The "Big Here" Quiz

Scouts learn about themselves and the wider world. It can be pictured as concentric circles from their spiritual and/or philosophical selves to their families, their patrol, their school, their community, nation and world. These relationships function within an environment, natural or man-made, that contains and supports all of us.

Our actions effect the environment almost as much as it shapes us. Understanding the glorious complexities of these interactions is a life's work. Knowledge breeds a vision of interdependence, responsibility and the promise of a bright future.

Kevin Kelly at Cool Tools posted "The Big Here Quiz":

You live in the big here. Wherever you live, your tiny spot is deeply intertwined within a larger place, embedded fractal-like into a whole system called a watershed, which is itself integrated with other watersheds into a tightly interdependent biome. ... What do you know about the dynamics of this larger system around you?

There are thirty questions in the quiz that will lead to information that correlates with that of many of the merit badges offered to Scouts. Thirty questions that are like so many signposts pointing down roads of inquiry - each one a voyage of discovery.

Kelly has set up a matrix of answers and ideas from readers linked to each question.

Here are five of my favorites from the quiz:

3) Trace the water you drink from rainfall to your tap.
9) Before your tribe lived here, what did the previous inhabitants eat and how did they sustain themselves? 10) Name five native edible plants in your neighborhood and the season(s) they are available.
11) From what direction do storms generally come?
27) Where does your electric power come from and how is it generated?

The Big Here Quiz at Cool Tools