Pinewood Derby Performance
Resources and Presentation Slides
PowWow 2009
WD Boyce Council, BSA

The "Pinewood Derby Performance" PowWow session targets adult Scouters who are responsible for organizing a pack Pinewood Derby, including suggestions regarding how to help members accomplish their Scouting goals.
(For prior years, see HERE)

Resources:

Notes for pwp_mentoring.ppt

1
Welcome to my POWWOW session on Pinewood Derby Performance.

If you are looking for Cub Grub, you're in the wrong room!

Why the strange title? To maintain perspective! More on this later.

2
You are welcome to use this presentation in your own units... or to adapt it to your needs.

The presentation was prepared using the Impress feature of OpenOffice.org 2.4. OpenOffice is free for personal use.

3
Well, yes! Everyone wants to make fast cars, right? Well ...

4
Huh?

Well, I'm “splitting hairs”, maybe ... but there is a point!

The “Purpose for PWD in Cub Scouting” had better be the same as the “Purpose for Cub Scouting”!

5
This is the same as the purposes of a lot of other Cub Scouting activities!

The 10 purposes of Cub Scouting are:
Character Development
Spiritual Growth
Good Citizenship
Sportsmanship and Fitness
Family Understanding
Respectful Relationships
Personal Achievement
Friendly Service
Fun and Adventure
Preparation for Boy Scouts
(http://www.scouting.org/factsheets/02-502.html)

6
Why do so many people write so may books and papers about how to make the cars go faster?

Why did Stan spend so much of his spare time writing a book about the Science of PWD cars?

Why do “guaranteed” PWD cars on ebay bring bids of hundreds of dollars?

7
Racing and trying to win isn't the purpose ... it is HOW we accomplish the purpose!

8
Takes the parent out of the picture. Mentoring and supervising a young builder is a one-on-one effort!

Does the Den Leader have the tools and skills to allow the boys to get the most out of their effort? Sometimes!

9
This is how it is usually implemented and it reduces the parent role and the Cub Scout role. Mentoring and supervising a young builder should a one-on-one effort!

We could salvage this one by having a workshop for the mentors, who then apply what they have learned to guide and mentor respective their Cub Scout!

10
What skills does the Cub Scout learn from this?

11
What skills does a Cub Scout learn from watching?

12
Need I say more?

13
This is a little better, but still far from the goal!

14
Cub Scout may learn a “skill”, but I don't think it is the one BSA had in mind!

15
Guidance may include some “hands over hands” as the Cub Scout learns to use a new tool.

Some power tools (e.g. scroll saws, hand drills, drill presses, precision lathes) are “kid safe” if used with teaching and close supervision. Other power tools (e.g. bench saws, radial arm saws, band saws) are barely “adult safe.”

16
Yes!!!

17
Derby Talk is great!

If you dig shallowly enough in “Pope's Pinewood Pages” you will find my “published online” book. You have a “free pass.”

18
I suspect that some of the ideas that Meade puts forth are legal in some venues, so completeness dictates that he include them.

19
I heartily recommend OpenOffice!
Latest update: 10/27/2009
Copyright 2009 © by Stan Pope. All rights reserved.