils, pots, etc.
- Leaders bring backup sleeping bags provided by participants, but are only used in a real emergency, e.g. extra cold, etc.
- can dress any way you want, but no extras hidden in pockets, etc. No key ring kits, etc.

I can only report that Scouts can be very ingenious! <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Do you require them to give you an inventory list? It would be interesting to see the inventory on some of the better setups.

I haven't in the past but that's a good idea. Will do this year and share. We usually just have the guys bring in their stuff a week ahead and then critique each other. Also, no real bad surprises that way! I do remember some ingenious things over the years. We said "bag" - one guy brought everything in a waxed paper bag - firestarter! Aluminum foil cups and pots around sticks in field. Homemade candle molded in paper cup with ten wicks - stove! You get the idea!

Sounds like great ideas just from those few examples, you might also want to get them to list what they wore and had on them (like a knife, which should be given).
I would have liked to do something like that as a Scout.. in my troop the whole troop would go car camping each month, as well as a good 10 mile (at least) backpacking hike for training, once a quarter we would have a 'patrol hosts patrol' camping trip (18-22 kids, right around 1/4 of the troop) where one patrol would do all the planing, KP and activities but the other patrol had to do all the skits, ever other month we had a weekend backpacking camping trip, and twice a year we had camps (summer/winter) for the younger boys and trips for the older boys. I only got to do about half as much 'older' stuff as some of the other boys in the troop because I was great at makeing sure the younger/new boys learned and understood what they needed to know so I was always asked to move into the patrols that were geting all the new members (while the other older boys moved up to more adventure type patrols)... I don't know what the point of saying all that was other then thinking back on 'the good ol days'..

Yeh, those are good ideas, too. Will do.

Sounds like you had a good active troop. It can be a problem balancing the needs of older Scouts. I try to mix up the "lead and train" with the "high adventure." In the end I suspect you benefitted most from the leadership experience you garnered.