June is here, which means troops will be heading off to summer camp starting this month. The annual pilgrimage always involves making sure everyone has what they need in order to have a successful week at camp.
There are many lists of what Scouts should bring to summer camp – clothing and personal gear, forms, handbooks, camping essentials and outdoor equipment, to name a few. As an example, here is a list (PDF) from my troop. I put it together a few years ago, with input from our experienced youth campers, and offered it to Scouts and their parents, with the advice that the Scout should pack his own gear.
That list covers what Scouts will likely need at camp, but what about adults? Continue reading “Summer camp packing list for adults”
Boy Scouts go camping. Everybody knows that, right?
Our older son, a second-year medical student, came over and joined us for lunch this weekend. He filled us in on some of what the school is planning for next year’s incoming class. For the past year, he has been the volunteer leader of a co-curricular study program called Case-Based Learning, in which second-year students mentor first-years in situational learning. They work in small groups, posing hypothetical situations appropriate to what they’ve been covering in lecture, with the first-year students mulling over the problem and coming up with a solution collaboratively. After being impressed with its success, the dean of the medical school met with my son to talk about how this independent study concept could be incorporated into the actual curriculum. He told us that, starting next year, many of the large lecture classes (which can include a couple hundred students) are going to be replaced with smaller study groups, where students will take turns learning specific skills or elements and then teach them to the rest of the students in their small group. The concept is that by teaching a new skill themselves, students will learn it better than if they’ve just heard someone lecturing them about it and retaining it just long enough to repeat it back on an exam.
Aside from Eagle Scout, merit badges are probably the most visible and iconic part of Scouting to those not involved in the program.
Boy Scout troops don’t seem to have the same drought of willing adult helpers as Cub Scout packs do, but they still need a few to serve in roles supporting the Scouts in running their troop, and a few more to help with the support tasks that the Scouts can’t do for themselves. Still others are needed to serve on boards of review and to drive Scouts to and from their campouts.