Teaching Geography during Camp

[SiniShadow]

Hello again, disclaimer that I'm a member of the polish boy scouts, not BSA.

During this year's camp, many scouts will be going for a badge that requires some knowledge of Polish Geography and History. I have been tasked with planning out the camp, and would like to prepare them somewhat before they test for the badge  I already have some ideas for games to teach history, but now am looking for a good way to teach Geography to the kids. I would want to teach them important cities, rivers, the sea, and mountains. I was thinking of making a big map with dots where all the cities are, but I'm not sure how feasible that would be/ how to turn that into a fun game for the scouts. Any ideas?

[SSScout]

Welcome to the Scouter Forums.,....and thank you for   Tadeusz Kosciuszko.    

Are you familiar  with the game "Pin The Tail On The Donkey?", popular here at some kids parties?    

Create an outline map,  only geographic , terrain, rivers,  no political, "human"   items.    Create some outline of cities, towns, etc. to pin on in the right places.   Use a plastic surface that can be wiped clean, and double stick tape , so there are no left over clues for the next players….  

I do not know how old your Scouts will be.  At our Cub Scout Day Camp, I did Map and Compass.   We pasted up a series of maps, graduated as to scale.   Our National Geographic magazine has a nice series.  There were in order of scale:  THE UNIVERSE, The "local group" of galaxies, the Milky Way galaxy,  the Solar System,  a world globe, a Mercator projection world map, a Buckminster Fuller world projection (nice comparison!),  a national map (USA of course), a state map,  a county map, a local road map, a map of the Park we were in....   I had a few Cubs ooo, and aaah actually at the connection between the maps.   Showing how the smaller scale links to the larger scale , and the orientation was a nice touch, we thought. 

Good luck with your camp !

 

 

 

Edited June 27, 2018 by SSScout

[MattR]

Could be a bit of work but: there's a map with cities, train tracks, major roads, and rivers. Between each city and along each road, train, and river there is also a time it takes to get from city to city along that method of travel.

Now the fun part. Break the scouts into teams and give all the teams a place where they start and a couple of cities where a treasure is to be found. Their goals is to find a quick route from start to collect each treasure. So take the road to city X, then take a train to city Y, then grab the treasure, then take the boat to city Z and get the second treasure.... The team with the fastest route wins. They will have to study the map to figure out the best route. Play a couple of games of this and they'll learn the major cities and routes. You can even put in hiking trails. Put a treasure in a big lake, make them write down a list of what they need to bring (scuba gear!), and the amount of complexity can be as big as their age can deal with.

[qwazse]

Got paint? Plywood?

Giant puzzle on 2'x2' tiles.

If you have two, the scouts can race each other.