>Getting my scouts to advance has been a bit of a challenge…it’s not that they are lazy, but they don’t know what to do. Being that they are only in the 6th grade, with no “experienced” scouts to help them. I have explained to them that soon enough, they will be the “experienced scouts in the troop, but first, the adult leadership has to educate these young scouts on “how to do it”…

Recently, I have been trying to think of fun ways to use the EDGE method…Explain, Demonstrate, Guide and Enable. My scouts really like the “Boy Scout Skills” cardgame that we have in the troop library. We pick about 25 questions, and usually, they like to go up against me.

I attended the IOLS portion of my Scoutmaster training, and one of the trainers showed a powerpoint of animals to help with requirement 6 for 2nd Class. He also had another powerpoint with plants that helped with requirement 6 for 1st Class.

Now, I had 2 thoughts on this…1.) Cool, it’s a really good learning tool! and 2.) If I were to do something like that, it would be, in my eyes, too close to “doing for a boy” when he should be able to do it himself. When I thought about it, I realized that the adult leaders had to help this first group of scouts a lot more with EDGE.

So I embarked on a small mission…to make powerpoints, but in a fun way. I created some Scout Jeopardy shows, and I used one of them last week…I got really good results from the scouts and the ASM. I created another powerpoint, based on the ScoutCraft section of their BS Handbook, and have decided to use these tools to help the original scouts, not only in their quest to Eagle, but so that they have something to use to teach the newer scouts.

I know that this philosophy may go against what the BSA preaches, but my original scouts don’t have the luxury of having experienced scouts to offer mentoring, wisdom and knowledge…and now, they have new scouts that they have to teach the “new scout skills”…

With that said, Scout Jeopardy may become a part of the trail, but only a one of many tools that are out there.

I will say this, don’t call me Trebek….