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Description

- Say whether common household items use gas or electricity (or can be either).
- Sort items into power-hungry and power-sipping , and explain that heat and time are what really drive energy use.
- Suggest practical ways to cut energy and water use at home.
- Take home a 4-week tracker and a pledge they’ve chosen themselves

Resources

-Item cards for Games 1 and 2 (2 sets if you have more than 12 cubs)
-Signs for the hall: GAS, ELECTRICITY and BOTH / DEPENDS
-A washing line or string with pegs (or a strip of masking tape on the floor) for the“power line”
-Flip-chart sheets and pens, one per team, headed Kitchen, Bathroom, Bedroom, LivingRoom, Laundry
- Water Journey cards: 7 cards per set, 2 sets (see Game 4a)
- About a dozen clean, empty 2-litre bottles with the lids on (optional, or draw them on a flip chart), plus scrap paper and pens for team guesses
- A sand timer or phone timer (4 minutes)
- Printed Energy Detectives trackers, one per cub plus a few spares, and pencils

Instructions

The idea: The cubs act as energy detectives. They find out what runs on gas and what runs on electricity, which things use a lot of power and which use a little, and where water goes. They then pick their own pledges to try at home for 4 weeks.

Running order

- Welcome (5 min): a quick chat about where our energy comes from and what the badge asks for.
- Gas or Electric? (12 min): cubs run to the GAS, ELECTRICITY or BOTH / DEPENDS sign as items are called out. It shows that homes differ, so they check at home.
- Power Hungry or Power Sipper? (15 min): teams relay picture cards to a “tiny sip” to “huge gulp” line. The discussion brings out that heat uses the most power, and that how long something is on matters too.
- Switch Off! (10 min): a tag game where frozen cubs are “left on” until a friend frees them with “Switch off!”.
- Water Wise (15 min): the Water Journey Relay, where teams order the stages from reservoir to river. Then How Many Bottles?, a guessing game on how much water everyday jobs use. Spare dry games are in the plan if you need them.
- Saving Steps (12 min): teams race between room signs (Kitchen, Bathroom, Bedroom, Living Room, Laundry) to add ideas for saving energy and water.
- Pledges and tracker (7 min): each cub chooses three pledges (energy, water, family challenge), fills in the “Home detective” box with a grown-up, and takes the sheet home.
- Closing circle (4 min): each cub shares one thing they’ll do.

After the evening: over 4 weeks the cubs colour in a circle for each day they do a pledge and encourage their family to join in. At the end of week 4, collect the sheets, share the stories and sign off the clause.

Tags

• Environmental conservation
• reduce energy
• reduce water

Badge Links

• Environmental Conservation - Reduce
• World - Environment