International info investigators
You’ll need
- Pens or pencils
- A4 paper
Before you begin
- Invite someone who’s been on an international trip to join you. It could be one person or a group of people – you could ask Scouts or Explorer Scouts, Scout Network members, and volunteers.
- Ask the visitor to prepare a short talk about their experience – it’d be great if they could bring any photos or interesting souvenirs too.
- Ask the visitor if they could open your meeting by teaching everyone a song, game, or dance from the country they visited.
- Make note of (or print) the example questions below. It’ll be useful to have these on hand in case people struggle to think of questions.
Get ready to report
- Before the visitor begins, the person leading the activity should give everyone a pen and some paper to write or draw and notes.
- Everyone should listen carefully to the visitor. They should jot down anything they find especially interesting and reminders of any questions they think of.
- Once the visitor’s finished talking, everyone should take it in turns to ask their questions. Just like in a real press conference, they should wait with their hand up so the visitor knows they have a question and they can ask one at a time.
- The person leading the game should be ready to prompt people and offer the example questions if they’re needed.
- Once the visitor’s answered everyone’s questions (or time is up!), everyone should thank the visitor with a round of applause.
Example questions
- Did you try any new foods? What were they?
- What was the most important thing you took with you?
- How many people went on the trip?
- What was the most exiting thing you saw?
- Did you meet any new people? Who did you meet?
- What was your favourite part of the trip?
- How did you travel?
- How long did the travelling take?
- What did you miss most whilst you were away?
- How far did you travel?
Reflection
This activity reminded people that they’re local, national, and international citizens. Hopefully, listening to someone’s experience of an international trip reminded everyone that they’re part of a worldwide family. There are an estimated 40 million Scouts worldwide – that’s almost two thirds of the population of the UK! Would people like to meet Scouts from anywhere else in particular? If everyone met a Scout group in another country, how would they describe what they get up to at Scouts in the UK?
This activity also gave everyone the chance to develop reporting skills. What sort of things were important to remember when interviewing? People might think about when they asked questions – they needed to wait until the person had finished speaking and they probably tried to ask relevant questions to show they were listening, too. Well done to everyone who asked a question and listened carefully.
Safety
All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.
If anyone struggles to sit still and focus for a long time, plan in some activities to break it up. Maybe you could have a break for a drink. You could also start with an energetic game to burn off some energy, then calm the mood down before the visitor starts to talk.
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
Find out more about the country your visitor travelled to. If you make food or crafts from the country, it could count towards the Cub International Activity Badge.
Encourage people to come up with their own questions to ask. What do they want to know?