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Champions for Nature

Cub Scouts · Adventure, Elective

Printable worksheet (PDF)

Champions for Nature helps you learn how to care for our planet. You'll find out what nature gives us, how different kinds of trash are different, and how recycling works. Then you'll help with a project that makes your world cleaner.

Why it's worth it

Trees, water, rocks, and soil come from nature. Plastic cups and toy cars are made by people. In Champions for Nature you'll learn the difference, find out what happens to the things you throw away, and help take care of a park or green space. You and your den can leave a place cleaner than you found it, and that's what a real champion does.

Start this week

  1. Walk around your home with your grown-up and find three things from nature and three things people made.
  2. Look in your family's recycling bin together and name what's inside.
  3. Ask your adult what day the trash and recycling trucks come, and watch for them.

Stay safe

  • Wear gloves for cleanups, and let adults pick up glass, needles, or anything sharp.

Requirements · 4

Every official requirement and part, numbered to match Scouting America, in plain language. Sign off against the official wording (opens in a new tab).

  1. Requirement 1

    Learn how natural resources differ from human-made items

    Tip: Go on a hunt at home: put a leaf, rock, or apple in one pile and a plastic toy or spoon in another.

    For example: Sort a pile on the table: a leaf, an apple, and a rock in the nature pile; a plastic spoon, a crayon, and a sock in the people-made pile. Talk about how a crayon is made from things that started in nature.

  2. Requirement 2

    Learn how organic, paper, plastic, metal, and glass waste differ

    Tip: Look in the kitchen trash and recycling with your adult to find food scraps, paper, plastic, metal, and glass, and talk about how they differ.

    For example: Banana peels and apple cores are organic and can turn back into soil in a compost pile. Paper can be recycled into new paper. Plastic bottles and metal cans can be melted down and made into new things, and glass can be melted and made into new jars.

  3. Requirement 3

    Find out about recycling

    Tip: Follow the recycling at your home: where does it go after pickup? Ask your adult or visit a recycling center.

    For example: Follow the recycling: it goes in the bin, the truck picks it up, and a sorting center separates paper, metal, plastic, and glass. Then factories turn it into new things.

  4. Requirement 4

    Take part in a conservation service project

    Tip: Join a cleanup at a park or school, or help plant something, wearing gloves and staying with your grown-up.

    For example: Join your den at a park cleanup. Wear gloves, pick up litter with a grabber, and put cans and bottles in a separate bag for recycling. Count your bags at the end.

Places to visit

Ask an adult to set it up, and go with your family, den, patrol, or crew.

  • A recycling center

    You can watch big machines sort paper, cans, and bottles and see how much your town recycles.

    How: Have your den leader call your city or county recycling office and ask if they offer tours or a viewing area for young kids.

  • A community garden with a compost pile

    You can see food scraps turning into soil, which is nature doing its own recycling.

    How: Your adult can contact the garden's organizers and ask if your den can visit during a workday.

Talk about it together

  • What is your favorite thing that comes from nature?
  • What surprised you about where recycling goes?
  • What is one thing your family could reuse instead of throwing away?
  • How did the park look after your den cleaned it up?
  • How can you be a champion for nature at school?

Helpful reads

For leaders & parents

  • Set up a sorting game with clean, safe items for food scraps, paper, plastic, metal, and glass (use photos or plastic stand-ins for glass).
  • Contact your city or county recycling office about a tour or a visit from a staff member.

People & places that can help

Pairs well with

Counts toward

More Lion adventures

Tips, examples, and questions are ideas from experienced leaders, not extra requirements. Your unit leader or counselor decides when a requirement is complete.