First and Second Class Nature requirements

[RainShine]

Second class nature requirement

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4. Identify or show evidence of at least 10 kinds of wild animals (such as birds, mammals, reptiles, fish, or mollusks) found in your local area or camping location. You may show evidence by tracks, signs, or photographs you have taken.

First class nature requirement

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5a. Identify or show evidence of at least 10 kinds of native plants found in your local area or campsite location. You may show evidence by identifying fallen leaves or fallen fruit that you find in the field, or as part of a collection you have made, or by photographs you have taken.

So I'm kinda new to Scouting but I'm all trained up and now I'm a position to sign off requirements. When I first read the Second Class requirement I read it like the boys could see or hear an animal, record it in the handbook, and when they get ten animals I would sign the requirement. And I think that's what they said at IOLS. Great.

But now I'm reading First Class. 'you may show evidence by..' Hmmm... So, for Second Class, does this mean they have to show me the evidence? Like a plaster cast of a track or a photo of a deer?

If they hear a call of a bald eagle and can identify it by sound, does that count? Or do they have to record the sound and play it back to me? In spring we heard hundreds of frogs in the marsh near camp and the boys busily wrote it down. But no-one recorded the sound of it. (wish I had, that would be cool, but I digress).

I might be making this too hard but its just that I want to get this stuff right.

Edited August 15, 2019 by RainShine

[mrkstvns]

23 minutes ago, RainShine said:

Second class nature requirement

First class nature requirement

So I'm kinda new to Scouting but I'm all trained up and now I'm a position to sign off requirements. When I first read the Second Class requirement I read it like the boys could see or hear an animal, record it in the handbook, and when they get ten animals I would sign the requirement. And I think that's what they said at IOLS. Great.

But now I'm reading First Class. 'you may show evidence by..' Hmmm... So, for Second Class, does this mean they have to show me the evidence? Like a plaster cast of a track or a photo of a deer?

If they hear a call of a bald eagle and can identify it by sound, does that count? Or do they have to record the sound and play it back to me? In spring we heard hundreds of frogs in the marsh near camp and the boys busily wrote it down. But no-one recorded the sound of it. (wish I had, that would be cool, but I digress).

I might be making this too hard but its just that I want to get this stuff right.

It depends...but you're definitely thinking about it the right way. More than 1 way to skin a cat!

I've had kids do it in different ways. 

• Identify animals during a nature walk done as patrol/troop activity
• Take photos (had 1 kid a couple years ago who showed me 10 pictures of road kill, all of which he identified by species)
• Bring evidence (egg shells, birds nest, shark teeth,  feather, snail shell) 

We sometimes identify animal sounds on the nature walks, and I would definitely count that as fair game for the requirement, but never had anyone try to record sounds as evidence of animals.

[perdidochas]

55 minutes ago, RainShine said:

Second class nature requirement

First class nature requirement

So I'm kinda new to Scouting but I'm all trained up and now I'm a position to sign off requirements. When I first read the Second Class requirement I read it like the boys could see or hear an animal, record it in the handbook, and when they get ten animals I would sign the requirement. And I think that's what they said at IOLS. Great.

But now I'm reading First Class. 'you may show evidence by..' Hmmm... So, for Second Class, does this mean they have to show me the evidence? Like a plaster cast of a track or a photo of a deer?

If they hear a call of a bald eagle and can identify it by sound, does that count? Or do they have to record the sound and play it back to me? In spring we heard hundreds of frogs in the marsh near camp and the boys busily wrote it down. But no-one recorded the sound of it. (wish I had, that would be cool, but I digress).

I might be making this too hard but its just that I want to get this stuff right.

I had the boys keep a list.  What the "show evidence" is for, is that the boys can show you a bird nest as evidence of a bird, etc.  I've signed off this requirement in three different ways:

1) On a nature hike with the boys, have them show me the evidence as we're walking.  

2) Photographs  

3) direct evidence, like sea shells, feathers, etc.