Seeking materials for a Cub Scout presentation

[koliver]

I volunteered to do a presentation for my son's cub scout pack in March and I am wondering if anyone here has presentation materials that they would be willing to share? I need to fill about 30 minutes and plan to bring some samples and pictures of my setups. Before I go create my own powerpoint and/or hand outs, I thought I would ask here.

Thanks in advance,
Kyle

PS: apologies if this isn't the right section of the forum.

[Bricklayer]

Show them how to make maple taffy in the snow, or if it's march you could bring in some almost done syrup and show them how to test it for proper density. Bring in a chunk of maple log and get them to tap it properly.
My daughters teacher bugs me every year to come in and do a presentation. It would be a lot easier to explain maple syrup to them in the actual shack. But in a classroom you gotta keep them doing something or they will get bored.
If it were guys like us sitting in the classroom you could just do a slideshow of stainless steel rigs and shiney stuff and we'd be entertained for hours.

[maple flats]

I've done a Cub Scout presentation at my sugarhouse in season and I've done several in school presentations. For the presentation at the Cub Scouts, send me a PM with your email and I'll send you some posters I've used for years. They were made up by Cornell and give lots of info. I had mine printed up as 12x18 and got them laminated at a print shop. I have a laminator but it will only do up to 9" wide and that size just didn't seem to do justice to them.
Show a few of the tools you use, but don't go into that too deep, or many of the cub scouts will lose interest. Involve the scouts as you go, ask lots of questions for them to answer and be ready to answer loads of questions from them. When I do it, I'll allow them to ask questions as they come up, but if the questions get to be too many, be ready to get them back on track.
You may think 30 minutes is a long time, but you will find when you get into it that you really need more time.
I've done school presentations with the students going from one area to another for a whole morning or afternoon of presentations on multiple subjects, timed by a clock. I've done 20 min, 30 min and 45 minutes long per session. The last ones I did were the first time I ever tried 20 minute ones. I later told the school I'd do it again, but only if I could have double sessions. 20 minutes just went too fast.
In 40-50 total times I've done this ( many times 5 or 6 times a day) I don't think I ever had any kids who weren't listening. My groups seemed to run from about 15 up to 40 or 45 kids at a time. I don't memorize a presentation, I just start in asking anyone to tell me where maple syrup comes from, the presentation just goes from there. I tailor the presentation to the age of those learning, cub scouts will understand better than 1st graders, they are ages 8-10, which is a good range for this.
I always finish by giving each a small sample of maple syrup in a sample cup, some will try to go thru the line more than once.

[sap retreiver]

Who wouldn't try to get another taste!
Great info tho thanks