Clean/Cubservation

For August's Round Table We Shared Ideas For
September's Scout Law Point and Theme
Scout Law Point: Clean
Theme: Cubservation

Opening Brain Teaser - This would be a great thing to write on the chalk or white board for boys and parents to have something to think about while they wait for everyone to arrive at a Pack or Den Meeting.  (An idea you could use would be to reward the cub scouts a piece of candy if they get it right).

Change the word FOOT into the word HAND in five steps by replacing one letter at a time to form a new word, without changing the order of the letters *Answer is at the end of this section. (scroll down)
(Brain Teaser taken from: The Little Black Book of Mindbenders by John Samson and Elsie Samson; pg. 62)

Gathering Activity
ANIMAL RESCUE
Materials: Slips of paper with names or pictures of North American animals.
Place the slips of paper on your back.  Go around and ask someone to give you a description or clue about the animal.  To rescue the animal, you will need to guess which animal is on your back. 

Flag Ceremony

CONSERVE

Cub Scouts hold cutouts of cars made from poster board, with letters printed on each one to spell out the word: CONSERVE.

Cub #1: C – Cars and buses and such were invented by men.

Cub #2: O – Oil fields were also discovered by them.

Cub #3: N – Nobody really worried about the amount of fuel this would take.

Cub #4: S – So on no transportation did they put the brake.

Cub #5: E – When it came to fuel, there was never a drought.

Cub #6: R – Raising on everyone’s mind a great big doubt.

Cub #7: V – Very soon the world’s traffic was put to the test.

Cub #8: E – Everyone, to conserve fuel, must now do their best!

Pizza Box Sun Oven
(Suggestion: Make the Pizza Box Sun Oven with your cub scouts the first week and then at the next den meeting cook the food.)
Materials: pizza box (When you buy your pizza, request that your pizza not be cut and that they do not put any sides, like peppers inside the box.  When you get home, do not cut the pizza in the box.  Take the pizza out of the box and cut it on a cookie sheet. This way you will have the least amount of grease or oil on your box), ruler, marker, knife, Duct Tape, 1- gallon size Zip Lock Bag, scissors, 1 empty toilet paper roll, 1 pipe cleaner, black construction paper, glue, black spray paint, aluminum foil, newspaper, pie tin or 9x9x2 tin. 
Directions:
1) Get rid of any crumbs in the pizza box.

2) Measure 2 1/4 inches from the crease or bend of each side of the inside of the box lid. Using a marker, draw a dot.  Do this two times per side.  Then take the ruler and draw a line through the two dots. Repeat on each side drawing a perfect square.

3) Using the knife, cut out three sides of the square except the side closest to the bottom half of the pizza box.  Score along the line that you did not cut.  Then bend the cut out section of the pizza box back.

4) Put a piece of Duct Tape along the bend of the small lid you just created.

5) Take a thin piece of Duct Tape and thread it though a toilet paper roll.  Tape this down alongside the bottom of the opening you just created.

6) Cut apart a gallon size bag by cutting off the top and seams on all three sides. This will create two square plastic sheets.

7) Tape the square plastic sheet without any writing on it to the inside of the pizza box using Duct Tape, covering the opening you made earlier.

8) Put Duct Tape on all the four corners of the pizza box.

9) Take some black construction paper and first form it to the inside of the bottom of the pizza box using your fingers to make creases along the folds and sides. Then glue the paper in the bottom of the box.

10) Fold the pizza box up.  Paint the outside of the box black. You do not need to paint the bottom of the box or the flaps of the lid.  (The flaps get tucked in when you use it to bake something).

11) Take some scissors and make two holes in the lid.  These should be big enough for the ends of a pipe clean to fit through.  The holes should be located toward the bottom of the smaller lid, but at the level of the height of the toilet paper roll. See picture above.12) Take some foil long enough to wrap around the smaller lid of the pizza box.  Using a pipe cleaner, poke a hole through the foil where you made the holes earlier.

13) The foil should extend above the lid.  At the top, you can fold over the foil on itself to give the foil a finished look, but do not fold it down to the lid.  (The more foil you have exposed, the more heat that reflects back into the box).

14) Take the pipe cleaner and thread it though the toilet paper roll and through the holes.  Then fold the ends of the pipe cleaner back so the lie against the smaller lid.  This will keep the lid open when you are baking something.

15) Take newspaper and roll it up to insulate the sides, inside the box. 
16) Use a pie tin or 9x9x2 tin to cook your food.
S'mores and/or Tortilla Chips with Cheese:
So because a den meeting is 1 hour long, I looked for something that would take less time than that to cook in the Pizza Box Solar Oven.  I came up with these two items.

For the S'mores I would recommend that you have the boys assemble them and wrap them up in plastic wrap, so the chocolate and marshmallow will not melt all over.  Have the boys put them together for the Gathering Activity as they arrive at the den meeting.  Then as soon as possible, start cooking them in the solar oven.  At the end of the den meeting they will be ready to eat as a treat. See below for temperatures and times. 

For the Tortilla Chips with Cheese, spread some tortilla chips on a tin pan and spread some grated cheese on top.  You do not need to cover with plastic wrap.

This was done in Arizona June 20, 2015
S'mores:
Official Temperature at the start time: 95 degrees F
Time started baking: 10:18am
Temperature on candy thermometer outside of the box at the end of baking: 115 F
Temperature on meat thermometer inside box at the end of baking: 160 F
Finished baking at 11:03AM (45 minutes)
Official Temperature at the end time: 97 degrees F
*Note:  I put the pizza box outside right when I started cooking the S'mores.  If I had had the box already warming up from the sun rays, I would conjecture that it would take less time to bake them. 

*An Experiment: I was curious to see what would happen if I tried baking a S'more outside the box with the Arizona heat.  So I assembled one by using a clean plastic fruit cup and putting the S'more inside, wrapping plastic wrap around it.  The results of my experiment were that the marshmallow in the S'more cooked outside of the box was only soft, not melted.  I thought the S'more made inside the Pizza Box Solar Oven was perfect. Try this experiment with your cub scouts, but don't tell them ahead of time the results.  It would be fun to let them discover it for themselves.   - Also, it would be a great learning experience for the boys if you use two thermometers; one inside the box and one outside like I did and have the boys record the temperatures and then talk about the results afterwards.

Tortilla Chips with Cheese
Official Temperature at the start time: 97 degrees F
Time started baking: 11:08AM
Temperature on candy thermometer outside box at the end of baking: 120 degrees F
Temperature on meat thermometer inside box at the end of baking: 165 degrees F
Finished baking at 11:23AM (15 minutes)
Official Temperature at the end time: 97 degrees F
Note: The pizza box was already warm from use when I baked the S'mores, so it would take a little bit longer to melt the cheese if I had JUST put the box outside.

Clean Water Experiment
Click on this link for the instructions and diagram:https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0revQcSgs4OS29vZ09uLWR6eWc  (Note: Be sure to explain to the boys that this experiment with water does not make it drinkable. A more refined purifying method is needed for drinking water.)

Good to Know Information in relation to this experiment: Veterans Oasis Park (NE Corner of Chandler Heights Rd & Lindsay) covers 113 acres and features both lush wetland and arid habitat suitable for the diverse plants and wildlife of the Sonoran Desert. This "non-traditional" facility capitalizes on the divergent and plentiful outdoor recreation opportunities at the site created by the park land, lake, and wetlands/groundwater recharge basins. The shallow basins infiltrate high quality reclaimed water to the subsurface aquifer for storage and recovery as part of the City's comprehensive reclaimed water management plan. The park also includes 4½ miles of trails, wildlife viewing areas; ramadas and picnic areas; a butterfly and hummingbird habitat; an outdoor amphitheater; a unique, learning-oriented playground; a 5-acre “Community fishing” lake; a Solar System Walk; equestrian trails; and interpretive signs and exhibits.

Litter Sweep Relay

Materials: a broom for each team and a small pile of dry trash.

Divide the Cub Scouts into two teams and give each team a broom and a small pile of dry trash—soda cans, paper, small plastic bottles, etc. At the start signal, the first boy on each team sweeps the trash to a certain point and back. The next team member then takes over, and so on until all have run. The first team to finish wins. If a boy loses any trash, he must sweep back and pick it up.

Robot Made from Recycle Materials

Shared by Michelle

Materials used: 2 large soup cans, 2 toilet paper rolls, 1 cereal box, two baby food jar lids and 2 craft eyes. 

Cheers
Rainstorm Cheer:  To simulate rain, have everyone pat one finger of the left hand and one finger of the right hand on the table. Gradually increase the intensity of the storm by patting more fingers against the table.  Decrease the number of fingers as the storm passes.
Coyote Cheer: Have everyone stand and say, "ARC, ARC Arooooooooo!!  GEE, it sure is lonely out here."
Flower Cheer: Like a flower blooming, raise part way in your chair, look around and jump up yelling, "Spruuuuuuung!"

Opening Brain Teaser Answer: FOOT 1)food 2)fond 3)bond 4)band 5)HAND