Quote:
Originally Posted by Razor
A couple thoughts:
You're right about the young guys--they need some instruction before sending them off. However, think of ways to incorporate hands-on instruction as much as possible. Remember BSA's EDGE method--Explain, Demonstrate, Guide, Enable. 'Explain' should be as short as possible, conveying the main ideas that they'll watch you do in Demonstrate and try themselves during Guide and Enable.
Gather up a big bunch of fire building materials to have on hand for your class so that you can briefly explain the basic concepts (tinder, kindling, fuel; big fluffy tinder ball you can move into fire lay after getting some flame; teepee vs. log cabin vs. star vs. trench, etc) before showing them real world examples of materials and how to build a fire lay, and culminating with them actually putting hands on sticks to create a tinder ball and lay while you guide them through it. All this can be done in a class setting (so long as you don't actually light anything), but the Scouts still get to learn by doing.
If any of the adults have really bright shop lights or spotlights, you can still do signal mirror work at night. We've done this, and the Scouts had a lot of fun with it.
If you have two feet of snow right now, show them how to build a hasty snow trench or a tree pit shelter. They can do this at night just as easy as in the daytime. With the time change on Sunday, 6:00 pm this coming Monday should only be dusk anyhow. Spring is on its way, so cover the spring/summer appropriate shelters later on. Take advantage of the current conditions to teach them something that would be very important in a winter survival scenario.
Show the Scouts how little water one gets from melting a potful of packed snow. Boil it to incorporate one of the water treatment methods they need to learn. Perhaps incorporate this with your fire building practice, or use a backpacking stove if the former isn't feasible.
I would assume that at least a couple of your older Scouts won't be working on other MBs, so get 2 or 3 of them and make them assistant instructors to help you with the Guide and Enable teaching. Make sure they know the skills first (have them "teach" it to you a day or two ahead of time) and that they understand your plan, then use the heck out of them. Make a big deal of their help in front of others; make them feel special and trusted, and pretty soon other older Scouts will want to get involved as well. Foster this concept of older Scouts teaching the younger ones, and you'll soon work yourself out of the job of primary instructor and into the training QC guy, which should be the ultimate goal.
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All excellent ideas. Thank you, Razor. This is the exact kind of help I was hoping to get from here.
I had thought about dragging one of my halogen shoplights out for night mirror work, but did not know how well it would work. Knowing now that it will serve the purpose, I'll be packing the light in the truck tomorrow, along with a bunch of tinder and kindling material. I can pull the troop trailer out of the garage and stand the lights up on top of it to simulate the sun height at mid-day.
Doing snow trenches is an excellent idea. Our new Scouts didn't get to do the Quincy's due to lack of snow last month, but snow trenches are currently doable.
Melting snow is an excellent idea. The Scouts each have to light three fires anyway, why not teach them how little water they get from snow since they are doing that.
I have just the Scouts in mind for the assistant instructors. I have three older Scouts who need a mission to motivate them.
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