Webelos: Engineer Adventure

[Stosh]

I would advise against the use of PVC in projects, especially if one is cutting it and the boys are breathing in the dust.  Stick with wood!

[heat4212]

I would advise against the use of PVC in projects, especially if one is cutting it and the boys are breathing in the dust.  Stick with wood!

 

If you cut with one of these it doesn't make any dust:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/BrassCraft-Ratcheting-PVC-Cutter-T012-X/202351847

 

Plus, for engineering... the stomp rocket and the marshmallow shooter are just too much fun. We did those in Sept (to go with the recruitment rocket theme) and the boys are still talking about it. 

 

Not to mention these are better projects for kids with special needs (we have several aspie/autistic kids including my son). They were able to use the PVC cutter safely but could not handle using hand saws, coping saws, or hack saws which ruled out wood projects.  

[Faith]

I'm glad to know I am not alone in this frustration.  I guess people do what they want to do.  In relation to not showing up / not answering e-mails, I wish the other parents would realize we are 100% volunteers that use a LOT of our time, so the courtesy of a reply or saying they aren't participating anymore would be great.  I feel you pain about the planning.  Last year, I spent a BUNCH of time planning and organizing our Christmas party.  We had 14 registered and only 4 showed up!  It was so disheartening.  And I get nearly zero parent participation.  We finished all our requirements for the year two weeks ago, I've e-mailed everyone their open items and we and the cubmaster have offered to help finish anything they need finished.  Besides our son, only one has finished so far.  I guess people do what is important to them.  My children have ALWAYS done scouts and sports and we made the effort to participate in both.  It's hard, but worth it we believe.  We aren't going to have any more regular den meetings until the fall, but once school is out we will schedule some of the AOL / Webelos electives for the scouts who wish to participate (we will do it with the new Webelos 1 so that should be fun.)

 

I wanted to update on the Engineer activity.  We finished it in three weeks.  Honestly, it would be very easy for it to take 4 weeks.  The first week which was mainly discussion was a little bit dry for the boys although we tried to make it interactive.  The next two weeks we worked on the three projects we needed to build and did paper airplane design (I was surprised that one of the boys did not know how to make paper airplanes?), designed and build a catapult and designed and built a stomp rocket.  I know someone said it was boring, but our four boys that participated seemed to have a great time!  I'm glad that it went well.

I wish they would, too. But sadly, it just doesn't work that way. I'm learning its the same way in sports, too (only speaking from experience with my younger son's soccer team.)

 

Sorry to hear about your Christmas party, that sounds very familiar! We just had our end of the year party and 9 of our 10 showed up. I was amazed. #10 showed up...the next day. She called wanting to know where we were (and then double checked my message.) Almost perfect attendance

 

So glad the engineer activity went well for you and that it was a success!