PW awards for design???

[MollieDuke]

I spun this off my "questions" thread--sorry for so many questions. I just want maximum fun for the boys and families......

 

I've seen packs that do a design category like: most unusual design, most unlike a car, etc. I assume these cars race as well, but do you do any of these and if so, which are the favorites at your place? Do you encourage the boys to think outside the box to design an unusual car if they wish?

 

MollieD

[EagleInKY]

A few years back, instead of giving yet another cheesy ribbon or patch, we thought it would be cool to do something like this. So, we gave them certificates with all sorts of funny categories (best use of a block of wood, fastest looking, best paint job, etc.). Every car gets one. The boys think their cool, and it's a form of a participation award.

 

We do a "real" best design award for each den. They get a nice plaque. We try not to give it the overall winner. But if it's not close...

[KoreaScouter]

When I was a Cubmaster and CC, we did give the various awards, such as "best use of paint", and so on. They weren't "gimmes", though. Actual judges looked at every car, and they made sense.

 

Sometimes I think we're overly worried about the boys' sensitivities. In my experience, they don't care about participation ribbons, they just want to race their cars...a lot. This isn't a scientific assessment, but show me a lad who has a meltdown over his car, and I'll show you a dad who made this a "win at all costs" thing instead of a fun thing.

 

Funniest thing I ever saw: Scout's car (80-90% dad-built, from appearance)had doo-dads on top that prevented it from passing under the finish gate. I told the Scout, and asked him to take it to the pit so he could do whatever he needed to in order to make it fit. He said "Sure", and right in front of me, snapped off the doo-dads, and handed it back. Dad, behind him, nearly had an aneurism. I could barely contain myself.

 

KS

[Fuzzy Bear]

KS, I can visualize that incident as if it just happened in front of me. Very funny.

 

Several years ago, I was working CS Day Camp in an area with little electric saws helping CSs cut out pieces of wood for some kind of gizmo. We had a stack of odd shaped scraps of wood left over, so I took a felt tip marker and made awards out of them for the best this and the best that. Every kid that left the area was a winner for something or the other. They all seemed excited to win and it was just fun and funny. One kid got left out one round for some reason, so I whipped out the old marker, picked up a scrap of wood and wrote something like, The Best Request for an Award. A few years later at an Eagle COH, the lad's Father reminded me of the "Best of" awards at that Day Camp where his son had received one. He said that his son still had "The Best Request for an Award" plaque hanging in his room.

 

Kids are special and need to be reminded of it frequently.

 

I have wanted to propose this PWD pre-event for some time. It is kind of technical but could be the source of shared information for the next generation(s) of cars. The event is voluntary and anyone is eligible. The Scout or person writes up one secret on how to make the fastest car on a form given out two months before the Derby. The secrets must not abridge the standard rules. The secrets must be different from or confirmations of any other in the Great Book of PWD Secrets for the Pack. After each PWD, the Great Book (* on CD-R) is passed out to all members of the Pack to study for the next year.

 

Secrets must be either (1.) methods that have been shown to be effective or (2.) hypothetical ideas that have some (*controlled) testing or (3.) retesting to show the benefit of a method. The Scouts can design experiments and test out their ideas during the year in the den. Fathers can design and run their own experiments in their garages and then write up their own proposal and submit them. Everyone that submits a proposal is given a nice computer generated certificate for their efforts if it meets the rules above in either of the three classes. The accepted proposals are not compared hierarchically.

 

The target idea is to distill the technology and make the PWD competitive for more of the Scouts through shared information. The secondary idea is to teach the experimental method and to understand the cause and effect relationship.

 

FB

[ScoutNut]

We do "best of" certificates for every boy in the race. My daughter is usually the one filling them out as she has a wonderfully creative mind and a nice turn of a phrase. She studies each car and finds some way in which it is unique. The boys participation ribbon is stapled to his certificate and placed with his car on his trophy stand (made by the 5th grd Webelos den as their final Craftsman project!). The boys who end up in 1st, 2nd or 3rd place also get a PWD medal. The boys get a kick out of it.

 

There is a guy I work with who is also a Cub Scout parent. His Pack holds theme PWD's. Last year's theme was sports & he & his son made a football car. This year is cartoon characters and his son has a Sponge Bob car. He brought them in so I could see them and they were VERY cute!! He said that not everyone goes by the theme, but the boys have fun with it.

 

That is an idea I would really like to sell to our Pack. I can see it now - a fish racing a canoe in a camping themed race. What fun!!

 

[DWylie]

Our pack is about 70 boys, so our night of racing is long. When we have the boys weigh in (a few days earlier) we have a small group of parents give out about 20 ribbons for design. Frankly, the categories are made up on the spot (best Sponge Bob, best BatMan). On race night, we start with Tigers and go up the ranks. As the rank is done, we give back the cars (except for those going to the Pack finals) to the boys, give them a certificate for participation, give design awards, and ribbons for places for the rank.

 

For us, as probably with many, PWD is a highlight of the year.

[MollieDuke]

I agree that PW derby is the highlight time for most boys. That's why I want to do this well. I want the most participation/ease of racing I can get and hope that most boys go home happy and having had a good time. That said, I also think we need to realize there are "winners/losers" and that's reality. I don't think, though, that just because a car isn't fast enough to win the speed race that it couldn't win a "best paint job" title. I think that also shows that the car is an entire being----style/paint/design/etc. It's the whole enchilada.

 

This seems like the best way to encourage the artistically talented child into a venue he'd never thought of also.

 

Just my 2 cents,

Mollie

[Twocubdad]

We give a "best design" award at every age group and overall "best design" and "most creative" at the pack level. The boys all vote on the winners. We've seen some interesting dynamics in the voiting. One year all the Tigers -- all 14 of them -- each voted for their own car, a 14-way tie. We had a couple parents secretly break the tie. Another time one boy who had a really cool car spent the evening at the table politicking for his car to win. Worse yet, he pretended the car wasn't his -- "Ooo, look at that car, isn't it cool? I'm voting for it." Everyone knew it was his car and voted for someone else.

 

I think the boys are onto the awards that everyone receives. A few years ago we had a Lad-Dad bakeoff and came up with a creative prize for every cake, "best use of the color green," and stuff like that. I overheard a couple of the boys grousing that the prizes were bogus and that everyone won something. Nine and 10 year olds especially have a very good sense of when adults are blowing smoke their way.

 

We now give participation prizes at check-in. We also try to do something the boys will like, not just a ribbon. In the past we had little caribiners, compasses and pen lights. They're usually about a buck or so.

[ManassasEagle]

Our guys are definitely on to the "everybody gets an award" thing. They think it's totally bogus. Last year, one cub was given the "Boo-ya Award" for his car. That made up award accomplished nothing other than to make him even more upset with his car not winning. He promptly tossed the award in the garbage.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Sportsmanship is a goal in Cub Scouting and is a learned skill. Winning the PWD is secondary to allot of other things.

 

Since everyone cannot win, then the majority of us must learn how to accept defeat. Accepting defeat also means to learn that you must accept the challenge to try again. Accepting defeat needs to include being happy for the other person when it is their day to win. In Scouting with all of the varied activities, most will win at something sometime, so patience is a necessary part of sportsmanship. Patience, careful study and practice are necessary to improve your skills but winning is even secondary to this type of applied learning.

 

When a person does win, the proper attitude does not include forming the letter "L" on the forehead with your hand to indicate that all of the rest are Losers. The intensity of that type of win injures the goal of being friendly and remaining friends. Winning at all costs is not a sure sign of sportsmanship; rather it indicates that being a good citizen is not necessary. When one's Father takes their son's PWD car down to their workshop and has it aligned and machined by several adult mechanics for speed is known as cheating and has nothing to do with Personal Achievement.

 

Reading and following the rules of the game is important. Being respectful of each other, even in contests, is the most important goal. Having fun and seeking out the adventure in an activity brings about a new way to view things and allows a person to just simply enjoy being a part of it. (*that is known as simply having fun for the sake of having fun) Character development is an underlying goal that is central to all Scouting contests. If we have missed sportsmanship and the associated principles, then nobody ever wins.

 

FB

 

[anarchist]

We try to avoid bogus awards also...we have gone to a weigh in the night before the race...during this parents (from dens other than their son's) judge the various cars for a den by den I did my best award...the main criteria is that they should try to pick a cat that really looks like a boy did the work on it...the top three in each den have a quick 'interview' conplete with 'pretend microphone' like it is being done for "TV"...the interview allows the bot to tell how hard it is to build one of these "FINE" racing machines...for the last three years almost every winner has been a kid whose dad couldn't or didn't help...some of them were pretty sad looking but they were done with heart and effort... some however are really nice, put together by hard core perfectionist kids (like older son was 10 years ago) but most are rough runners like those put to gether by my younger son...you know take the block out cut the corners off, spray paint it and put at least three wheels on!

 

Design is great, just be ware that dads do most of the design work...