Category: Merit Badges

It’s time for our annual roundup of the most-earned and rarest merit badges. Let’s take a look at what changed, what stayed the same and what took the prize as our most highly earned merit badge of last year (SURPRISE! It’s never been in the top spot before).

In 2021, we saw the rebound of merit badges many Scouts earn at summer camp. And 2022 seems to have solidified interest in those badges. Read on to see where Scouts have remained consistent and where they’ve focused new interest.

The 10 most-earned merit badges of 2022

The Citizenship in Society merit badge shook up the top-earned list during its first full year as an option for Scouts (and as it became a required merit badge for Eagle Scouts last summer).

2022 Rank
Merit Badge

1
Citizenship in Society

2
First Aid

3
Swimming

4
Environmental Science

5
Citizenship in the World

6
Camping

7
Communication

8
Citizenship in the Nation

9
Cooking

10
Personal Fitness

The alternative top 10

OK, let’s take a look at the most popular merit badges that aren’t required to earn Eagle Scout.

2022 Rank
Merit Badge

1
Fingerprinting

2
Rifle Shooting

3
Archery

4
Leatherwork

5
Kayaking

6
Wood Carving

7
Chess

8
Wilderness Survival

9
Art

10
Fishing

The 10 rarest merit badges of 2022

Are you or your Scouts collector’s-edition merit badge fans? Here are some of the most rarely earned badges from 2022.

2022 Rank
Merit Badge

128
Veterinary Medicine

129
Composite Materials

130
Truck Transportation

131
Dentistry

132
Stamp Collecting

133
American Labor

134
Journalism

135
Surveying

136
Drafting

137
Bugling

Noteworthy changes in the rankings

While somewhat consistent, check out some minor shake ups in the rankings below.

Top gains

2022 Rank
Merit Badge
2021 Rank
Difference

81
Radio
98
17

65
Electronics
80
15

101
Whitewater
116
15

71
Nuclear Science
85
14

75
Railroading
89
14

35
Aviation
48
13

45
Chemistry
58
13

41
Engineering
52
11

72
Salesmanship
83
11

68
Snow Sports
78
10

The complete lineup

Green means a merit badge is required for Eagle.

A total of 21 merit badges must be earned for the Eagle Scout rank, including these 14 merit badges:

First Aid
Citizenship in the Community
Citizenship in the Nation
Citizenship in Society
Citizenship in the World
Communication
Cooking
Personal Fitness
Emergency Preparedness OR Lifesaving
Environmental Science OR Sustainability
Personal Management
Swimming OR Hiking OR Cycling
Camping
Family Life

2022 Rank
Merit Badge
2021 Rank
Difference

1
Citizenship in Society

2
First Aid
2

3
Swimming
1
-2

4
Environmental Science
3
-1

5
Citizenship in the World
5
0

6
Camping
4
-2

7
Communication
7
0

8
Citizenship in the Nation
11
3

9
Cooking
6
-3

10
Personal Fitness
9
-1

11
Personal Management
17
6

12
Fingerprinting
12
0

13
Citizenship in the Community
15
2

14
Emergency Preparedness
18
4

15
Family Life
16
1

16
Rifle Shooting
8
-8

17
Archery
10
-7

18
Leatherwork
13
-5

19
Kayaking
14
-5

20
Wood Carving
19
-1

21
Chess
21
0

22
Wilderness Survival
22
0

23
Art
24
1

24
Fishing
20
-4

25
Canoeing
23
-2

26
Shotgun Shooting
26
0

27
Climbing
28
1

28
Lifesaving
29
1

29
Space Exploration
25
-4

30
Mammal Study
27
-3

31
Astronomy
30
-1

32
Photography
33
1

33
Geology
31
-2

34
Basketry
34
0

35
Aviation
48
13

36
Small Boat Sailing
38
2

37
Nature
32
-5

38
Game Design
37
-1

39
Welding
44
5

40
Indian Lore
36
-4

41
Engineering
52
11

42
Metalwork
35
-7

43
Pioneering
39
-4

44
Robotics
43
-1

45
Chemistry
58
13

46
Search and Rescue
49
3

47
Weather
40
-7

48
Geocaching
41
-7

49
Sculpture
53
4

50
Orienteering
45
-5

51
Automotive Maintenance
50
-1

52
Music
56
4

53
Fire Safety
55
2

54
Fish & Wildlife Management
47
-7

55
Horsemanship
42
-13

56
Forestry
46
-10

57
Pottery
51
-6

58
Signs, Signals, and Codes
57
-1

59
Motor Boating
62
3

60
Animation
59
-1

61
Oceanography
63
2

62
Electricity
67
5

63
Sustainability
61
-2

64
Moviemaking
66
2

65
Electronics
80
15

66
Pulp and Paper
70
4

67
Soil and Water Conservation
64
-3

68
Snow Sports
78
10

69
Hiking
60
-9

70
Rowing
72
2

71
Nuclear Science
85
14

72
Salesmanship
83
11

73
Traffic Safety
77
4

74
Digital Technology
68
-6

75
Railroading
89
14

76
Disabilities Awareness
74
-2

77
Public Speaking
79
2

78
Archaeology
76
-2

79
Reptile and Amphibian Study
71
-8

80
Bird Study
73
-7

81
Radio
98
17

82
Scouting Heritage
65
-17

83
Crime Prevention
86
3

84
Painting
87
3

85
Woodwork
84
-1

86
Pets
69
-17

87
American Heritage
82
-5

88
Collections
81
-7

89
Cycling
75
-14

90
Law
91
1

91
Architecture
97
6

92
Coin Collecting
93
1

93
Sports
96
3

94
Entrepreneurship
101
7

95
Programming
100
5

96
Mining in Society
102
6

97
Plumbing
103
6

98
Fly Fishing
94
-4

99
Animal Science
88
-11

100
Scholarship
90
-10

101
Whitewater
116
15

102
Backpacking
95
-7

103
Safety
104
1

104
Reading
92
-12

105
Textile
110
5

106
Exploration
108
2

107
Home Repairs
109
2

108
Insect Study
99
-9

109
Graphic Arts
106
-3

110
Public Health
54
-56

111
Dog Care
107
-4

112
Inventing
111
-1

113
Model Design and Building
122
9

114
Golf
115
1

115
Medicine
114
-1

116
Farm Mechanics
112
-4

117
Plant Science
119
2

118
Theater
126
8

119
American Cultures
113
-6

120
Genealogy
105
-15

121
American Business
118
-3

122
Water Sports
124
2

123
Scuba Diving
121
-2

124
Skating
120
-4

125
Athletics
123
-2

126
Gardening
117
-9

127
Energy
127
0

128
Landscape Architecture
125
-3

129
Veterinary Medicine
129
0

130
Composite Materials
132
2

130
Journalism
130
0

131
Truck Transportation
128
-3

132
Dentistry
131
-1

133
Stamp Collecting
133
0

134
American Labor
134
0

136
Surveying
135
-1

137
Drafting
136
-1

138
Bugling
137
-1

Looking for more merit badge metrics?

Take a look at last year’s post to see how these numbers measure up to 2021. And thank you to Scouts BSA’s Garfield Murden for supplying this year’s rankings!

There are lots of reasons to be excited about the 2023 National Jamboree, happening July 19-28, 2023, at the Summit Bechtel Reserve. Today, we look at one of them: the Theater merit badge.

For many years, John Paterakis was deeply involved in two worlds: Scouting and Broadway theater.

As a volunteer with the Greater New York Councils, Paterakis has served as district chairman and Cubmaster. As a supporter of theater, Paterakis has produced or co-produced five Broadway shows.

This summer, at the National Scout Jamboree, Paterakis’ worlds collide when he leads the Theater merit badge exhibit.

“The theater is fun,” Paterakis says. “It’s a wonderful, magical place. It’s exciting to be a part of.”

Movies are great (in fact, Paterakis was an executive producer on a 2016 film called Swing Away), but there’s something special about live theater.

And while the 3D in Avatar is great, nothing compares to the three-dimensional reality of being in the same room as the actors.

The perfect place to earn the Theater merit badge

After spending time in his youth as a Scout, Paterakis decided to re-engage with Scouting a decade or so ago because he was thankful for the opportunities it gave him.

“With my arthritis, my days of sleeping in a tent are over,” he says. “But I thought maybe there was a committee or something I could be a part of.”

Paterakis

When he realized his church didn’t have an affiliated Cub Scout pack, he started one from scratch.

It was at a 2020 Wood Badge course at The Summit Bechtel Reserve that he spoke to other Scouting volunteers about his background in theater. One thing led to another, and before he knew it, he was planning for the 2023 Jamboree, where he hopes to have materials such as costume drawings and set models for the Scouts to learn from.

He eventually connected with an old college friend and fellow Scouting volunteer, Thomas Shaw, from the Cradle of Liberty Council, who shares Paterakis’ passion for theater and also serves as a Theater merit badge counselor.

iStock/Getty Images

What’s a Jamboree?

The National Scout Jamboree is a gathering of thousands of the BSA’s adult and youth members, usually held every four years. The 2021 event, however, was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2023 Jamboree has adapted the theme of Forward, representing the Scouting journey. When Scouts encounter a challenge, they don’t stand still – they evaluate, plan and move forward. Scouting as a movement is always moving forward, reaching new generations of young people and equipping them to be leaders in their communities, nation and world.

Over the course of 10 days, participants will experience stadium shows, hikes, adventure sports, merit badges and more.

Click here to learn more and reserve your spot on the Jamboree Service Team.

Click here to learn more about joining the Jamboree as a participant.

What aspect of the Jamboree are you looking forward to the most? What should we cover next in our series leading up to the big event? Shoot us an email or let us know in the comments.

Searching for the right commitment to make to yourself, your body and your future in the coming year? The Scout Handbook and countless merit badges are full of perfect New Year’s resolution inspiration.

That’s why we took a look at the Personal Fitness merit badge to inspire six goals attainable for Scouts and adults who want to pay special attention to their health in 2023.

1. Get a physical

As soon as Scouts delve into the Personal Fitness merit badge, they’re tasked with heading to their doctors to have a routine wellness exam. As requirement 1a suggests, this is a great place to start for both Scouts tackling the rigors of a physically demanding merit badge and adults who are committed to starting or maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

2. Go to the dentist

It’s simple. It should be routine. But we know there are adults out there who skip heading the dentist twice a year.

Requirement 1b of the Physical Fitness merit badge asks Scouts to reflect on how they care for their teeth. And 2023 seems like a great year for you to do the same.

3. Walk or run a mile

Do it at regular intervals and map the time it takes you to complete the mile each time you tackle it. This is advice taken from page 48 of the merit badge pamphlet.

4. Conduct your own strength test

Requirement 6a asks Scouts to test their strength and fitness in a variety of ways, record it and reflect on where they can improve. We’re including an excerpt on how to conduct a strength test below. Use this to set your own goals for the year (and to formulate your longer-term fitness plan. More on that up next!).

Strength Tests

You must do the sit-ups exercise and one other (either push-ups or pull-ups). You may also do all three for extra experience and benefit. (Measurements should be in numbers and repetitions.)

Sit-ups — Record the number of sit-ups done correctly in 60 seconds …
Pull-ups — Record the total number of pull-ups completed correctly in 60 seconds …
Push-ups — Record the total number of push-ups completed correctly in 60 seconds …

Remember, you can make this test your own. If you need to use 30-second increments, that’s OK. If you’d rather do crunches than sit-ups, go for it. If you’re using this as a New Year’s resolution, you’re working to improve your 2023, not earn a merit badge.

5. Create a physical fitness plan (and do it!)

In requirements 7 and 8, the Personal Fitness merit badge asks Scouts to create a 12-week fitness plan that includes the following elements in each workout day:

Warm-up
Aerobic exercises
Strength exercises
Flexibility exercises
Cool-down

For you, this could look like blocking out 30-60 minutes on your calendar, three or more days a week. On each of theses days you may walk half a mile, jog a mile, do 20 push-ups, stretch for five minutes and walk another half mile.

The exercises, durations, distances, and repetitions are up to you. The goal is to commit to a fitness plan on paper. Execute it. And revise your plan as you’re able to do more.

6. Read this excerpt from the “Emotional Fitness” section of the Personal Fitness merit badge and put it to work

Also key in the Personal Fitness merit badge is mental health. Along with encouraging Scouts to seek help if they feel overwhelmed, the badge aims to get young people taking steps to cultivate a healthy family life.

Are you able to implement the below action into your own family? Truly, it’s easier for an adult in a family to accomplish this than it is for many youth.

Help plan family outings and activities. Spend quality time with your brothers, sisters, and parents. “Quality time” means sharing through communication and joint activity. If you talk about common interests, work together on a family project, plan for a special occasion, share a pleasant or meaningful experience, or play together, you are getting and giving healthy benefits through your family activity. Your family can be your most important possession.

Keep yourself physically strong and mentally awake

However you tailor your New Year’s resolution, don’t be afraid to focus on becoming the best you possible! While a physical fitness goal can pay dividends toward your mental health, maybe your goal is to start with your internal wellness before hitting the gym.

And speaking of gyms, we’ve heard they’re packed at the first of the year as many take on resolutions to spend more time exercising in a new year. The benefit of borrowing from the Personal Fitness merit badge? You never have to set foot in a gym to accomplish your fitness plan.

If you are taking on a mental or physical wellness goal for 2023, let us know what it is in the comments! If you’re taking on the fitness plan outlined above, what does your plan look like? Please share, as your plan will likely inspire others!

How important is the concept of exploration to modern society? The BSA’s Exploration merit badge pamphlet puts it best: “Exploration is the key to discovery.”

For Scouts in the New York City area, there’s no better way to learn about exploring than by visiting the headquarters of The Explorers Club, the 119-year-old society dedicated to promoting scientific exploration and field study. The organization also played a major role in the creation of the merit badge itself.

During one jam-packed day, the Scouts talked with explorers who have uncovered scientific breakthroughs in environments such as underwater caves and dense jungles, from the highest mountains to the deepest oceans, and in fields such as aerospace engineering, animal science and rare diseases.

“We got to go from room to room learning from different explorers about the things they’ve explored,” says Shane Herzog, a Scout from Troop 2011 in New York.

In addition to checking off multiple requirements from the badge, the Scouts learned just how important exploration really is.

Without exploration, there would be no medical breakthroughs, no advances in technology and basically no innovation in science, economics and business.

Exploration — in short — is the search to discover new information and resources.

People can explore using various modes of transportation to get to the most remote areas on our planet. They can also explore using a powerful microscope in a lab.

The Explorers Club

The Explorers Club has been supporting scientific exploration since 1904. Though its headquarters are in New York, it has chapters all over the world.

(Click here for a list of chapters.)

Its members are among the most famous explorers in the world, including Sir Edmund Hillary, Neil Armstrong and James Cameron (yes, that James Cameron).

At the NYC headquarters, Scouts got to see the actual flag that made it to the moon, ice axes used by Hillary when he became the first person to summit Mount Everest, artifacts from the Apollo space missions, and the table Teddy Roosevelt used to plan the Panama Canal.

“The coolest thing was the animals,” says Shane.

That would include a polar bear, cheetah, lion and antelope.

Eagle Scout Stephen Daire spoke to the Scouts about his multiple cave-diving expeditions. Steve Elkins talked about how he used laser technology to discover a long-lost prehistoric city Mosquitia region of Honduras. Eagle Scout James Sisti, explorer and mountain climber, talked about drawings in exploration.

“We learned that exploration is important so we can learn more things and make new discoveries to help the future,” Shane says.

Others presenting at the session were Bonnie Wyper from Thinking Animals United, Ilan Moss from the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, dogs and eels researcher Jeanne Wilcke, Milbry Polk from WINGS WorldQuest, and Roberta Kravette from Destination: Wildlife.

Photo courtesy of the Greater New York Councils

What qualifies as exploration?

The Exploration merit badge was released in 2017, in large part thanks to what started as an innocent conversation between Explorers Club member Lee Berger, paleoanthropologist, archaeologist and Eagle Scout; and Michael Manyak, vice president of the National Eagle Scout Association.

The rest is history.

After learning about the history and importance of exploration, the Exploration merit badge requires Scouts to plan, prepare for and go on an actual expedition to somewhere of interest to them.

As the merit badge pamphlet explains, there’s a difference between an adventure and an exploration. An adventure – a sailing trip, a hiking trip or a guided tour of ancient ruins – isn’t necessarily an exploration.

An exploration involves the collection and sharing of information, like analyzing the animal population or plant species at a state park, or studying the effects of drought on an area that you visit.

Though humans have now visited almost every area of our planet, legendary explorers such as caving expert, Explorers Club member, and Eagle Scout Bill Steele (who has a tarantula named after him!) believe we are just now entering a golden age of exploration, thanks to new technology — and a new generation of explorers, many of whom could be inspired by the Exploration merit badge.

“It will take many lifetimes before all of the caves on Earth are explored and mapped,” says Steele. “Some even await new technologies to be able to explore them.”

While most Scouts who earn the Art merit badge probably do so at summer camp, the badge is a great offseason option. In fact, art museums across the country offer workshops to Scouts, often in conjunction with other classes they teach.

Interesting in adding some color to how your Scouts earn the Art merit badge? Check out our story from the September-October 2017 issue of Scouting magazine.

Much like the BSA Fieldbook has become the gold standard in outdoor survival know-how — whether you’re a Scout or not — similarly valuable life hacks can be found in many other official BSA materials.

Want to learn how to take better pictures? Read the Photography merit badge pamphlet.

Want to get better at cooking meals outdoors? The BSA has you covered.

Want to impress your family with the funniest jokes ever? There’s a magazine for that.

As we slog through the dog days of summer, most of us can’t be on vacation all the time. Looking for productive things to do with your kids before school starts? Look no further than the Home Repairs merit badge pamphlet.

Here are five useful things you can do with your family to improve your home and the items within it.

Clean your tools, and make sure they’re stored properly.

When’s the last time you cleaned your tools? Much like a Scout pocketknife, you must take care of your equipment. Lay out your hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches and pliers. If your kids are older, you can include things like saws and utility knives, too. Show your kids how to use a wire brush to scrub them down, and then spray them with a lubricant or wipe them with an oily rag. The great thing about this process is you can repeat it every time you use your tools. If you don’t have a good place to store your tools, the pamphlet includes instructions on building your own toolbox!

Weather-strip a window or door.

It’s hot outside. Doors and windows that are properly weather-stripped help keep the cool air in and the hot air out. Place your hands around the edges of your windows and doors. If you can feel a breeze, then you need to replace the stripping that seals them shut. Start by removing the old stripping. Clean the area with soap and water. Once it is dry, install new stripping (available at most hardware stores). Self-adhesive stripping is easier for kids than nail-on stripping. Hold your hand near the questionable spot, and check for a breeze. The weather stripping should compress slightly against a closed door or window.

Check your sprinkler heads and replace/repair if needed.

In-ground sprinklers are great. The problem is that they need to be checked constantly, or you’ll be wasting more water than you would if you just watered by hand. Grass, mineral deposits and dirt can clog spray heads. Lift the head by hand, unscrew it, rinse out the head and the filter with water, and then replace it. A sprinkler damaged by a lawnmower might need to be replaced. Thankfully, this is a simple process: Just unscrew the sprinkler from the underground piping, and replace it with the appropriate model from your local hardware store.

Photo by Getty Images

Check your window and door screens, and replace any damaged spots.

When the weather cools down, door and window screens are great for letting in fresh air without the bugs that come with it. Unless, of course, there’s a hole in the screen. Repair kits are available at hardware stores and are easy to install, even for kids. Make sure the repair patch you purchase is 2 inches larger than the damaged area. Bend the wires along the edge of the patch at a 90-degree angle, and then push the bent wires through your existing screen, covering the damaged area. On the other side, bend the wires so they’re flat against the screen.

Locate your breaker box, and know how to replace a fuse or reset a circuit breaker.

Your breaker box — usually located in the garage, basement or the back of a closet — takes the electricity from your local power company and safely distributes it throughout your home. If one of the circuits in the box becomes overloaded — for example, if you’re using too much electricity in one room — you can blow a fuse. It’s easy enough to fix; just flip the breaker to the “off” position, and then back to “on.” But it can be tricky to do if the lights go off after dark. Show the box to your kids (during the day!), and explain to them how it works so they’ll Be Prepared if the lights go out.

Have questions about the BSA? We’ve got answers.

And if we don’t have the answers, we’ll find someone who does.

Below are a handful of questions we’ve recently gotten from readers (some of them, multiple times), along with the best answers we can provide.

Leave your question in the comments below, or send us an email, and we’ll answer in a future post.

Q: Can a volunteer serve in different positions in different units? For example, could the same person be Scoutmaster of a girls’ troop and assistant Scoutmaster of a boys’ troop? Could the same person be a Cubmaster and a Scoutmaster at the same time?

A: The BSA’s registration system will not allow an adult to officially register in more than one leadership position in the same unit, in part to keep Scouters from being overwhelmed by too many responsibilities. (The only exception is the role of Chartered Organization Representative, which can be filled by someone who’s also registered as the committee chair or committee member in the same unit.) Although technically speaking, an adult could be registered in different units, the BSA encourages its volunteers to think twice before embarking on such an undertaking, for the same reason. The practicality of dual roles is going to depend a lot on the volunteer’s personal situation. Could a longtime Scoutmaster who’s retired from their day job also make themselves available to serve on a second unit’s committee, to share their expertise and be available to answer questions? Most likely, yes. Could a working parent of one elementary school student and one middle school student find enough time to be an effective Cubmaster and Scoutmaster at the same time? It seems like a stretch. The bottom line is, spreading out the volunteer roles of Scouting over a larger number of people helps ensure a more balanced life and prevents volunteer burnout. If you’re a current leader who knows of a unit that’s running low on volunteers, instead of signing on to lead it, consider helping that unit find more volunteers. Your local commissioner and district-level volunteers can help.

 

Q: Can a Scouts BSA troop restrict merit badge counselor options? My son’s troop has a rule that Eagle-required merit badges must be taken with a troop-associated merit badge counselor. To me, that sounds like the troop is overstepping its authority. Does the BSA have an official policy on this?

A: Great question. The BSA’s official policy is that your local council’s advancement committee is responsible for approving merit badge counselors. But there’s nothing that says an individual unit’s code of conduct can’t also address the issue. As a member of a Scouts BSA unit committee, I’ve been involved in this exact conversation: We had concerns that a merit badge counselor at a district event wasn’t being thorough enough on the subject matter. Ultimately, we decided that if that counselor was approved by our council’s advancement committee, then we had to respect that authority. At the same time, we allowed ourselves to step in and reinforce certain elements of the badge as needed. Your best bet is to start a discussion with your unit’s committee, then with your local council, if needed. You can also use this form to report merit badge counselor concerns to your council’s advancement committee.

Q: Is there an Eagle Scout pin that an adult Eagle Scout can wear on a business suit rather than wearing the medal?

A: Yes! The BSA’s Scout Shop has you covered. For a business suit, consider the Eagle Scout tie tack, which features an understated Eagle Scout logo in a fine antique finish. Or, check out the Eagle Scout cufflinks, which feature both the logo and the words “Eagle Scout,” which might serve as a clearer symbol to those who aren’t already familiar with the program. For more Eagle Scout-related items, check out the Scout Shop’s Eagle Scout Gifts store.

Q: Can a den chief count hours spent serving as a den chief as service hours for rank advancement?

A: While this might not be explicitly prohibited, one could make the argument that this would go against the spirit of service. Consider this line from the BSA’s Guide to Advancement, Section 4.2.3.6, Fulfilling More Than One Requirement With a Single Activity: “When contemplating whether to double-count service hours and apply the same work to pass a second advancement requirement, each Scout should consider, ‘Do I want to get double credit for helping others this one time, or do I want to undertake a second effort and make a greater difference in the lives of even more people?’ ” Our advice: Get those service hours by working on a service project.

Q: Can merit badge patches be sewed on the sleeve of a short-sleeve shirt? As part of our troop’s safety warden program, we are looking to have our Scouts sew their First Aid, Emergency Preparedness (or Lifesaving), and Fire Safety merit badge patches just above the hem of their right sleeve. But only a maximum of three on the sleeve. All other patches would be on the sash.

A: According to the Scouts BSA Guide to Awards and Insignia, you have only two options for where to sew merit badges: On the right sleeve of a long-sleeve “Class A” BSA uniform shirt (with a limit of six total badges), or on a merit badge sash, with a maximum of three per row, with no total limit. If you’d like the Scouts in the safety warden program to wear those patches on the sleeves of their long-sleeve uniform shirt, you should consider putting that in your unit’s code of conduct, so everyone is aware of the expectations.

Last summer, as Preston Tyrrell was picking up his car from D’Avico’s Auto Repair in Wayne, Pa., he and the mechanic started talking.

“The topic of Scouts came up,” Tyrrell says. “I think her brother was a Scout years ago.”

Tyrrell is always on the lookout for merit badge counselors — especially counselors for merit badges that teach important life skills, like how to check a car’s oil, interpret a check engine light or change a tire.

So he asked his mechanic, Ashley D’Avico, whether she’d be interested in helping the girls in Troop 284 earn the Automotive Maintenance merit badge.

“She said, ‘Sure,’” Tyrrell says.

After that initial conversation, getting everyone’s schedules to align took about six months. But it was worth the wait. In December, 18 of the 22 girls in Troop 284 showed up at D’Avico’s to work on the merit badge in a real garage.

“I signed up because I wanted to learn more about cars and how they work,” says First Class Scout Anna Latchford. “I know that in my life, there will be times where my car will break down or I’ll have a flat tire or low tire pressure, and I want to be the one who changes it herself.”

Yes, she can

Tyrrell says he wasn’t looking for a female mechanic to serve as merit badge counselor for the girls in Troop 284. But “it just kind of worked out and made it a neat thing,” he says.

“I think everyone needs a positive role model,” Tyrrell says. “As a parent of a daughter, I think it’s important that she know she can do anything she wants and to not let society’s norms or preconceived stereotypes limit her.”

His daughter, Life Scout Avery Tyrrell, says it was refreshing to have a female mechanic show them the inner workings of cars. But mostly, she was just happy to have such an immersive experience.

“I thought we were going to sit in a conference room and watch a PowerPoint presentation,” Avery says. “I was pleasantly surprised when I found out it was all hands-on.”

‘My full respect’

Tenderfoot Scout Judy Horn says she “loves knowledge” — especially knowledge that could help her out of a tough situation. She would’ve learned about cars whether her merit badge counselor was a man or a woman.

But earning the badge from D’Avico made the experience more than just educational. It made it inspirational, too.

“It was really inspiring,” Judy says. “Any woman that can make it in a male-dominant field has my full respect. It’s hard to make it to the top when you’re several paces behind your competition. They really had to work twice as hard to get to where they are, and it’s amazing to meet someone who’s done it themselves. It makes me feel as though I could be as successful as they were, no matter who dominates the field I aim for.”

‘Whatever field we want’

As they filled tires with air, checked engine oil and inspected the underside of a car on a lift, the Scouts of Troop 284 got to know D’Avico.

“As she was teaching, she connected with us as girls,” says Life Scout Kate Latchford. “She encouraged us to pursue whatever field we wanted to, regardless of what the gender majority is.”

Kate says D’Avico answered questions and used the EDGE method when imparting a new skill — explain, demonstrate, guide, enable.

“Cars can definitely be intimidating,” D’Avico told Philadelphia’s WPVI-TV. “If you understand how it works and what it does, you feel good about doing it.”

The girls even got to examine a Tesla and compare its inner workings to those of a gas-powered car.

“Underneath a Tesla, there is nothing but a giant battery,” Kate says. “That doesn’t surprise me, but it was really cool to get to see for myself.”

First Class Scout Danby Morrison says she was impressed by the technology packed inside a Tesla, too. But even as she learned useful skills about cars from an inspiring instructor, Danby still made sure to have fun with her friends.

After all, that’s part of earning a merit badge, too.

“We are a kind of talkative bunch, and we’ve been on a lot of camping trips together,” Danby says. “So we joke and laugh a lot. Like, a lot.”

Snowboarding has been carving out its place on the powder ever since 1965, when a Michigan engineer fastened two skis together for his daughters and forever gave the world a new way to travel downhill.

While alpine skiing had been an Olympic sport since 1936, snowboarding wouldn’t join the Winter Games until 1998 — 62 years later.

As the world watched snowboarding blast onto the scene in Nagano, Japan, Don McChesney surely must have been smiling. For years, McChesney, then the director of the BSA’s Boy Scout Division, had been receiving letters from Scouts and Scouters about snowboarding.

The crux of these letters: “Why isn’t there a merit badge for it?”

“We shared these letters with members of the national advancement committee, and they took serious note of it,” McChesney told Scouting magazine in 2001.

The BSA had offered the Skiing merit badge since 1938, with Scouts able to complete the requirements through either downhill (alpine) or cross-country (nordic) skiing.

But snowboarding? No such recognition was available. That is, until the introduction of the Snow Sports merit badge in January 1999. The badge, which replaced the Skiing merit badge, could be earned in one of three ways: downhill skiing, cross-country skiing and snowboarding. (Snowshoeing was added as a fourth option in 2016.) 

Let’s pause here for one moment to point out that the Snow Sports merit badge slid onto the scene in 1999 — just one year after the sport’s Winter Olympics debut in Nagano. 

And the Skiing merit badge snowplowed into the BSA’s offerings in 1938 — just two years after downhill skiing became a sport in the Winter Olympics.

These two badges, each released at the pinnacle of their sport’s popularity, demonstrate how the BSA responds to the times. Even as our movement upholds the timeless values that families appreciate, we still adapt to the ever-evolving needs and interests of modern young people. 

Photo by Trevor Clark

Calling on the experts

When the BSA debuts a new merit badge — or revamps an existing one — they turn to the experts. 

In the case of the Snow Sports merit badge, these experts were professional snowboarders Brandon Bills, Mark Edlund and Lane Clegg. They helped BSA volunteers and professionals come up with requirements like this one, which is requirement H today: “On a moderate slope, demonstrate an Ollie, a nose-end grab, and a wheelie.”

These experts’ hard work paid off with a badge that Scouts enjoy each winter. 

More than 5,000 young people earned the badge in its inaugural year of 1999. In the years since, about 7,000 Scouts per year earn the Snow Sports merit badge.

According to the pandemic-altered merit badge numbers from 2020, Snow Sports MB ranks 57th out of the 137 available merit badges. Not bad for a badge most Scouts can only earn during three months of the year — if they have access to snow at all.

Photo by Trevor Clark

‘Move over, skiing’

The headline in the January-February 1989 issue of Scouting magazine is intentionally incendiary: “Move Over Skiing, Snowboarding Is Winter’s New King of the Hill.”

The story tells of an Explorer post trying “winter’s newest recreational sport.” A decade before the Snow Sports merit badge and nine years before the Nagano Olympics, Scouting magazine told how “snowboarding is now so rad that 200,000 people from Vermont to California are hooked on the nation’s fastest-growing sport.”

Rad, indeed.

The article explains how someone rides one of these snowboards: feet perpendicular to the board with the shoulders leaning forward. And it explains that snowboarding, once considered “merely a fad” is “here to stay.” 

With a merit badge for snowboarding — developed thanks to some particularly vocal snowboarding Scouts — young people can carve out a fun outdoor hobby they can enjoy for life.

Scouts snowshoe on Mount Hood in Oregon. (Photo by Michael Hanson)

Other Merit Badge History posts

Want more merit badge history? Go here.

The BSA’s library of 138 merit badges teaches young people an array of skills they can use right away.

Want to repair a window screen? There’s a badge for that. Make a handmade holiday gift? There’s a badge for that, too. Adopt a pet? Yes, indeed.

You get the idea.

But every so often, a Scout proves that the skills acquired while earning seemingly separate badges can be combined in interesting ways. And the result can be something game-changing.

Meet Dylon Nottingham, an 18-year-old former youth member of Troop 131 of Allen, Texas, part of the Circle Ten Council. Before turning 18, Dylon earned the Eagle Scout Award and 138 merit badges.

While working on the Game Design merit badge, Dylon invented a card game called Primal Jaws, a one-on-one dinosaur combat game that is “designed to be challenging, educational and ferociously fun.”

“The Game Design merit badge has a requirement to create a game of some kind,” Dylon says. “I wanted to create a game similar to games I enjoyed playing. I have a lifelong love of dinosaurs, and I didn’t see a dinosaur card game in the market anywhere — except for educational cards.”

But Game Design wasn’t the only badge that was instrumental to Dylon’s creation. He says he tapped into skills he learned from four other merit badges, too.

Dylon’s card game wasn’t part of his Eagle project. For that, he created six Little Free Libraries and installed them throughout the city of Allen, Texas.

Graphic Arts merit badge

Dylon says one of the most rewarding parts of creating the game was getting to control every element of it. It was a blank canvas for his creativity.

When designing the back of the Primal Jaws playing cards, for example, Dylon got to select his favorite color — blue — for the design.

“That’s the thing about creating something. You get to choose what you want to use,” he says. “It’s kind of freeing but also challenging because you have to make all the decisions.”

The Graphic Arts merit badge gave Dylon a reason to visit printers and start learning about the commercial printing process. That helped Dylon know what questions to ask as he was searching for a supplier for his made-in-the-USA game.

“People are willing to help when they learn you are working on a merit badge and are more patient and willing to answer questions,” he says. “I learned about different paper qualities and layouts for printing, how the costs are impacted depending on the size of the cards and how many can be printed per sheet.”

Dylon has been interested in dinosaurs since before he was a Cub Scout (right).

Entrepreneurship merit badge

What’s the market like for a Dino-themed card game? Who are the potential customers? Who might be Dylon’s competitors in the space, and what are their strengths and weaknesses?

While earning the Entrepreneurship merit badge, Dylon thought about those questions and many more.

“I had to determine how much money I’d need, the cost of the game and what I would do with the money from the sales of the product,” Dylon says.

He also considered marketing — how to use the internet and social media to increase awareness about his game.

American Business merit badge

Dylon says the American Business merit badge helped him “understand capitalism and the history of business and banking.”

These are skills that will help Dylon not just with Primal Jaws but with his dreams of developing an expansion pack to Primal Jaws and another game he says is “just conceptual now.”

Inventing merit badge

Earning the Inventing merit badge helped Dylon learn how it important it is to protect his game.

“I have a trademark for the name and a patent pending on the gameplay,” he says. “The badge helped me understand what I needed to do and gave me the confidence to do it.”

What else he learned

Like earning the Eagle Scout Award, inventing something takes patience. Even if that “lightbulb moment” happens early, the journey to market is long and steep.

“Getting anything from idea to real product is very challenging and takes a long time,” Dylon says. “I have worked on this game for years now.”

Dylon also learned to strike a balance between packing every design idea into the game and selling it at a price that is “tolerable to a customer.” He did have one non-negotiable when it came to the game’s design.

“I could have had it printed much cheaper in another country, but I really wanted the game to be made in the USA,” he says. “I feel that is important. I realized I highly value the ‘Made in America’ label.”

‘Such a pat on the back’

All that work, all those hours spent tweaking and rethinking, paid off when Dylon finished his game.

Seeing his game — once just a sketch in a notebook — printed by a professional printer “made it seem so real.”

“An order came in from a museum store, and the buyer expressed excitement about my game. Well, that is just such a pat on the back. It’s hard to describe,” Dylon says. “I’m kind of relieved that there are no more changes and excited that kids and families are going to be playing my game.”

His message to Scouts

Dylon has a message for Scouts who hear about his story: you can do this, too. And earning merit badges can help.

“Merit badges are a way to navigate and learn about things that interest them,” Dylon says. “I would not have created this game had I not been working on merit badges.

“Scouts need to know that the merit badge books are so helpful. My parents bought nearly every merit badge book — yes, I have a huge library of them. But they contain so much helpful information and can help Scouts do whatever it is that they want to do.”

Thanks to the BSA’s Don Day for the blog post idea.

Sometimes, a Scout earns a merit badge and discovers a new hobby.

But every so often, the opposite happens: The hobby comes first, and the Scout discovers there’s a merit badge to match.

During her freshman year at Fremd High School in Palatine, Ill., Abby Pollpeter registered for an elective that sounded interesting: Intro to Woodworking. 

But because of COVID, the class was mostly taught through a computer screen. Abby was able to schedule a time to visit the school’s wood shop after hours, but something was missing.

“Hands-on experiences allow you to fully experience the topic and idea, allowing you to understand and remember it more,” she says. “Online just tells it to you, and you don’t do anything to ingrain it into your mind.”

By the time the class was complete, Abby’s woodworking skills were beginning to take root. But she was stumped about where to continue her lessons.

That’s when the lightbulb was lit.

“When I found out there was a Woodwork merit badge, I was excited,” Abby says. “It seemed like a good option to build more.”

Finding a counselor

Abby, now a First Class Scout from Troop 209 of the Pathway to Adventure Council, started the search for a merit badge counselor and realized she didn’t have to look far. Her uncle David Pollpeter is an engineer who has designed furniture for La-Z-Boy and has his own woodworking shop in North Carolina.

And so Abby and her twin sister, Isabel, devised the perfect summer vacation. Along with their Eagle Scout father, James, they would take the 12-hour drive to North Carolina to earn the Woodwork merit badge.

During the week of Woodwork, David showed Abby and Isabel how to safely use woodworking tools, discussed the properties of different types of wood and guided them through the steps necessary to create objects from wood.

With David’s guidance, Abby and Isabel hand-crafted wooden boxes, wooden bowls and wooden mats to place under potted plants.

By the time they began the drive back to Illinois, the twins had gained more than just an understanding of how to make useful objects out of oak, ash or maple. They gained confidence in their ability to learn new things and trust themselves. 

“The box was the most complex build, but it was also the most fun because I got to learn about many different woodworking techniques,” Abby says. “I hope to be able to build in the future to make my life easier, like a shelf, and I hope that it can help me when creating things for my future career. I want to be an engineer.”

Accepting no substitute 

During the pandemic, online instruction has been an unavoidable reality. That’s been true of any educational experience — from colleges to grade schools to merit badge classes. 

But even though she understands the need for online classes, Abby still prefers in-person experiences. Her week with her uncle only solidified that feeling.

“Woodwork is one of those merit badges that requires an in-person class to learn efficiently,” she says. “You can be shown all there is to the merit badge online, but you can’t experience it as much as you would in person. Just the feeling of the different classes is different, too, with online having more distractions. It’s harder to speak up and ask questions.”

Isabel, a First Class Scout like her sister, agrees.

“I have taken online classes, and let me tell you, it is not easy,” she says. “You’re in charge of paying attention in class, and if you don’t pay attention, then what’s the point of being in that class? There are so many distractions around you in an online class — your phone, a website that’s pulled up, or what your dog is doing. You don’t really learn in the best possible way.”

Proud Scouts

Earning an extra-special merit badge is just one of the many positive experiences Abby and Isabel have enjoyed in Scouting. 

Abby has relished the chance to meet other young people who, like her, are curious about the world around them and ready to gain new skills.

“It allows me to have fun learning something that I might not be able to readily learn outside of Scouts,” she says. “I’m really glad that they allowed girls to join in on the fun.”

Isabel, who was recently elected patrol leader, has seized on the chance to sharpen her leadership skills.

“While it might be challenging to communicate to the younger Scouts, I’m trying my best and still leading the patrol well,” she says. “I also learned that even leaders need help. My mom, dad and even sister help me plan and develop future meetings or ideas that will be interesting for not only me but the whole patrol.”

It’s all possible thanks to the hands-on experiences that are a signature part of Scouting — opportunities that Scouters like you help secure. The memories made during meetings, campouts and merit badge classes will stay with these Scouts for a long time.

“Even now, months after that vacation, I still have a feeling of accomplishment at what we achieved,” Abby says. “All thanks to the help of our uncle.”

Thanks to John Kenny of the Pathway to Adventure Council for the blog post idea.

The badge design will not change.

Within the vast and vital universe of health care, there are pharmacists and phlebotomists, optometrists and orthotists, sonographers and speech therapists — to name just a half-dozen of the many specialists who keep us healthy and happy.

In fact, these professionals work in a field so vast that simply calling it all “Medicine” doesn’t quite cut it.

That’s why this month, the Boy Scouts of America is introducing the Health Care Professions merit badge, a STEM-focused, career-oriented badge designed to introduce young people to the roles that health care professionals play in the delivery of health care.

The badge will replace the Medicine merit badge and will feature a new merit badge pamphlet and new requirements, available here. The design of the merit badge emblem will not change.

“When the Medicine merit badge was first introduced in 1991, it was primarily developed to focus on the ‘doctor’ side of human health care delivery,” says Lisa Balbes, advancement lead of the Scouts BSA Committee. “As the fields of human medicine expanded through specialization, support services and technology, it became apparent that Scouts were interested in learning about other areas of human health care and medical support.”

Trying to develop an individual merit badge for each health care specialization would see the number of available merit badges more than double.

Instead, “the BSA has decided to create a single merit badge that will encompass a wide variety of health care careers,” Balbes says.

What kinds of health care professions can Scouts learn about?

The Health Care Professions merit badge is highly customizable, meaning Scouts can select which health care professions to investigate further.

Does your Scout have an aunt who is an audiologist or a neighbor who is a nurse anesthetist? They can choose those professions to examine in greater depth.

The badge requirements present Scouts with four groups of health care professions. Within each group, Scouts get to choose three that interest them most. They must describe the role those professionals play and research what educational and licensing requirements those professionals must meet.

The groups are:

Group 1:

Allopathic physician (MD) — all specialties
Osteopathic physician (DO) — all specialties
Podiatrist (DPM)
Chiropractor (DC)
Nurse Practitioner (NP)
Psychologist (PhD or PsyD)
Optometrist (OD)
Audiologist (AudD)

Group 2:

Physician Assistant (PA)
Registered Nurse (RN)
Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM)
Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA)
Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN/LVN)
Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA)
Pharmacist (PharmD)
Pharmacy Technician
Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)/Paramedic

Group 3:

Physical Therapist (DPT)
Occupational Therapist (OT)
Orthotist/Prosthetist
Medical Appliance Technician
Respiratory Therapist (RT)
Medical Assistant
Dietitian (RD)
Speech-Language Pathologist (Speech Therapist) (SLP)

Group 4:

Biomedical Engineer (BME)
Medical Technologist
Phlebotomist
Radiology Technologist
Sonographer
Medical Records Specialist
Cytopathologist
Histotechnologist

For requirement 5, Scouts must choose one of the 33 professions listed above and arrange to visit that professional at their workplace. After that meeting, the Scout must discuss the visit with their counselor.

That’s a great way for a Scout to get an up-close view of the important, challenging, well-paying field of health care.

What’s the rollout plan?

Scouts who have begun work on the Medicine merit badge may continue working on it until they are finished or turn 18.

After Dec. 31, 2021, Scouts may not begin working on the Medicine merit badge and should instead work on the Health Care Professions badge.

Hard-copy editions of the Health Care Professions merit badge pamphlet should be available in mid-November.

Why are merit badges updated?

Much more goes into a movie than cinematography. That’s why, in 2013, the BSA replaced the Cinematography merit badge with the Moviemaking merit badge.

Computers still play a critical role in our society, but they exist in a larger world of digital technology. That’s why, in 2014, the BSA replaced the Computers merit badge with the Digital Technology merit badge.

Notice the trend? The requirements within the BSA’s 138 merit badges aren’t chiseled in stone. They’re regularly adjusted in response to the real world.

That might mean smaller tweaks, like the 2016 addition of snowshoeing to the Snow Sports merit badge. Or it might mean major overhauls, like when Cooking became Eagle-required in 2014.

“The National Merit Badge Subcommittee reviews all merit badges every two years,” Balbes says. “We want to ensure they are current and relevant to the needs of today’s Scouts.”

At the Middle Tennessee Council’s Boxwell Reservation, Scouts learn to shoot a bow and arrow, swim, and survive in the wilderness.

Starting next summer, thanks to some generous donors and forward-thinking Scouters, they’ll also learn to fix a leaky faucet, paint a house and change a car’s oil.

Those essential life lessons will be delivered inside a new skilled trades center, set to open in time for summer camp in 2022. The facility will offer Scouts a safe, interactive way to experience skilled trades like welding, plumbing, electrical work, painting and automotive maintenance — and to earn a merit badge while doing it.

“In today’s environment, youth are taught that the only way to a successful career is by receiving a bachelor’s degree at a four-year college,” says Jason Flannery, the council’s camping director and the man who dreamed up this project years ago. “While that is true for many young people, there are those for whom college is not the best path. These youth are often not exposed to the exciting and professionally rewarding arena of the skilled trades.”

The Roy Grindstaff Skilled Trades Center, named after a master electrician who belonged to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union for more than 60 years, aims to change that.

“The skilled trades are not well represented in middle and high schools, and youth are missing out on these skills,” says Flannery, an Eagle Scout. “Personally, I have no idea how to weld, do plumbing or electrical work. I feel that Scouts should be taught those life skills to help them become well-rounded adults.”

Jobs in the skilled trades are in demand, secure and often pay well. But even those Scouts who might not pursue a career in the skilled trades will still benefit from the journey of discovery that’s a fundamental element of earning a merit badge.

At the Skilled Trades Center, Scouts will learn from experts as they earn merit badges like Automotive Maintenance, Electricity, Home Repairs, Painting, Plumbing and Welding. The specialized nature of those merit badges means that Scouts sometimes have trouble finding qualified counselors on their own. That won’t be a problem in the Middle Tennessee Council.

The facility also will include an audiovisual space with two-way video capabilities, enabling merit badge counselors from anywhere in the world to share their expertise for merit badges like American Business, American Labor and Architecture.

Jason Flannery, the council’s camping director, dreamed up this project years ago.

‘A generous community’

While some people count down the days until a family vacation, Flannery is counting down to June 2022, when the Skilled Trades Center will open its doors to Scouts.

“I am ecstatic about that day, because like going to Disney, it will be a dream come true,” he says.

Flannery, who grew up going to Boxwell as a Scout in the Middle Tennessee Council, has been hoping for such a facility for years.

Creating this kind of a place costs money, so Flannery and his colleagues were thrilled to see local leaders step up to support Scouting.

At the facility’s groundbreaking last month, Scout Executive Larry Brown publicly thanked those generous donors: The Maddox Foundation in Hernando, Miss., and Drs. Pamela and Philip Pfeffer and the Pfeffer Foundation of St. Petersburg, Fla.

“The reason the Middle Tennessee Council is able to have successful programs and facilities is because of a generous community and capable volunteers and staff,” Brown says.

BSA volunteers, staff and supporters attended the groundbreaking in October.

Recruiting and retention

The merit badges offered at the Skilled Trades Center are designed for older Scouts — young people 13 and up. By offering programs that resonate with this older audience, the council can encourage Scouts to return to summer camp year after year.

“Scouts are already excited about shooting sports and aquatics,” Flannery says. “This will be yet another activity to look forward to at camp. It may also increase camp attendance, which would be a benefit both to Scouts and the council.”

It’s not hard to imagine the facility having a positive impact on recruiting, too.

“Scouts will hear about these awesome new programs that will be offered in a cool new building at Boxwell,” Flannery says. “This will draw in new Scouts to try new things at camp.”

And maybe, says Scout Executive Brown, the Skilled Trades Center will inspire a future career or lifelong hobby.

“Our country needs people trained in the skilled trades who have also gained the values and integrity taught by Scouting programs,” Brown says. “This will be an important way for the council to help with that effort.”

For years you’ve been telling us you and your Scouts are really – like really – into chess. And we heard you loud and clear.

Nov. 1-5, the Scout Life team will be live daily at 2 p.m. with chess experts, tips to improve your game, giveaways from Scout Shop and a DIY chess set how-to.

The week will culminate Friday with what we’re considering the most epic chess match of all time. Our Facebook audience will work together to challenge Eagle Scout and chess grandmaster Kayden Troff to a chess game unlike anything you’ve ever played before (with an unbelievably accomplished opponent).

Kids of all ages are invited to join. Even Cub Scouts who aren’t yet earning merit badges can benefit from tuning in. We’ll kick off the week with the basics of chess so even someone new to the game can be fully engaged in Chess Fest.

If you or your Scouts are planning to work on the Chess merit badge, talk with your counselor to see if any of the week’s activities will help you land some requirements (perhaps requirements 3 and 4?).

What’s the schedule for Chess Fest?

Monday, Nov. 1

Learn how each chess piece moves and the rules of the game from St. Louis Chess Club‘s Scholastic Manager (Bonus: He’s an Eagle Scout!).

You’ll also find out where you can take online chess merit badge classes and snag a free tool that will help you learn how to note your chess moves (you’ll see why this is super important to advance your skills).

Tuesday, Nov. 2

Find out how you can get your hands on a chess board: make one, buy one or use a digital board!

We’ll show you some of the boards the experts use and some that can come in handy if you’re taking a board on the go. And Scout Shop is offering up game sets you can stash in your daypack. Just comment during the show for a chance to win.

Wednesday, Nov. 3

Learn about chess tournaments, how you can sign up for one and how to host your own. We’ll hear from real Scouters from the National Capital Area Council who have hosted a variety of successful tournaments for Cub Scouts and older youth.

Plus, you’ll get tips from real Scouts who love chess.

Thursday, Nov. 4

The day before the big match, Eagle Scout and chess grandmaster Kayden Troff joins the show to share strategy and help us prepare for the challenge.

We’ll also go over some key chess terminology that will help build your skills and get you moving on a few merit badge requirements.

Friday, Nov. 5

It’s time for the ultimate matchup. Can we work together to win a chess match against a grandmaster? We’ll find out!

Comment along with the show to vote on our next move! Make sure your comments are in proper chess notation (algebraic notation).

You can even vote for our opening move now!

Add Chess Fest to your calendar

Set a reminder and share with your Scouts!

What: Chess Fest

When: Nov. 1-5, 2 p.m. Central

Where: go.scoutlife.org/fblive

See you there!

When the Dentistry merit badge debuted in 1975, The New York Times covered the news with this clever headline: “A New Drill For Scouts: A Dentist’s.”

“Time was when the tools of Scouting were a compass and an ax,” the Times article read. “In the new Boy Scouts, it could help to have a little dental floss.”

Boys’ Life (now Scout Life) magazine opened its April 1975 coverage of the badge with this intro (exclamation point and all): “What’s the most widespread of all the world’s diseases? Tooth decay!”

Across the country, Scouts were all smiles about the new Dentistry merit badge, created in partnership with the American Dental Association to offer an open-wide peek into the world of incisors, canines and molars. 

The badge covers the expected range of dental hygiene tips, such as proper teeth brushing, the role of fluoride and what snacks should be avoided to maintain the best oral health.

Beyond dental cleanliness (part of the Scout Law, after all), Scouts learn about keeping their teeth safe — ensuring those pearly whites don’t become damaged in rough sports, falls and “playground dangers like hard swing-seats and thrown baseball bats,” Boys’ Life writes. Yikes!

But when the worst happens, Scouts who earn the Dentistry merit badge know what to do.

“If a tooth is knocked out, the dentist might be able to replace it in the victim’s jaw, if correct action is taken promptly,” Boys’ Life writes. “Don’t clean the tooth; place it in water or wrap it in a clean, wet cloth. Take the tooth and its owner to a dentist at once.”

Like all merit badges, this one gives Scouts something to sink their teeth into through hands-on activities that put Scouts in the center of the action. They might prepare a dental stone cast, make a model tooth out of papier-mâché or clip out toothpaste ads to analyze their claims for accuracy.

A focus on careers

Some merit badges, such as perennial summer camp favorites Nature, Pioneering and Wilderness Survival, impart skills that help Scouts build confidence in the outdoors. Others, like Dentistry, could be completed without taking a single step outside.

And isn’t that the beauty of the BSA’s merit badge program? Its 137-strong selection of badges introduces young people to a variety of experiences that mostly aren’t covered in schools. 

Most Scouting alumni can trace the genesis of at least one hobby back to a merit badge. Some can even draw a straight line from a merit badge to their chosen career. 

Take Dr. Sterling Foy, a dentist in Omaha, Neb., who says his passion for dentistry began when he earned the Dentistry merit badge as a Boy Scout in Oklahoma.

The opposite can be true, too. Sometimes a merit badge is an eye-opening experience in the other direction — as in, “nope, that’s not for me.” Spending a few bucks on a merit badge pamphlet is a low-risk way to learn that a career path or hobby isn’t the right fit.

When it blasted onto the scene in 1975, Dentistry joined other career-focused merit badges like Law (1974), Landscape Architecture (1967), Engineering (1967) and American Business (1967).

Additional career-oriented badges have been added in the years since, including Animation (2015), Entrepreneurship (1997), Graphic Arts (1987) and Medicine (1991).

Involving the industry

Beyond introducing Scouts to a potential career, the Dentistry merit badge opened the BSA’s doors to adults who previously weren’t affiliated with Scouting.

Dentists and dental professionals were invited to register as merit badge counselors, using their professional skills as a way to give back to their community and inspire the next generation. 

This connection had (and still has) the seal of approval from the American Dental Association. Beyond connecting troops with merit badge counselors, the ADA gives the BSA permission to use the official emblem of dentistry in the badge design.

That emblem includes the staff of Asclepius (a god associated with health) entwined with a snake (a symbol of rejuvenation). You’ll also see the triangular Greek letter delta (representing the D in dentistry) and the O-shaped Greek letter omicron, representing “odont,” or tooth.

The lilac color in the triangle is the official color of dentistry — seen on graduation caps and gowns at dental schools.

The outlook for Dentistry

According to the 2020 rankings, Dentistry is currently the 116th most popular merit badge, which places it in the bottom 15%. About 2,000 to 3,000 Scouts earn the merit badge each year.

In its 46-year history, the merit badge has been earned 152,381 times — good enough for 104th on the lifetime list.

As with many merit badges near the bottom of the rankings, Dentistry has requirements that take a little extra time to complete, such as requirement 3: “Arrange a visit with a dentist.” 

Also, for those troops that don’t have a dentist or dental professional among their volunteer ranks, finding a qualified counselor presents an extra hurdle. 

Let that be a challenge to you and your Scouts to boost that ranking over the coming years. Start with your own dentist and see if he or she would be willing to serve as a merit badge counselor. 

To put a twist on the toothpaste commercial cliché, four out of five dentists would love to be Dentistry merit badge counselors. You just have to ask. 

Current Dentistry merit badge requirements

These are the requirements as of the publication date of this blog post. To ensure you’re using the most up-to-date version, check here before starting a merit badge.

Using X-ray (radiographic) films and with your counselor’s guidance, study the tooth structure and look for decay. Then do the following: 
Using the radiographs as a guide, draw a lower molar. Label its parts and surfaces. Show surrounding structures such as bone and gum tissues. 
Show on your drawing where the nerves and blood vessels enter the tooth. 
Show on your drawing where bacterial plaque is most likely to be found.

Do the following: 
Tell or write about what causes dental decay and gum disease. Tell how each of the following contributes to dental decay and gum disease: bacterial plaque, sugars, and acid. 
Tell the possible causes for traumatic tooth loss, describe the types of mouth guards used to help prevent tooth trauma, and list the athletic activities during which a person should wear a mouth guard. 
Explain the first-aid procedure for saving a tooth that has been knocked out. 
Discuss how the use of tobacco products can negatively affect your oral health.

Arrange for a visit with a dentist. Before you go, ask whether your visit can include a dental examination and a plaque-control demonstration. Afterward, ask questions about things you want to know. Then tell your counselor what the dentist does during a checkup examination.
Do TWO of the following: 
Name at least five instruments and five pieces of equipment a dentist uses. 
With the help of a dentist, prepare a dental stone cast using a vibrator, a mixing bowl, a water measure, a plastic measure, model stone, and a spatula. 
Keep a record of everything you eat for three days. Circle those items that may provide the sugars that bacterial plaque needs to make acid. List snacks that you should avoid to help maintain the best oral health.

Discuss with your merit badge counselor the following: 
How fluorides help prevent tooth decay and the ways fluorides can be provided to the teeth. 
How the mouth is related to the rest of the body. Topics might include chewing, saliva, enzymes, nutrition, and speech. 

Do TWO of the following: 
Make a model tooth out of soap, clay, papier-mâché, or wax. Using a string and a large hand brush, show your troop or a school class proper toothbrushing and flossing procedures. 
Make a poster on the prevention of dental disease. Show the importance of good oral health. 
Collect at least five advertisements for different toothpastes. List the claims that each one makes. Tell about the accuracy of the advertisements. 
Write a feature story for your school newspaper on the proper care of teeth and gums. Include in your story how the use of tobacco products can negatively affect a person’s oral health. 
Make drawings and write about the progress of dental decay. Describe the types of dental filling and treatments a dentist can use to repair dental decay problems.

Learn about career opportunities for both Doctor of Dental Surgery (D.D.S.) and auxiliary dental professions. Pick either general dentistry OR a dental specialty, plus one auxiliary dental profession. Find out about the education, training, and experience required for these two professions. Discuss these with your counselor, and explain why these professions interest you.

Other Merit Badge History posts

Want more merit badge history? Go here.

All new merit badges get introduced. Only one has gotten launched.

On June 3, 1965, two astronauts (both former Scouts) rocketed into space aboard NASA’s Gemini 4. They carried with them an extra special payload: a small round emblem representing the Space Exploration merit badge, which was then the BSA’s newest merit badge.

When astronaut Ed White took his walk into space — the first ever spacewalk by an American — that small circle of embroidered threads and khaki cloth was tucked into the pocket of his spacesuit.

“I think that Scouting teaches us to be independent, to rely on ourselves and to solve our problems in the best way as they come up,” White later told Scouting magazine. “The things they are learning will equip them to be good citizens, and that is really the big value in Scouting.”

The Space Exploration merit badge debuted during the height of the space race. In the 1960s, young people around the world were transfixed by the steady stream of out-of-this-world “firsts” achieved by American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts.

The badge was developed in close cooperation with NASA, demonstrating how top experts “in science, industry, education and government are helping develop requirements for modern merit badges,” Scouting magazine wrote in its March 1966 issue. That trend continues today.

The launch of the Space Exploration merit badge could not have come at a better time. Just four years after its release came the biggest milestone in the space race: Eagle Scout Neil Armstrong’s 1969 walk on the moon.

At 56 years old, the merit badge remains popular among Scouts. With commercial space travel, return visits to the moon and manned trips to Mars on the horizon, the badge remains relevant, too.

Gemini 4 astronauts Ed White (left) and Jim McDivitt. White, who was a Second Class Scout, died in the Apollo 1 fire on Jan 27, 1967. McDivitt, who was a Tenderfoot Scout, led the Apollo 9 mission in March 1969. (Photo courtesy of NASA)

Honorary 50-Milers

The 50-Miler Award honors any youth or adult member who completes a trek of at least 50 miles by boat, by canoe, on foot, by horse or by bicycle.

Notably missing from that list of transportation options: a two-stage liquid-fuel rocket like the one used to carry former Scouts White and James A. McDivitt into orbit.

But just this once, the Boy Scouts of America made an exception. After White and McDivitt safely returned to Earth, the BSA presented the Gemini 4 astronauts with an honorary 50-Miler Award.

In exchange, Robert R. Gilruth, director of NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center (later renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center), presented the BSA with the actual merit badge that had flown in space.

The Space Exploration merit badge carried aboard Gemini 4 is now displayed at the National Scouting Museum. (Image courtesy of David Werhane, museum director)

It belongs in a museum

So where’s the badge now? That important piece of NASA, American and BSA history is currently displayed at the National Scouting Museum at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico.

The badge is part of an entire exhibit devoted to the strong ties between NASA and Scouting. About two-thirds of all astronauts — and 11 of the 12 men who walked on the moon — were Scouts.

The exhibit also includes photographs, mission patches, the spacesuit gloves that belonged to Eagle Scout James A. Lovell Jr. and an American flag taken to the surface of the moon by Eagle Scout Charles M. Duke Jr.

See more in the museum’s virtual tour.

The space exhibit at the National Scouting Museum. (Image courtesy of David Werhane, museum director)

A patrol meeting in space

In December 1965, NASA astronauts pulled off the world’s first rendezvous in space.

The crews aboard Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 met in space at an altitude of 160 miles. At one point during the encounter, the two capsules were a mere 1 foot apart.

While these Gemini missions made front-page news for scoring another point in the space race, they made headlines in the BSA for a different reason: All astronauts involved were Scouts.

In Gemini 6, Walter M. Schirra Jr. was a First Class Scout, and Thomas P. Stafford was a Star Scout. Gemini 7 contained Eagle Scout James A. Lovell and Tenderfoot Scout Frank Borman.

This quartet of former Scouts inspired Scouting magazine to dub this rendezvous “the first patrol meeting in space.”

Making headlines

Even before the cloth version of the Space Exploration merit badge made its way to orbit, news of the badge made its way to The New York Times.

In a front-page story from March 6, 1965, the above-the-fold headline declared that “Scouts Keep Pace With Atomic Age.”

“Scout merit badges used to be awarded for such homely skills as Blacksmithing, Pathfinding and Stalking (to take three, now obsolete, from the 1919 Scout Handbook),” the article says. “Today the badge program is setting youths toward new horizons. … And the old Pathfinding badge may soon have its modern equivalent in one awarded for Space Exploration.”

Merit badge requirements, then and now

Then: These were the requirements for the Space Exploration merit badge when it launched in 1965.

Present a report in at least 500 words, describing the history and development of space exploration.
Identify, from illustrations or models, 10 United States spacecraft and five United States launching devices.
Describe the purpose of two United States space probes and two satellites, giving the main types of instruments involved.
Assume you are an astronaut in a spacecraft. Explain briefly in writing, problems and how they may be solved, related to five of the following: radiation, meteorites, weightlessness, diet, sanitation, clothing, acceleration, deceleration, re-entry, breathing and communication.
Design and construct a nonfiring model of a launching device. Using this model, describe how it operates to place a spacecraft in orbit, and how a space probe might be launched from such spacecraft. Explain how a satellite remains in orbit.
Do one:
(a) Demonstrate a series of six condition exercises used by astronauts, explaining their purpose.
(b) Visit a space research laboratory or space rocket launch facility and present a report on your visit.
(c) Write and deliver at a meeting of your troop or post a five-minute talk on the values of space exploration.

Now: Here are the current* requirement for the Space Exploration merit badge.

Tell the purpose of space exploration and include the following:
(a) Historical reasons
(b) Immediate goals in terms of specific knowledge
(c) Benefits related to Earth resources, technology, and new products
(d) International relations and cooperation
Design a collector’s card, with a picture on the front and information on the back, about your favorite space pioneer. Share your card and discuss four other space pioneers with your counselor.
Build, launch, and recover a model rocket. Make a second launch to accomplish a specific objective. Identify and explain the following rocket parts.
(a) Body tube
(b) Engine mount
(c) Fins
(d) Igniter
(e) Launch lug
(f) Nosecone
(g) Payload
(h) Recovery system
(i) Rocket engine
Discuss and demonstrate each of the following:
(a) The law of action-reaction
(b) How rocket engines work
(c) How satellites stay in orbit
(d) How satellite pictures of Earth and pictures of other planets are made and transmitted
Do TWO of the following:
(a) Discuss with your counselor a robotic space exploration mission and a historic crewed mission. Tell about each mission’s major discoveries, its importance, and what was learned from it about the planets, moons, or regions of space explored.
(b) Using magazine photographs, news clippings, and electronic articles (such as from the internet), make a scrapbook about a current planetary mission.
(c) Design a robotic mission to another planet, moon, comet, or asteroid that will return samples of its surface to Earth. Name the planet, moon, comet, or asteroid your spacecraft will visit. Show how your design will cope with the conditions of the environments of the planet, moon, comet, or asteroid.
Describe the purpose, operation, and components of ONE of the following:
(a) Space shuttle or any other crewed orbital vehicle, whether government- owned (U.S. or foreign) or commercial
(b) International Space Station
Design an inhabited base located within our solar system, such as Titan, asteroids, or other locations that humans might want to explore in person. Make drawings or a model of your base. In your design, consider and plan for the following:
(a) Source of energy
(b) How it will be constructed
(c) Life-support system
(d) Purpose and function
Discuss with your counselor two possible careers in space exploration that interest you. Find out the qualifications, education, and preparation required and discuss the major responsibilities of those positions

*Requirements current as of the post date for this story. For the latest merit badge requirements, go here.

At first glance, the Cycling merit badge seems like one of those merit badges that just about any Scouter could teach (assuming he or she is registered as a merit badge counselor). After all, you really never forget how to ride a bike. But a counselor who’s an avid cyclist can make the badge more than an exercise in logging miles and checking off requirements — he or she can introduce Scouts to a sport they can pursue for a lifetime.

Brian Burnham is a good example. An assistant Scoutmaster with Troop 845 in Chapel Hill, N.C., he has led Scouts on four cross-country bike trips since 2005. One of his Scouts went on to compete in triathlons and won the youth division of the first Half Ironman he entered.

Craig McNeil is another good example. An early proponent of adding a mountain-biking component to the Cycling merit badge, McNeil, who lives in Denver, has introduced hundreds of Scouts to the sport at Timberline District camporees.

Scouting talked with Burnham and McNeil to get their insights on teaching the Cycling merit badge.

What to ride

High-end bikes can cost thousands of dollars, but Burnham said Scouts can complete the merit badge — and much more — without spending much money.

“I’ve ridden across the U.S. four times on a bike that cost me $275,” he says. “I just give her some TLC on the back porch after every tour, and then she’s ready to roll again the next time.”

Basic maintenance is even more important with bikes that go off road.

“Any kind of grit that gets into the bearings will affect the longevity of the bike if you don’t take care of it,” McNeil says.

McNeil, who rides a 10- or 15-year-old bike, says good used bikes are easy to come by at local bike shops and through buy-and-sell websites.

“People who are serious riders tend to feel like they need to be the early adopters in getting the latest and greatest,” he says.

Bike maintenance

Teaching bike maintenance might be the biggest challenge for counselors who are casual cyclists. Burnham has recruited bike-shop mechanics to bring tools and repair stands to a troop meeting.

“They give a 45-minute academic overview of what we’re going to do, then the Scouts dig in,” he says. “Each one fully breaks down his own bike and rebuilds it by changing tubes, setting up brakes and working on the drive train.”

McNeil recommends doing much the same thing. He also emphasizes the importance of being able to change a tire.

“When you’re out, you’re going to get flat tires,” he says. “It’s more likely to happen in the woods than on the road.”

Essential skills

For road biking, Scouts must understand traffic laws, how to use their bike’s gears effectively and how to communicate with fellow riders. But Burnham says the most essential skill might be what he calls “car management.”

For example, a rider can discourage a car from passing him in a blind curve by drifting away from the shoulder. Then, when it’s safe to pass and the car moves across the center line, he can drift back to the shoulder to allow extra passing room.

“It’s a little weird for young cyclists to do that, but it’s kind of cool to watch,” he says.

Burnham recommends having a classroom session on road safety, followed by a one-hour ride, followed by an after-ride safety discussion.

“I repeat this process for a number of our 10-mile rides and also for our 50-mile ride,” he says.

In the world of mountain biking, essential skills are balance, dexterity and focus. McNeil recommends spending time in a parking lot working on “skills and drills.” For example, you could create a slalom course out of traffic cones or build a small obstacle with 2-by-8 boards that riders must bunny-hop over. He also likes to have riders pick up water bottles from the ground or limbo under a rope hanging loosely across their path. He rediscovered the value of skills and drills after teaching Scouts at his first camporee.

“When I got back on my mountain bike, I was a much better rider,” he says.

Skills and drills can continue once you get on the trail. He recommends finding spots to practice water-bottle pickups or to climb a hill in your lowest gear without stopping.

Photo courtesy of Bartle Scout Reservation

Where to ride

Road cyclists can ride just about anywhere except controlled-access highways, but some routes are better than others.

“With inexperienced Scouts, you’ll want to have big shoulders and low traffic volumes,” Burnham says. He suggests using Google Maps in bike mode or, better yet, asking an experienced cyclist to design some routes based on your Scouts’ skill level.

For mountain-biking trails, McNeil recommends starting with the International Mountain Biking Association website or simply doing a web search on trails in your area.

“I don’t care where you live — Kentucky, Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma — there are plenty of places you can go and get elevation gains, where you can go up a hill and you can go down a hill,” he says.

As with road biking, there are also places to avoid off road.

“You can find some really mild and easy stuff that challenges you with elevation, and you can find other stuff that’s downright gnarly, where you can hurt yourself,” McNeil says. “We try to avoid that at all costs.”

Of course, Scouts can graduate to gnarly trails as they develop better skills just as they can progress from 50-mile rides to cross-country trips. And the fun doesn’t have to end once they earn the merit badge. Several of Burnham’s cross-country riders like to schedule impromptu rides via Facebook.

“It has become a social thing for them,” he says. “Instead of just sitting around, they go out and ride.”

Ten years after helping develop the Chess merit badge, the Saint Louis Chess Club continues teaching the badge to hundreds of Scouts every year. In 2020, when the pandemic forced classes online, 476 Scouts from 35 states participated.

To learn more about teaching the badge, Scouting recently connected with Scholastic Manager Kyle Weber. Here are his top tips.

Check your credentials

Whatever you’re teaching, you need to know more than your students. Weber recommends counselors have an Elo score (a standard measure of proficiency) of 1200 or more, which puts them in roughly the 75th percentile of players.

“You have to have the chess skill to be able to adequately challenge and study with the kids,” he says. “If the kids are coming in and they’re kicking your butt all over the board, you’re not teaching them anything.”

Stretch your Scouts

While most Scouts are novices, some have been playing in tournaments for years. But those veterans still need a challenge.

“Because we have such huge, all-encompassing chess resources online, you can find puzzles and tactics that easily match the Scouts’ Elo or perceived rating,” Weber says.

A good example is National Master Caleb Denby’s video of the “Hardest Mate-in-One” on the club’s YouTube channel.

iStock by Getty Images

Teach the language

Scouts need to know the rules of chess, of course, but they also need to know how to “speak” chess. For example, “Bc4” means the bishop moves to the C4 square.

“It’s really easy to say, ‘take that piece’ or ‘move that piece,’” Weber says. “But move what piece where? We need to be very specific with our algebraic notation.”

(A great way to practice the language is with the club’s free Read & Write Chess workbook.)

Once everyone has mastered the basics, the sequencing of requirements becomes less important.

“I might be talking about how pieces move and capture, but I’m also embedding in these puzzles pins, forks and other tactics,” he says. “You’re always talking about opening principles in theory through every lesson.”

Count your Scouts

The Chess merit badge lends itself to group instruction since every Scout needs an opponent. Weber recommends even numbers of Scouts so the counselor doesn’t need to play.

“If I’m a merit badge counselor and I’m playing against a Scout, I have to focus one to one,” he says. “That’s fine, but doing that constantly, you’re missing out on all the other games.”

Weber feels comfortable teaching 16 Scouts in person but smaller numbers online.

“It’s also hard to find the kids who are quiet online because it’s easy to turn off your camera or mute yourself,” he says.

In a commencement speech years ago, writer David Foster Wallace told the story of two young fish that were out swimming. When an older fish swam by and said, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?”, one young fish thought for a moment, then said, “What’s water?”

Culture is the water we swim in as people. It’s all around us, but we usually don’t think about it until we leave it — until we become fish out of water, so to speak.

The American Cultures merit badge offers Scouts a fish-out-of-water experience. It encourages them to dive into three cultures (including their own) and learn more about each’s customs, institutions, people and impact on their country.

American Scouter Jon Justine has a unique perspective on the badge. A Christian missionary based in Chiang Rai, Thailand, he has taught the badge both for Troop 711, for which he is Scoutmaster, and at events run by the Far East Council’s Asia South District, where he is district commissioner.

“It’s been a fun merit badge,” he says.

Seek Out Cultural Partners

Troop 711 is chartered to Chiang Rai International Christian School and includes members from an array of countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia and, of course, Thailand. But the Scouts are all Christians, making the troop a little less diverse than it might appear to be.

So Justine has organized multi-troop events involving Christians, Muslims and Hindus. At one, an assistant Scoutmaster arranged a visit to a mosque in a nearby town (and served as an English-Thai interpreter) so Scouts could get familiar with an unfamiliar culture.

If everyone in your troop looks, thinks and worships alike, Justine recommends reaching out to people who can provide a different perspective.

“If you’re doing this badge, don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone and put yourself in a place that’s different than what you’re normally used to,” he says. 

Don’t Just Look for Differences

Scouts (and adults) quickly pick up on how cultures differ, but Justine says it’s important to look for similarities as well. For example, the mullah who spoke with his Scouts described how he and the local Christian and Buddhist leaders meet each year to talk about their community’s needs and how the various faith groups can address them.

“There’s 7 billion people around the world, and we have a lot more in common than we have differences,” Justine says. “This badge allows us to embrace those differences in a way that is more healthy.”

Historically, the Public Health merit badge has been about as popular as washing dishes after a campout. (It ranked No. 120 in popularity in 2019.) But with COVID-19 on everyone’s mind, the badge is now attracting more interest.

How can you teach the badge effectively and make topics like vector control, morbidity and wastewater treatment sound interesting? We talked with two Public Health merit badge counselors: Alison Williams, vice president of clinical quality improvement for the Missouri Hospital Association, and Kayland Arrington, initiative director for the Cranston (R.I.) Health Equity Zone and an epidemiologist for the Rhode Island Department of Health.

Here’s what they told us.

Defining Terms

Scouts have to learn a lot of terminology for this badge, but perhaps the most important term appears in the badge’s name. Arrington, who holds a master’s degree in public health, thinks youth (and probably their parents) have only a hazy understanding of what public health is.

“They were thinking originally that it was just sort of the government or policies,” she says of the Scouts she taught this spring.

In reality, public health spans five stages: individual, interpersonal, organizational, community and public policy.

“I think it’s important to highlight something at each of those levels,” she says. “What you do personally and how you can influence your friends and what your neighborhood does — all that ultimately does affect the community as a whole.”

From Public to Personal

Williams, a registered nurse and Scout mom, emphasizes the personal aspects of public health — and the life experiences of the Scouts she works with. For example, when she does in-person classes, she’ll set up dishwashing stations for requirement 3, which relates to waterborne illnesses and sanitation.

“I also have them demonstrate how they wash their hands appropriately,” she says.

Arrington says she likes to focus on the personal when she teaches Scouts.

“I typically shy away from talking about personal responsibility too much in public health,” she says. “But I think it’s important for this age group to know what they are in control of, especially during a pandemic when things seem so out of control.”

Going Socratic

Both counselors favor the Socratic style of teaching: asking questions to discover and build on what Scouts know. And it turns out that some Scouts know a lot more than they might realize. When Arrington taught requirement 7 this spring, she spent a lot of time on automobile accidents (a leading cause of death for young people). After Scouts listed the common reasons — drunk driving, texting while driving, etc. — she posed some important questions.

“I asked them, ‘Have you ever known someone who’s done these things? What can you do instead of being in those positions?’” she says.

Measuring Success

Will life lessons like those sink in? While it’s hard to say, Williams says she knows her Scouts are learning important information.

Sometimes, it goes beyond the Scouts themselves.

“I’ve actually had a lot of parents, when we did the virtual programming, who would email me back and say, ‘Thank you for doing this. I actually learned a lot myself,’” she says. “That was kind of cool to see the parents with their Scouts learning together.”

Before she taught her Scouts what it takes to become a U.S. citizen (requirement 2 of the Citizenship in the World merit badge), Crystal Bueno didn’t do any research. Instead, the naturalized citizen from Canada grabbed her thick stack of immigration paperwork — oh, and the X-rays proving she doesn’t have tuberculosis.

“The Scouts were so happy to see all that stuff, to touch all that stuff, to understand,” the New York Scouter says.

Seeing and touching stuff was just one way she brought the badge to life for the members of Troop 187 in Brooklyn.

Power From the People

One of the highlights of the multiweek class was a panel discussion featuring troop parents who grew up in countries from India to Ecuador.

“A lot of our Scouts are first- generation Americans,” she says.

“So, having their parents and other family members participate on a panel discussion about growing up in another country — what’s the same, what’s different, about food, culture, religion, holidays, different forms of government — was an amazing and enlightening experience.” (The discussion related to requirements 3b, 5 and 7c.)

Bueno thinks troops anywhere can find similar resources if they look for them.

“I think these resources exist if people have the imagination to search for them,” she says. “Look for international events or restaurants or ethnic festivals.”

Show and Tell

Bueno’s show and tell didn’t end with her lung X-rays. She also pulled together a collection of old passports to make requirement 6c (passports and visas) more meaningful.

“The Scouts just loved flipping through them and making fun of our bad passport photos,” she says.

And a collection of Scouting stamps from an aunt offered a fun way to introduce the World Organization of the Scout Movement (requirement 4c).

“It must have been 25 or 30 different countries,” she says. “We just spread out the stamps and had the kids match up the stamps with the countries.”

Avoiding Assumptions

For requirement 3a (discuss a current world event), Bueno had Scouts debate U.S. involvement in Syria’s civil war and the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. And she was sure to provide context, including telling the story of a Syrian family that emigrated to Canada and created a beloved chocolate company.

“To get 11-, 12-, 13-year-olds to read the news and understand what’s happening, it doesn’t have context,” she says. “But when you’re able to make it a personal story, then they appreciate it.”

Similarly, when it came time to compare the rights, duties and obligations of citizens in different countries (another part of requirement 2), she had the group create the first chart together, then assigned a second chart for homework.

Bueno’s advice to other counselors is simple: “Do whatever you can to make it hands-on and interactive, and not just a dry lecture. This is such an important badge. To understand your place as a world citizen is such a huge thing to wrap your head around and to learn and to appreciate.”

Last summer, more than 120 Scouts met at the Chicagoland Lionel Railroad Club’s clubhouse in New Lenox, Ill., to learn about the world of model trains. The 3,600-square-foot clubhouse features dozens of model trains that run through handcrafted terrain built by club members.

This summer, the clubhouse has been closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but that doesn’t mean people stop pursuing their hobby.

Working on model trains counts toward requirements for the Railroading merit badge. During this pandemic, trying a new hobby might be a fun way to pass the time at home.

If your state is reopening and you’re looking for a fun activity to do, check to see if there is a model train club near you. Some, like the Chicagoland Lionel Railroad Club, offer Scout days, where members not only teach about model trains, but also train safety, railroading’s history in America and its impact on society today. Make sure, though, that you follow these guidelines for restarting Scouting as well as any local and state orders.

If you choose to stay at home, look at the requirements for the Railroading merit badge and the Model Design and Building merit badge to get some inspiration. If your Scout takes up a new hobby, encourage him or her to share with other Scouts via the Boys’ Life Hobby Hows tips form.

For more on railroads, check out this Boys’ Life story from the latest issue or check out railway museum sites, the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum Association or the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, which feature virtual tours of locomotives and train stations. Check out other virtual tours here along with details on how they may fulfill requirements.

For more fun activities to do at home, visit this page, which has resources, challenges and podcasts for all Scouting programs. Your advancement questions can be answered here.

An eight-hour flight to Paris? Even in pre-pandemic times, that seems like a lot of work for a single merit badge requirement.

But with the Louvre Museum just a click away, the Art merit badge is within reach during COVID-19.

Museums with virtual tours, coupled with new temporary guidelines from the BSA that make virtual museum visits an acceptable option, mean your Scouts don’t have to put merit badge work on hold.

That’s right in line with the spirit of Scouting, where Scouts learn to find a way around any problem. (I’ve been so inspired to see all the examples of Scouting continuing at home.)

The best options for Scouts are museums that let virtual visitors explore at their own pace — instead of watching a video, for example. Self-guided virtual tours more closely replicate the in-person museum experience and allow visitors to dive more deeply when they find something that interests them.

So which are worth checking out? Below, we’ve scouted out eight excellent museums offering virtual visits — no ticket (or plane fare) required.

Do virtual visits count toward merit badge requirements?

But wait! Before we get to the list of virtual museums, let’s go over the intricacies of advancement during COVID-19. The BSA, recognizing this unprecedented situation, has been extremely flexible in allowing temporary modifications to some requirements.

That includes merit badges. As outlined in the BSA’s comprehensive COVID-19 FAQs, “in some cases, virtual ‘visits’ may fulfill the intent of a [merit badge] requirement.”

The BSA goes on to say that “virtual visits to a city council meeting, national historic landmarks, museums, and art galleries may be acceptable, but swimming, rifle shooting, and motorboating merit badges cannot be completed virtually.”

Three things to remember before proceeding:

• These are possible temporary options available during the pandemic.
• Scouts must check with their merit badge counselor before beginning their virtual visit.
• The BSA’s Youth Protection policies apply.

Louvre Museum (Art MB)

Explore ancient Egyptian antiquities, learn about art with a political message and view the Mona Lisa without waiting in line. The Louvre Museum in Paris offers 360-degree tours, fascinating videos and interactive exhibits for free on its site.

Don’t worry if you don’t speak française. All displays are presented in both French and English.

Link: Here

Requirement: Art MB, requirement 6: “With your parent’s permission and your counselor’s approval, visit a museum, art exhibit, art gallery, artists’ co-op, or artist’s workshop. Find out about the art displayed or created there. Discuss what you learn with your counselor.”

See also: National Gallery of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art

National Naval Aviation Museum (Aviation MB)

This Florida museum lets virtual visitors step inside the cockpit of a number of “unique and historic aircraft,” including the F/A-18 Hornet, F4F-3 Wildcat and A-1H Skyraider.

And don’t miss the fascinating look at landing signal officers — those men and women in charge of making sure a plane lands safely on an aircraft carrier.

Link: Here

Requirement: Aviation MB, requirement 4C: “Visit an aviation museum or attend an air show. Report on your impressions of the museum or show.”

See also: Museum of Flight, Air Force Museum

National Aquarium (Oceanography MB)

Venture into “Shark Alley,” peek beneath the surface of the Amazon River and watch jellyfish peacefully pulse past you. The National Aquarium in Baltimore offers both 360-degree tours and livestreams, giving you a comprehensive view of the fascinating underwater world.

Link: Here for the virtual tour and here for the livestreams

Requirement: Oceanography MB, requirement 8B: “Visit one of the following: (1) Oceanographic research ship or (2) Oceanographic institute, marine laboratory, or marine aquarium [and] write a 500-word report about your visit.”

See also: Georgia Aquarium whale cam, Monterey Bay Aquarium sea otter cam

Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (American Cultures MB)

The stories told at this museum, which opened in 2016, have taken on extra resonance during our national conversation surrounding racial equality.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture doesn’t have a virtual tour in the traditional sense but offers an array of options for Scouts wanting to digitally connect with the museum’s 12 exhibitions and 37,000 artifacts.

Link: Here for the museum’s digital resources and here for Google’s virtual presentation

Requirement: American Cultures MB, requirement 1E: “Go to a library or museum to see a program or exhibit featuring one group’s traditions. Report on what you see and learn.”

See also: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, National Museum of the American Indian

The British Museum (Archaeology MB)

Better block off the weekend, because your Scouts are going to need a little bit of time to peruse the “2 million years of human history and culture” awaiting visitors to the British Museum. Like the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the British Museum partnered with Google Arts & Culture to transport many of its exhibits online.

Explore the ballcourts of Chichén Itzá, see famous artifacts like the Rosetta Stone and understand ancient farming techniques — all without leaving the couch.

Link: 360-degree tours and Google interactive galleries

Requirement: Archaeology MB, requirement 7A: “Do ONE of the following and discuss your findings with your counselor: (a) Visit a museum to observe how artifacts aid in conveying history.”

See also: National Museum of Anthropology, Acropolis Museum

U.S. Capitol (Citizenship in the Nation MB)

Part museum and part headquarters for our nation’s legislative branch, the U.S. Capitol has it all. In the Rotunda, you might see a group of high schoolers patiently staring at a painting by John Trumbull while two members of congress hustle past to vote on a bill.

But in the virtual world, the U.S. Capitol is all yours. The people are gone (unless you count the statues), meaning you can take your time.

Link: Here

Requirement: Citizenship in the Nation MB, requirement 2B: “Tour your state capitol building or the U.S. Capitol. Tell your counselor what you learned about the capitol, its function, and its history.”

See also: The website for your state’s capitol building, Ellis Island

Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (Mining in Society MB)

Come for the dinosaurs but stay for the colorful crystals in patterns and shapes that seem to defy the laws of nature. If your Scout is working on the Mining in Society merit badge, which explores the role that mined materials play in our lives, this museum is the perfect fit.

Head to the second floor’s “Geology, Gems & Minerals” exhibit and get ready to dig in.

Link: Here

Requirement: Mining in Society MB, requirement 5B: “With your parent’s permission and counselor’s approval, visit a mining or minerals exhibit at a museum. Find out about the history of the museum’s exhibit and the type of mining it represents. Give three examples of how mineral resources have influenced history.”

Vatican Museums (Sculpture MB)

As you study the Vatican Museums’ many sculptures — collected by popes from the 17th century to today — don’t forget to look up. You won’t want to miss the stunning ceilings — including the paintings in the well-known Sistine Chapel.

The sculptures are something to gawk at, for sure. There’s a bronze statue of Hercules, the Sleeping Ariadne and a full-length statue of Augustus Caesar thought to be created in A.D. 29.

Link: Here

Requirement: Sculpture MB, requirement 2C: “With your parent’s permission and your counselor’s approval, visit a museum, art exhibit, art gallery, artists’ co-op, or artist’s studio. After your visit, share with your counselor what you have learned. Discuss the importance of visual arts and how it strengthens social tolerance and helps stimulate cultural, intellectual, and personal development.”

See also: Guggenheim Bilbao, J. Paul Getty Museum

If you consider Hercules Mulligan, John Laurens and the Marquis de Lafayette to be three of your closest quarantine companions, you aren’t alone.

Now that the Broadway musical Hamilton is available to anyone for just $7 (the cost of a month of Disney+), this hip-hop history lesson is gaining an even wider audience. In a year of tough news, Hamilton is one bright light we can enjoy “Non-Stop.”

Hamilton, rated PG-13 (parental guidance is strongly recommended for Scouts under 13), uncovers the complicated histories of Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers in a way that no textbook can.

The show has turned legions of people into Hamilton fans — or, because four syllables is one too many, Hamilfans. Are you a Hamilfan? To prove it, you’ll need to start by earning the five merit badges below.

American Heritage

“His enemies destroyed his rep, America forgot him.”

Well, Aaron Burr, sir, that’s not true of Alexander Hamilton anymore.

But as informative as Hamilton is, there’s so much more to the $10 Founding Father than can be told in 160 minutes — no matter how densely packed those minutes may be. For further study, Scouts should turn to the American Heritage merit badge.

A surprising number of the merit badge’s requirements can be met by watching Hamilton, reading the biography that inspired the show and doing additional research into the musical’s many characters.

Bonus points to Scouts who complete any of those written requirements in rhyme.

Family Life

Alexander and Elizabeth Hamilton had eight children. With her husband away fighting battles (literal or otherwise), Eliza did much of the parenting herself. This despite her pleas to Alexander to “let me be a part of the narrative.”

As it turns out, she wrote her own narrative just fine. Eliza outlived Alexander by 50 years. In that time, she started New York’s first orphanage, which is still around today. She helped care for more than 750 children who would’ve had no place to call home.

Speaking of, home is at the heart of the Eagle-required Family Life merit badge, which includes such requirements like “plan a family meeting,” “plan a project that would benefit your family” and “list several reasons why you are important to your family.”

Eliza wasn’t just important to her family; she was essential to the founding of our country.

Law

In the song “Non-Stop,” Hamilton tells Aaron Burr that “you’re a better lawyer than me.”

It’s a rare moment of self-deprecation for the self-assured Hamilton, but it’s arguably untrue. Hamilton was no slouch in the courtroom. He was, according to the Ron Chernow biography that inspired the musical, “regarded as one of the premier lawyers of the early republic.”

Hamilton argued that truth should be a defense against claims of libel (People v. Croswell), mounted a successful defense in the country’s first murder trial (People v. Levi Weeks) and set a precedent for the concept of judicial review (Rutgers v. Waddington).

Any of those high-profile cases would make great fodder for requirement 2C of the Law merit badge (discuss two famous trials in history) and go a long way toward proving your Hamilfandom.

Public Speaking

Combined, the four speeches Scouts must give to earn the Public Speaking merit badge will total no more than 22 minutes.

On June 18, 1787, Hamilton spoke for six hours straight at the Constitutional Convention. He proposed a new form of government — which was not adopted, but still. Six hours!

Though the written word was Hamilton’s weapon of choice, he was a convincing speaker and skilled speechwriter. He helped write George Washington’s farewell address, parts of which are quoted verbatim in the song “One Last Time.”

But he didn’t do it alone. Elizabeth Hamilton helped her husband write many of those speeches, including Washington’s farewell.

Journalism

“Hamilton’s skill with a quill is undeniable.”

He wrote letters, political rebuttals and 51 of the 85 essays in the Federalist Papers, which defended the fledgling U.S. Constitution. Hamilton’s search for ever-larger venues for his powerful words led him in 1801 to start the New York Evening Post. That paper became the New York Post and is today the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the country.

Hamilton pumped $1,000 of his own money (more than $15,000 in today’s dollars) into the newspaper, which initially gave him a public way to attack then-President Thomas Jefferson and his Democratic-Republican Party.

Creating your own newspaper isn’t a requirement for the Journalism merit badge, though writing two newspaper articles is one option. But nothing’s stopping a Scout from establishing the Troop 3 Times or the Troop 12 Tribune. Hamilton would be proud.

What’d I Miss?

What other merit badges belong on this list?

Remember the rule: This is a Top 5 list, not a Top 6 or Top 7. If you add one, you must say which one you’d remove and why.

What Comes Next?

Click here for more “Top 5 merit badges” fun.

When Avery Moore isn’t volunteering as Scoutmaster of Troop 11 in Rocky Mount, N.C., you can find him helping out at a local pediatric burn survivor aftercare program. It was during a virtual meeting for the latter that he discovered a need that could be met by the former.

“Since COVID-19 has impacted the globe the way it has,” Moore says, “the burn units have been bombarded with pediatric burn patients, all of them with a similar story: They were trying to cook when no one was around, and something went horribly wrong.”

Then, a debate arose with an answer that would be obvious for anyone involved in Scouting.

“Very simply, they just wanted to know if there were any youth-serving organizations that teach life skills to youth like cooking, first aid, safety, fire prevention … and the list could go on,” Moore says.

Well, duh

The answer, obviously, is Scouts BSA (or really, any program offered by the Boy Scouts of America).

“I laughed as I replied that this was exactly what Scouts did,” Moore says. “Of course, I was met with the typical, ‘I thought you just went camping!’ ”

Avery’s anecdote got us thinking: Just how valuable are the skills from, say, the Eagle-required Cooking merit badge to today’s youth? Especially those who might be home for summer vacation or doing schoolwork? With parents who may be busy also working from home or away at an office? The answer: Pretty darn valuable. Let’s take a closer look.

Cooking safely

It’s right there in Requirement 1a:

Explain to your counselor the most likely hazards you may encounter while participating in cooking activities and what you should do to anticipate, help prevent, mitigate, and respond to these hazards.

And again, in 1b:

Show that you know first aid for and how to prevent injuries or illnesses that could occur while preparing meals and eating, including burns and scalds, cuts, choking, and allergic reactions.

When you think about it, the scenario of a young person alone in the kitchen trying to cook up a hot meal and then suddenly realizing they’re in over their heads is not far-fetched at all. Even if a parent is in a virtual meeting in the very next room, we all know how quickly things can escalate over a hot stove.

Eating healthy

It’s right there in Requirement 2a:

Using the MyPlate food guide or the current USDA nutrition model, give five examples for each of the following food groups, the recommended number of daily servings, and the recommended serving size: fruits, vegetables, grains, proteins and dairy.

And again, in 2c:

Determine your daily level of activity and your caloric need based on your activity level. Then, based on the MyPlate food guide, discuss with your counselor an appropriate meal plan for yourself for one day.

So right off the bat, we’ve got safety and nutrition covered. What else could you ask for?

Bonus!

How about Requirement 4?

Using the MyPlate food guide or the current USDA nutrition model, plan menus for three full days of meals (three breakfasts, three lunches, and three dinners) plus one dessert.

And there you have it. Three days of safe, healthy eating for your kids, which helps free you up to take care of your business during the day.

Moore has even more great ideas for more merit badges that could come in handy.

“Emergency Preparedness, First Aid and Safety have all three prepared our Scouts to assist their families in dealing with day-to-day life right now,” he says. “More and more hospitals are seeing people chose to simply deal with minor issues on their own rather than take a trip to urgent care for something minor.

“Citizenship in the Community has given them the insight to understand some of the local politics and the decisions that are having to be made locally right now.

“Citizenship in the Nation has given the Scouts the framework to understand and discuss the decisions made at the federal level that are having direct impact on their day-to-day lives.”

And, if parents really get desperate this summer …

“Too much longer and they will all wish they had Gardening and Home Repairs.”

To earn a merit badge, a young person must work with a registered merit badge counselor. Here are some frequently asked questions about these important adult volunteers.

What are the requirements to be a merit badge counselor?

Counselors must be men or women of good character who are 18 or older with skills and education in the subjects they cover. They also must be registered as an adult BSA leader and apply for the position of merit badge counselor (position code 42). They also must have completed Youth Protection Training within the past two years.

What training and expertise must a counselor have?

There are no specific requirements for most badges, although the counselor must be knowledgeable about the topic. (Oftentimes this means involvement in the field as a career or hobby.) For a handful of badges, mostly in aquatics and shooting sports, special qualifications and/or current certifications are required; these are listed in section 7.0.1.1 of the Guide to Advancement.

Who approves merit badge counselors?

The council advancement committee, although responsibility is sometimes delegated to the district advancement committee. Council or district approval is required even for counselors who serve only Scouts in their own units. The advancement committee should maintain a current list of registered and approved counselors and make it available to the leaders of troops, crews and ships.

How does a merit badge counselor get approved?

In addition to submitting an adult application, a potential counselor must submit the Merit Badge Counselor Information form (No. 34405) to the council or district advancement committee, depending on local policies. On this form, the applicant lists which badges he or she wants to counsel, plus relevant training and experience. There’s no fee to register as a merit badge counselor.

Can’t a Scoutmaster counsel any merit badge automatically?

No. A unit leader must register as a counselor and be approved for the merit badges in question.

Does a merit badge counselor have to work with any Scout who asks?

On the Merit Badge Counselor Information sheet, the counselor can specify whether he or she wants to work with any Scouts or just those from specified units.

How does Youth Protection affect merit badge counseling?

As in all Scouting activities, no one-on-one contact is permitted, and two-deep leadership is required. However, in the case of merit badge counseling, one of the Scout’s parents can serve as the second required adult.

Is internet-based counseling permitted?

The preferred method is face-to-face interaction. However, councils can develop procedures to allow counseling via the internet. See section 5.0.8.0 of the Guide to Advancement for more information.

Where can I learn more?

An excellent resource is the pamphlet A Guide for Merit Badge Counseling (No. 512-065).

Like other merit badge counselors, Francis Lawrence brings passion, expertise and professional experience to this important volunteer role.

It just so happens that Lawrence’s experience is as an accomplished Hollywood director.

The Scouting dad and board member in the BSA’s Western Los Angeles County Council directed Will Smith in I Am Legend, Keanu Reeves in Constantine and Jennifer Lawrence in three of the four Hunger Games movies. (He’s also been hired to direct the film adaptation of the Hunger Games prequel.)

Lawrence is teaching — what else? — the Moviemaking merit badge to a group of Scouts in Troop 223 of Los Angeles. That’s the troop where his son, Andrew, is a Star Scout hoping to earn Eagle next year.

Last week, Lawrence met with seven Scouts and one adult from Troop 223 for the first of what will become six or seven weekly Zoom meetings.

With the permission of the Scouts and their parents, the meeting was recorded and shared with Bryan on Scouting so we could offer readers an inside look.

Speaking of Francis Lawrence, the director will be a part of this weekend’s BSA National Camp-In, streaming live on Facebook. Don’t miss it!

Introducing the filmmaker

Patrol leader Andrew Grinsfelder began the meeting by introducing Lawrence to his fellow Scouts. Andrew asked the director how he got into the business.

“Moviemaking is something that I always wanted to do,” Lawrence tells the Scouts. “I loved movies from when I was little when I used to make short films — back when you still had to shoot on film.”

Lawrence explained that a director is the film’s captain. All decisions go through the director as they work with the writer to visualize the way a movie is going to look.

Will the colors be vibrant or muted? Will there be mostly wide shots, close-ups or a combination of the two? Will effects be practical or computer-generated?

After those decisions are made, the director hires the people who can bring that vision to life: the cast, the cinematographer, the editor, the composer. That’s a lot of power — and a lot of pressure.

“If something doesn’t work,” Lawrence says, “it’s usually my fault.”

Time for questions

Next, Andrew asked his fellow Scouts if they had any questions.

One Scout had recently watched Lawrence’s 2007 horror movie I Am Legend, where Will Smith plays a plague survivor who walks through a deserted New York City avoiding the bloodthirsty mutants that lurk there.

“How did you make New York look so empty?” the Scout asks.

Lawrence explained that he worked with the NYPD to empty out certain streets during shooting. Digital artists then removed things like lights in buildings and planes in the sky to achieve the intended post-apocalyptic effect.

“It was a long time ago, and I don’t think a city would allow that to happen now,” Lawrence says.

But not all of the director’s work happens in concrete jungles like New York. He also shared that when filming the Apple TV Plus show See, starring Jason Momoa, he got to roam the wilderness of British Columbia, Canada.

“It’s part of the fun of moviemaking that you get thrown in all sorts of situations,” he says. “You get to travel a lot, and you get to tell really good, fun stories.”

Time to get to work

With the introductions and Q&A complete, it was time to begin work on the Moviemaking merit badge.

Lawrence challenged the Scouts to come up with their concept by the next meeting. That’s requirement 2a of Moviemaking: “In a three- or four-paragraph treatment, tell the story you plan to produce, making sure that the treatment conveys a visual picture.”

Lawrence had a few tips for the Scouts when working on their short films:

• Give the story a reason to exist. Don’t just come up with a plot or a situation. Make your movie have a point. “A premise might be ‘bullying is bad,’ and then we could write a story where the idea is that bullying is bad,” Lawrence says.
• Have a beginning, middle and end. Even two-minute movies should flow through these fundamental elements of storytelling.
• Keep the cast list small. A two-minute movie shouldn’t have a cast of thousands.
• Funny is good. “When I was in film school, and people did shorts, the funny ones were always big hits,” Lawrence says.

To that last one, patrol leader Andrew had a quick retort: “I think these guys — all of us — will be especially good at comedies.”

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Thanks to Mike Lanning, Dean Grinsfelder and Matt Thornton for their help with this post.

When the giant Magellan Telescope opens sometime in the next decade, it will be 10 times more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope. But you don’t need billion-dollar equipment to introduce your Scouts to astronomy, according to veteran merit badge counselor Chris Smith of Allentown, Pa. Smith and his daughter, Kaitie, who often team-teach the Astronomy merit badge, shared their top tips with Scouting magazine. They are both with the Minsi Trails Council.

Telescopes

Although you don’t need an expensive instrument, you do need more than a discount-store telescope. “They’re difficult to use, and they give you such poor-quality images that it discourages kids,” Chris says. “If you show a kid a really good shot of Jupiter or Saturn through a good telescope, they’ll say, ‘Wow!’ almost every time, but if you use a poor telescope, you’ll have trouble even finding it.”

If you don’t want to drop $400 or more on a good telescope, he recommends connecting with a local astronomy club, which will have access to high-quality instruments and — perhaps even better — people who know how to use them.

Chris and Kaitie teach the badge through the Lehigh Valley Amateur Astronomy Society, whose Pulpit Rock Astronomical Park is perhaps the best amateur observatory east of the Mississippi.

Teamwork

Unless you’re teaching one Scout at a time, it’s good to have some help.

“If there’s a leader who has his own telescope, I would recommend he do a crash course with a couple of other leaders in the troop without kids so that he’s not just on his own,” Chris says.

That’s how former tagalong Kaitie started teaching. Once, when her dad was having trouble getting a telescope to sync with his computer, she grabbed his laser pointer and started telling Scouts the stories behind the constellations.

“When I started teaching the stories, they got more interested in the constellations,” she says. “Instead of it just being a bunch of stars in the sky, there was now a story.”

Teaching Tools

That laser pointer, which is so bright that it looks like a lightsaber, is one of Chris’ favorite teaching tools. Another is the Evening Sky Map, available for free at skymaps.com

“They publish a sky map for the month; on the front and back it has all kinds of information about stuff happening in the sky,” he says.

Chris is also a fan of Stellarium (stellarium.org), which bills itself as “a free open source planetarium for your computer.”

Of course, there are also plenty of smartphone apps available, but the Smiths recommend saving those for later to avoid distractions.

Timing

Spring and fall are the best seasons to work on the badge.

“Astronomical twilight is at 8 or 9 o’clock,” Chris says. “No Scout leader is interested in keeping his kids up until 3 a.m.”

But summer isn’t bad. When Kaitie was on staff at Trexler Scout Reservation in Kunkletown, Pa., last summer, she did some informal teaching.

“Everyone was, like, lying on the ground looking at the sky while I was pointing things out and talking,” she says. “Everyone was so fascinated by it. I was so happy that they loved it.”

As she drove the girls in her new Scouts BSA troop to a campout last spring, Heather O’Bannon heard plenty of stories of family distress and dysfunction.

“I’m sitting there going, ‘Wow, Family Life merit badge is going to be really interesting,’ ” the Hilliard, Ohio, Scoutmaster and merit badge counselor recalls.

In fact, the Eagle-required badge can be both interesting and challenging for many Scouts, no matter what kind of family they come from. In requirement 6 alone, they must discuss with family members such heavy topics as substance abuse, sex, family finances and family crises.

Handled well, however, the badge can be one of the most important a Scout will earn. O’Bannon and merit badge counselor Joe Debosik of Peru, Ill., offer some tips.

Defining Family

Counselors should remember that today’s families often look more like the Pritchetts from Modern Family than the Cleavers from Leave It to Beaver.

“Not everybody has a mom and dad at home,” Debosik says. “Some people have two moms, some people have two dads, some people have a grandpa, some people have an uncle, some people have just their brother.”

Debosik recommends using the word “family” more than “mom and dad” when you’re talking with Scouts.

Involving Family

No other badge requires as much family involvement as Family Life; the Scout must do nearly every requirement with his or her family.

“That’s a shift for parents, and that’s a shift for Scouts,” O’Bannon says.

On the plus side, if this is one of the first badges a Scout earns, the parents will gain an understanding of how the merit badge program works.

It’s important to make sure family members understand what’s expected of them, especially when they’re juggling multiple responsibilities. In rare cases, the counselor might have to do even more.

“If the parents are divorced or they just don’t have time to do it because they’re working or there are other siblings, you can always reach out to other people in their family,” Debosik says.

Imagining Family

Although family projects and meetings take up much of the badge, O’Bannon believes requirement 7 — discussing what makes an effective parent — might be the most important one. She wants Scouts to think both about what makes their parents effective (or not) and what could make themselves effective parents a decade or two from now. When Scouts complain about their family situations, she’ll say, “What kind of roles do you want to have when you grow up? Think about changes that you want to make now to make your life better later.”

When her Scouts were complaining on that car ride last spring, O’Bannon talked about the importance of open communication.

“I just gave them a little food for thought, something to kind of think about,” she says. “Then when they’re ready, they can come back.”

And then they’ll be ready to earn one of Scouting’s most important merit badges.

Merit badge classes, fairs and universities allow Scouts to pursue several badges in one day or weekend, often working with highly qualified counselors in unique settings. However, organizers and unit leaders must make sure Scouts and counselors aren’t taking shortcuts to boost badge counts.

Is group instruction permitted?

Yes. It’s acceptable and even desirable at times. However, each Scout must actually and personally complete each requirement before the counselor signs off.

What does ‘actually and personally’ mean?

Each Scout must complete the requirements as written. If a requirement says “show,” the Scout can’t just watch a demonstration; if a requirement says “discuss,” the Scout can’t just listen to a discussion without participating.

Who can teach in a group setting?

All instruction must be overseen by an adult member of the BSA who is registered as a merit badge counselor, approved for the specific badge and current in Youth Protection Training. However, it’s OK to use guest instructors, speakers and other volunteers to facilitate learning.

Is group instruction better for certain badges?

The approach works best when the benefits are compelling. Factors could include strong interest from Scouts in a subject area, access to counselors who might not otherwise be available or availability of special resources that could enhance the learning experience. The Rifle Shooting merit badge is a good example: It’s popular, requires a specially trained counselor and must be earned at a rifle range.

How big may merit badge classes be?

There’s no set limit, but the preference is for smaller groups, perhaps no larger than a patrol in size. Larger groups are feasible if qualified instructors are assigned to subgroups to ensure Scouts receive individual attention.

What about requirements that can’t be completed in a group setting?

It’s perfectly acceptable — and even preferable — for a Scout to leave a merit badge event with only some requirements completed. He or she can then work individually with a counselor to finish the requirements. The class should focus on requirements that work best in a group setting.

Can an event have prerequisites?

Yes. You could also simply tell Scouts which requirements they must do either before or after the event. Note that in a few cases, like requirement 1 of the Lifesaving merit badge, requirements must be done beforehand.

How do counselors ensure prerequisites have been met?

If the actual work done can’t be brought to the event, pictures and letters from other merit badge counselors or unit leaders are the best forms of documentation.

What should I do if I have concerns about a merit badge event?

See section 11.1.0.0 of the Guide to Advancement.

Where can I learn more?

Group instruction is covered in section 7.0.3.2 of the Guide to Advancement. Members of the National Advancement Program Team have developed a Merit Badge Group Instruction Guide.