Re: Mammals, Birds, Amphibians

<Kevin said>
How do troops handle the Second Class requirement that states:

"Identify or show evidence of at least 10 kinds of wild animals (birds,
mammals, reptiles, fish, mollusks) found in your community."

Do you need to take each scout out on a hike to do this? I realize it could
be done on a hike, but do we have to wait for one to do it?
</Kevin>

Kevin,
What we do is set aside some time on campouts for a "Nature" hike when there
are Scouts who need the requirement. We do plants and animals separately.
Our hike is a group hike lead by myself. Each Scout keeps track of the
animals (or, more often, evidence of) they identify, but they have to point
them out to me. Occasionally, I will help them by pointing out evidence of a
wild animal for them to identify. The hike becomes a competition between the
Scouts on several levels (who can identify their 10 first, who can identify
the most, and who can stump Mr. Mako). Usually all of the Scouts pass the
requirement on the hike and will often learn more from each other than from
me. Of course, it's getting harder and harder to stump Mr. Mako since he
learns something new on every hike as well. Aside from being useful for
completing a rank requirement, nature hikes can be great fun. It's easier
for me to keep everyone moving if the hike is specific (i.e. looking only
for animals).

Some important things to remember: It should be okay for more than one Scout
to identify an animal the same way. In other words, if one Scout identifies
a raccoon from a set of tracks, other Scouts should be able to identify
raccoons from other sets of tracks (not the same set). I've found that,
while
I know there are enough animals in the woods for five Scouts to identify 10
each, the Scouts have a hard time believing it. It's best allow "duplicates"
if only to avoid arguments on the trail. My other major rule is that all
Scouts MUST stay on the trail; no wandering off into the underbrush looking
for animals and plants. I hope this helps.

YIS
A. J. Mako, ajmako@nls.net , Scoutmaster Troop 381
Home of the Unofficial Win95 Boy Scout Desktop Theme,
http://members.aol.com/Scouts381/
Old Portage District, Great Trail Council, BSA
"I used to be an Eagle (C-7-97), but I'll always be an Eagle (1981)"

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