World Conservation Award

[mikeb 10]

My Bear Den is working towards earning their World Conservation Award. It seems simple enough, complete Achievement 5 and all the requirements in two electives of three (2, 12, and 15) electives. Throw in a conservation project and the badge is theirs. Anyone have any comments or advice for us?

[NJCubScouter 1389]

mikeb,

 

Welcome to the forums!

 

The World Conservation Award is, as you say, simple enough. There are a couple of sentences on this page:

 

http://usscouts.org/advance/cubscout/worldcons.html

 

exlaining the purpose of the award but it probably is no more than is in the handbook and it's nothing you wouldn't have figured out anyway. I think it is a good award to get for several reasons, one of which is that most of the Cub Scout requirements, especially at Wolf and Bear, may seem kind of "disconnected" to a boy sometimes. You get some from over hear and some from over there, and of course the boys are learning things and doing things, but the World Conservation Award ties together a few of the requirements in a way that might make the boys think a little more about what they are doing, and how they are helping other people and the world around them, and how they might do more in the future.

 

The other thing you have probably already noticed is that there are three different sets of requirements at the Cub Scout level, one each for Wolf, Bear and Webelos. They are all keyed to the requirements for the rank earned at that age level, so for each one the boys do the specified requirements (or in Webelos, earn the specified Activity Badges), plus the conservation project. I always thought that was a good bit of planning; a boy can only earn the award once as a Cub Scout and the "difficulty level" of the requirements increases as the boy get older, but no faster or slower than the "difficulty level" of the requirements for the rank the boy is earning anyway. In other words, my son had to do more to earn this award as a Webelos Scout than he would have had to do if he earned it as a Wolf, but he was able to do more in the fourth and fifth grades than he would have been in the second grade.

 

Oh, and the patch is cute.

[Twocubdad 665]

This may be one of those answerable questions that drags on for page after page of posts, but here goes anyway:

 

Why are Cubs limited to earning the badge only one time? There are three distinct sets of requirement for Wolf, Bear and Webelos (without looking, I'm not aware that Tigers can earn it). If the purpose of the badge is to get the boys to think about conservation, to complete the conservation-oriented achievements for their program level and to do a conservation project, why not?

 

It makes sense that Boy Scouts can earn it only once, since there is only one set of requirements.

[packsaddle 753]

TwoCub, I don't know the answer to your question but I can atest that my den (bear at the time) did this as a den activity and we had a blast. Actually, come to think of it, everything we ever did was a blast. I sure miss the cubs.

[mikeb 10]

Thanks for the welcome and the info NJCubScouter, the site you posted quickly answered one question that I wasn't sure of, that was where the boys could wear the patch. I must confess that the answer of wearing it in the position of "temporary" patch was somewhat disappointing. One might think that with so few awards of this type available to Cub Scouts it would rate a "permanent" spot on the uniform. I now suspect several of my boys may never sew it on as it would wreck the "ambiance" of their segments. We're going to have fun earning it anyway!

[ScoutNut 147]

Have the boys use the plastic badge holder that hangs from the pocket button. No sewing involved. Maybe the Pack could present the patch with the holder!

[ScoutNut 147]

Have the boys use the plastic badge holder that hangs from the pocket button. No sewing involved. Maybe the Pack could present the patch with the holder!

[mschwartz 10]

On the same general topic... what sorts of conservation projects have you all done in the past? It's really too late for my Wolf Den to try and pull something together for this year, but I'm thinking ahead for next year and have no clue on what sort of thing would be appropriate.

 

thanks!

[packsaddle 753]

Re: projects. We had the luxury of a moderate (ca 300 acres) lake in need of shoreline stuff. Our den did a combined shoreline/trailside cleanup, bagging all the stuff, fishing a little, big picnic afterwards. Actually caught bluegills, a northern hogsucker...also some little sculpins in a nearby stream - tried to catch a beaver and a pair of geese. Skipped rocks. Got wet. climbed trees. Played games. Built a fire. Ate food. We got the patch but the above is the important stuff.

[Twocubdad 665]

Our local parks and rec department is always a good source of conservations projects. They usually have a backlog of areas that need to be cleaned up or improved. Whoever you talk to, be sure to let them know the age of the boys your are working with. It's easy to get into a project where the real labor is done by the parents with the boys just standing around.

[mikeb 10]

We're having our annual spring campout next month at a state park, they always have something we can do.