Before the meeting:
- Identify an area where Cub Scouts can take a walk and see various plants, insects, and animals.
- Contact Cub Scouts’ parents or legal guardians to give them the location for the walk. Remind them to bring their child’s completed Activity Consent Form, a camera, and their Cub Scout Six Essentials.
During the meeting:
- Introduce bilateral symmetry: “Bilateral symmetry means that the object or image can be divided by a line into right and left halves that are mirror images of each other. If an image can be folded in half and sides match up, it is symmetrical. It is also called mirror symmetry.”
- Tell Cub Scouts they will take a nature walk. They are to take pictures of things that have mirror symmetry.
- Have Cub Scouts buddy up.
- Walk slowly. Remind Cub Scouts to look down, around, and up. They may want to examine leaves and insects. They can take many pictures.
- After the walk, gather Cub Scouts.
- While they are eating their snack, ask them to each find a picture of something they believe has bilaterial symmetry or a mirror image.
- Ask them to draw an imaginary line down the middle of the picture. Ask them if the two sides are the same. This is bilaterial symmetry.
Tip: This activity can be done together with requirement 4.
