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Webelos – 4th Grade
My Community
Citizenship
Required
Requirement 1

Snack-lections

Webelos – 4th Grade
My Community
Citizenship
Required
Requirement 1

Snack-lections

Snapshot of Activity

Using a variety of voting, select the snack for your next den meeting. 

Indoor
2
2
2
If you want to know more about The Adventure Activity Key click here.
  • Three pieces of poster board 
  • Crayons, markers, or colored pencils 
  • Slips of paper (one for each Cub Scout) 
  • Pencils (one for each Cub Scout) 

Before the meeting: 

  1. Become familiar with the voting concepts of majority and plurality. 
    • Majority means that to win a vote the candidate must receive more than 50% of the vote, this represents the majority.   The benefit of a majority vote is that the majority of people get what they voted for.  The potential challenge with a majority vote is when there are multiple candidates or topics, and a lot of people involved it may be difficult and/or take a lot of time to get a majority of people to agree on one candidate or topic. It may take several votes to get to a majority with no guarantee a majority will ever be reached. Conducting elections on a large scale is very costly. 
    • Plurality is a system of voting, common in democracies, where the candidate who receives the most votes wins the vote, this is most common when there are more than two candidates on a ballot.    The benefit of a plurality vote is that chances are greater that at least one person or topic will receive the most votes.  Plurality votes usually only take one vote.   The potential challenge is that people who are voting expecting a majority vote may feel like their vote didn’t have an impact. 
    • The President of the United States is elected using a combination of majority and plurality system called the electoral college. Several states use majority voting to assign their electoral votes.  In total there are 538 electoral votes and to win a presidential election the candidate must receive the majority of those electoral votes which is 270.  

During the meeting: 

  1. Explain that Cub Scouts will decide on a snack for the next meeting. Let the Cub Scouts know that the purpose of this is to explore the difference between majority and plurality voting. 
  2. Tell the Cub Scouts that; “First we have to decide what types of snacks we may want.  The first part of most elections begins with what is called a nomination. This is where people recommend someone for the position by nominating them, in this case you are going to give a nomination for a snack.  For the snack to make our ballot at least one other Cub Scout has to agree to put it on the ballot, which does not mean they have to vote for it and I as the den leader have to approve it.”  Have a list of things that the snack should be. 
  3. Allow Cub Scouts to start nominating snacks.  If no one else wants that snack on the ballot, then it does not go on the ballot.  Remember the den leader must approve the snack to ensure a snack that is not practical is not voted on.  For example, sushi may not be a snack that is in the den budget, but pizza is. 
  4. Continue to allow nominations until at least four snacks have been accepted. It is important to have at least four candidates to give a greater chance that not one snack will receive the majority of votes.  The lesson is more powerful when Cub Scouts realize that there are times when majority voting doesn’t give results right away or may cause a tie that cannot be broken.  Plurality voting is more likely to give a result right away and prevents stalemate situations that keep any one snack from being chosen. 
  5. Hand out a slip of paper and pencil to each Cub Scout and have them write the name of the snack they are voting for on the paper and turn it into you.  Tell them that this is a secret ballot so no one will know who you voted for. 
  6. Count the votes and post the results. 
  7. Explain to Cub Scouts that we can decide what snack won the election in one of two ways.  The two most common methods are majority and plurality.  Plurality is when the snack that received the most votes wins.  Majority is when a snack must have the majority of the votes which is more than half the votes to win. 
  8. Discuss the results. 
    • Is there a snack that received the most votes (plurality)? 
    • Is there a snack that received the majority of votes (majority)? 
    • Explain to Cub Scouts –  Imagine if this was an election where there were thousands or millions of voters.  There is a lot of time, money, and energy it takes to conduct an election and it can be a drain of resources to keep conducting an election until there is a majority.   
    • Based on this election what  do you think should be the denner? 

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Webelos – 4th Grade

Denner Election

Indoor
2
2
2

Demonstrate plurality voting and majority voting to determine your next denner.

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Bray Barnes

Director, Global Security Innovative
Strategies

Bray Barnes is a recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award, Silver
Beaver, Silver Antelope, Silver Buffalo, and Learning for Life Distinguished
Service Award. He received the Messengers of Peace Hero award from
the royal family of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and he’s a life member of
the 101st Airborne Association and Vietnam Veterans Association. Barnes
serves as a senior fellow for the Global Federation of Competitiveness
Councils, a nonpartisan network of corporate CEOs, university presidents, and
national laboratory directors. He has also served as a senior executive for the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, leading the first-responder program
and has two U.S. presidential appointments

David Alexander

Managing Member Calje

David Alexander is a Baden-Powell Fellow, Summit Bechtel Reserve philanthropist, and recipient of the Silver Buffalo and Distinguished Eagle Scout Award. He is the founder of Caljet, one of the largest independent motor fuels terminals in the U.S. He has served the Arizona Petroleum Marketers Association, Teen Lifeline, and American Heart Association. A triathlete who has completed hundreds of races, Alexander has also mentored the women’s triathlon team at Arizona State University.

Glenn Adams

President, CEO & Managing Director
Stonetex Oil Corp.

Glenn Adams is a recipient of the Silver Beaver, Silver Antelope, Silver Buffalo, and Distinguished Eagle Scout Award. He is the former president of the National Eagle Scout Association and established the Glenn A. and Melinda W. Adams National Eagle Scout Service Project of the Year Award. He has more than 40 years of experience in the oil, gas, and energy fields, including serving as a president, owner, and CEO. Adams has also received multiple service awards from the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers.