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Champions for Nature

Cub Scouts · Adventure, Elective

Printable worksheet (PDF)

Champions for Nature helps you take care of the Earth. You'll learn which resources can run out, how to waste less, and what happens to recycling. Then you'll pitch in to help nature yourself.

Why it's worth it

Champions for Nature shows you that the things you use every day come from the Earth, and that you can help them last. You'll learn which resources grow back and which can run out, find ways your family can waste less, and follow your recycling to see where it goes. Then you'll get your hands dirty helping a park, a garden, or a stream.

Start this week

  1. Look in your trash and recycling bins with your adult. What could have been reused instead?
  2. Find out which day your recycling gets picked up, or where your family drops it off.
  3. Make two lists: things that grow back, like trees, and things that can run out, like oil.
  4. Ask your den leader if the pack has a park cleanup or tree planting coming up.

Stay safe

  • Wear gloves for cleanups, and let an adult pick up anything sharp, like glass or metal.

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 the difference between renewable and nonrenewable natural resources

    Tip: Sort pictures into two piles: things that come back, like trees, and things that run out, like oil.

    For example: Renewable resources come back, like trees we can replant, sunlight, and wind. Nonrenewable ones, like oil, coal, and natural gas, took millions of years to form and can run out.

  2. Requirement 2

    Learn about the 3 R's: reduce, reuse, recycle

    Tip: Find one thing at home to reduce, one to reuse, and one to recycle.

    For example: Reduce: carry a refillable water bottle. Reuse: turn a jar into a pencil holder. Recycle: rinse cans and put them in the right bin.

  3. Requirement 3

    Find out what happens to recyclables in your community

    Tip: Ask your city or trash company where recycling goes, or visit a recycling center.

    For example: Your town's website may show where recycling goes: a sorting center where machines and workers separate paper, plastic, and metal so they can be made into new things.

  4. Requirement 4

    Take part in a conservation project

    Tip: Join a park cleanup, plant a tree, or help at a community garden.

    For example: A conservation project might be pulling weeds at a community garden, planting flowers that bees like at a school, or picking up trash along a creek with your den.

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 machines and workers sort mountains of cans, paper, and plastic.

    How: Have your den leader call your town's waste or recycling department and ask if they give tours or have a viewing area for kids.

Talk about it together

  • What did you use today that came from nature, and where did it come from?
  • What is one way your family can waste less?
  • How did the place look after your conservation project?
  • What other place near you could use some help?

Good questions to ask someone who works at a recycling center or parks department

  • What happens to my recycling after the truck picks it up?
  • What's the most common thing people put in the wrong bin?
  • How can kids help keep parks clean?

Helpful reads

For leaders & parents

  • Ask a local recycling center if the den can tour it or have a speaker visit.
  • Partner with a park or nature center for a short, hands-on conservation project.

People & places that can help

Pairs well with

Counts toward

More Wolf adventures

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