Bear Electives
The requirements for Bear Electives were revised in the 1998
edition of the Bear Cub Scout Book.
- SPACE
- Identify two constellations and the North Star.
- Make a pinhole planetarium and show three constellations.
- Visit a planetarium.
- Build a model of a rocket or space satellite.
- Read and talk about at least one man-made satellite and
one natural one.
- Find a picture of another planet in our solar system.
Explain how it is different from Earth.
- WEATHER
- Learn how to read a thermometer. Put a thermometer
outdoors and read it at the same time every day for 2
weeks. Keep a record of the weather for each day.
- Build a weather vane, record wind direction for 2 weeks
at the same hour. Keep a record of the weather for
each day.
- Make a rain gauge. Record rainfall for 2 weeks.
- Find out what a barometer is and how it works. Tell your
den about it. Tell what "relative humidity" means.
- Learn to identify three different kinds of clouds.
Estimate their height.
- Watch the weather forecast on television every day for 2
weeks. Describe three different symbols used on
weather maps. Keep a record of how many times the
weather forecast is correct.
- RADIO
- Build a crystal or diode radio. Check with your local
craft or hobby shop or in the Boys' Life ads. It is
all right to use a kit.
- Make and operate a battery powered radio following the
directions with the kit.
- ELECTRICITY
- Wire a buzzer or doorbell.
- Make an electric buzzer game.
- Make a simple bar or horseshoe electromagnet.
- Use a simple electric motor.
- Make a crane with an electromagnetic lift.
- BOATS
- Help your dad or any other adult rig and sail a real
boat.
- Help your dad or any other adult repair a real boat or
canoe.
- Know storm warning flag signals.
- Help your dad or any other adult repair a boat dock.
- Know the rules of boat safety.
- With an adult, demonstrate forward strokes, turns, and
backstrokes. Row a boat around a 100-yard course
involving two turns.
- AIRCRAFT
- Identify five different kinds of aircraft in flight, if
possible, or from models or photos.
- Ride in an airplane (commercial or private).
- Explain how a hot air balloon works.
- Build and fly a model airplane. (You can use a kit.
Every time you do this differently, it counts as a
completed project.)
- Sketch and label an airplane showing the direction of
forces acting on it (lift, drag, and load).
- What are some of the things a helicopter can do that
other kinds of airplanes can't? Make a list. Draw or
cut out a picture of a helicopter and label the parts.
- Build and display a scale airplane model. You may use a
kit or build it from plans.
- THINGS THAT GO
- Make a scooter or a Cubmobile. Know safety rules.
- Make a windmill.
- Make a waterwheel.
- Make an invention of your own design that goes.
- CUB SCOUT BAND
- Make and play a homemade musical instrument - cigarbox
banjo, washtub bull fiddle, a drum or rhythm set,
tambourine. etc.
- Learn to play two familiar tunes on an ocarina, a
harmonica, or a tonette.
- Play in a den band using homemade or regular musical
instruments. Play at a pack meeting.
- Play two tunes on any recognized band or orchestra
instrument.
- ART
- Do an original art project and show it at a pack meeting.
Every project you do counts as one requirement.
- Visit an art museum or picture gallery with your den or
family.
- MASKS
- Make a simple papier-mache mask.
- Make an animal mask.
- Make an American Indian mask.
- Make a clown mask.
- PHOTOGRAPHY
- Practice holding a camera still in one position. Learn
to push the shutter button without moving the camera.
Do this without film in the camera until you have
learned how. Look through the viewfinder and see what
your picture will look like. Make sure that everything
you want in your picture is in the frame of your
viewfinder.
- Take five pictures of the same subject in different kinds
of light.
- Subject in direct sun with direct light.
- Subject in direct sun with side light.
- Subject in direct sun with back light.
- On a sunny day, subject in shade.
- Cloudy day.
- Put your pictures to use.
- Mount a picture on cardboard for display.
- Mount on cardboard and give it to a friend.
- Make three pictures that show how something
happened (tell a story) and write one sentence
explanation for each.
- Make a picture in your house.
- With available light.
- Using a flash attachment or photo flood.
- NATURE CRAFTS
- Make shadow prints or blueprints of three kinds of leaves.
- Make a display of eight different animal tracks with an
eraser print.
- Collect, press, and label 10 kinds of leaves.
- Collect, mount, and label 10 kinds of insects.
- Collect eight kinds of plant seeds and label.
- Collect, mount, and label 10 kinds of rocks or minerals.
- Collect, mount, and label five kinds of shells.
- Make a spider web print; mount and display it.
- MAGIC
- Learn and show three magic tricks.
- With your den, put on a magic show for your pack.
- Learn and show four puzzles.
- Learn and show three rope tricks.
- LANDSCAPING
- Help your parents take care of your lawn or help take
care of the lawn of a public building, school, or
church. Seed bare spots. Get rid of weeds. Pick up
litter. Agree ahead of time on what you will do.
- Make a sketch of a landscape plan for the area right
around your house or for an apartment building. Talk
it over with your parents or den leader. Show what
trees, shrubs and flowers you could plant to make the
area look better.
- Take part in a project with your family, den, or pack to
make your neighborhood or community more beautiful.
These might be cleanup parties, painting, planting,
cleaning and painting trash barrels, and removing
ragweed. (Each time you do this differently, it counts
as a completed project.)
- Build a greenhouse and grow 20 plants from seed. You can
use a package of garden seeds, or use beans, pumpkin
seeds, or watermelon seeds.
- WATER AND SOIL CONSERVATION
- Dig a hole or find an excavation project and describe the
different layers of soil you see and feel. (Do not
enter an excavation area without permission.)
- Take three cans the same size and punch four holes in the
bottom of each with a hammer and nail. Put clay in the
first can, soil in the second can, and sand in the
third can. Fill all three cans one half-full of soil.
Pour one-half can of water into each can, one at a
time. Write down the time it takes the water to run
through (until dripping stops) each kind of earth.
(The three kinds of earth are not good for growing
things alone, but when mixed together they make very
good soil.)
- Visit a burned-out forest or prairie area, or a slide
area, with your den or your family. Talk to a member
of the U.S. Forest Service about how the area will be
planted and cared for, to grow again the way it was
before the accident.
- Some people like to use live Christmas trees. After
Christmas, plant the tree in your yard, or at school,
your Boy Scout council service center, or a park. Find
out all the things you need to know about how to take
care of a live Christmas tree in your home.
- What is wind erosion? Find out the kinds of grass,
trees, or ground cover you need to plant to stop wind
erosion.
- As a den, visit a lake, stream, river, or ocean
(whichever is nearest where you live). Plan a den
project to help clean up this important source of
water. Name four kinds of water pollution.
- FARM ANIMALS
- Take care of a farm animal. Decide with your parent the
things you will do and how long you will do them.
- Name and describe six breeds of farm animals and tell
their common uses.
- Read a book about a farm animal and tell your den about it.
- With your family or den, visit a livestock exhibit at a
county or state fair.
- REPAIRS
- With the help of an adult, fix an electric plug or an
electric appliance.
- Use glue or epoxy to repair something.
- Remove and clean a grease trap.
- Refinish or repaint something.
- Agree with your parent on some repair job to be done and
do it. (Each time you do this differently, it counts
as a completed project.)
- BACKYARD GYM
- Build and use an outdoor gym with at least three items
from this list.
- Balance Board
- Trapeze
- Tire Walk
- Tire Swing
- Tetherball
- Climbing Rope
- Running Long Jump Area.
- Build three outdoor toss games.
- Plan an outdoor game or gym day with your den (this can
be part of a pack activity). Put your plans on paper.
- Hold an open house for your backyard gym.
- SWIMMING
- Jump feetfirst into water over your head, swim 25 feet,
turn around, and swim back.
- Swim on your back, using a resting stroke, for 30 feet.
- Rest by floating on your back, using as little motion as
possible. Also show the "drown-proof" method of
floating facedown for 4 minutes. ("Drown-proof"
floating or bobbing [jellyfish float] uses a minimum of
arm and leg movement to lift the head for breathing.)
- Tell what is meant by the buddy plan and the basic rules
of safe swimming and simple rescue.
- Do a racing dive from edge of pool and swim 60 feet,
using a racing stroke.
- SPORTS
- In archery, know the safety rules. Know how to shoot
correctly. Put six arrows into a 4-foot target at a
distance of 15 yards. Make an arrow holder.
- In skiing, know the Skier's Safety Code. Demonstrate
walking and kick turn, climbing with sidestep or
herringbone, snowplow stop, stem turn, four linked
snowplow or stem turns, and straight running in a
downhill position, or a cross-country position, and
show how to recover from a fall.
- In ice skating, know the safety rules. From a standing
start, skate forward 150 feet; come to a complete stop
within 20 feet. Skate around a corner clockwise and
counterclockwise without coasting. Show a turn from
forward to backward. Skate backward 50 feet.
- In track, show how to make a sprint start. Run the 50-
yard dash in 10 seconds or less. Show how to do the
standing long jump, the running long jump, or high
jump. Land in a soft area.
- In roller skating, know the safety rules. From a
standing start, skate forward 150 feet; come to a
complete stop within 20 feet. Skate around a corner
clockwise and counterclockwise without coasting and
show a turn from forward to backward. Skate backward
50 feet.
- SALES
- Take part in a pack-sponsored, money-earning sales
program. Keep track of the sales you make yourself.
When the sale is over, add up the sales you have sold.
- Help with a garage sale or rummage sale. This can be
with your family, a neighbor, or a church, school, or
pack event.
- COLLECTING THINGS
- Start a stamp collection. You can get information about
stamp collecting at any U.S. Post Office.
- Mount and display a collection of patches, coins, or
other things to show at a pack meeting. This can be
any kind of collection. Every time you show a different
kind of collection, it counts as one requirement.
- MAPS
- Look up your state on a U.S. map. What other states
touch its borders?
- Find your city or town on a map of your state. How far
do you live from the state capital?
- In which time zone do you live? How many time zones are
there in the U.S.?
- Make a map showing the way from your home to your school
or den meeting place.
- Mark a map showing the way to a place you would like to
visit that is at least 50 miles from your home.
- INDIAN LIFE
- Indians lived all over what is now the United States.
Find the name of the tribe who lived nearest where you
live now. What is this tribe best known for?
- Make and display a sand painting.
- Learn, make equipment for, and play two Indian games with
members of your den. Be able to tell the rules, who
won, and what the score was.
- Make a model of an Indian house.