We Own Adventure

Scouting News for the DC Metro Area

The Scouter Digest Staff

Scout Inventors, with thanks to the USPTO!

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This summer, the United States Patent & Trademark Office hosted a multi-day virtual event for over 150 Scouts BSA to earn the Inventing Merit Badge. In July, youth were welcomed to a virtual learning session by Elizabeth Dougherty, the Eastern Regional Outreach Director of the USPTO and David Gooder, the Commissioner for Trademarks at the USPTO and Eagle Scout.

Keynote presenters included National Inventor’s Hall of Fame Inductee Eric Fossum and multi-patent owner Rory Cooper, both of whom are Eagle Scouts.

Stephen Yanchuk, the Special Advisor to the Director of the EROO – USPTO, led a session on intellectual property and helped familiarize scouts with resources such as the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame, USPTO’s virtual museum, and Google Patents.  A panel of inventors – Dr. Stanley Fricke, Anna Hopen and Mitchell Kempisty – moderated by Tomeka Oubichon of the EROO-USPTO then shared their stories of why they invent. Finally, scouts split into breakout rooms to brainstorm their own inventions. Each breakout was facilitated by a couple USPTO or industry Merit Badge Counselors who shared their expertise.

The nearly 2 dozen merit badge counselors continued to counsel the scouts through a multi-week expedition during which the scouts invented various objects. All of the inventions had to “solve a problem” to meet the Merit Badge requirement as well as the ‘usefulness’ criteria required to earn a patent. Several scouts demonstrated prototypes in a virtual inventing showcase,  some video clips of which are here.

 

In culmination of the event, scouts heard from another inventor, and BSA STEM Scout from Denver, Colorado, Gitanjali Rao. Gitanjali Rao was named the 2020 TIME Kid of the Year and had just recently received a patent for her device, lead contamination detecting device Tethys! You can watch the interview with STEM Scout Inventor Gitanjali on Facebook Live.

Our tremendous thank you goes to the many Inventing Merit Badge Counselors who made this learning session a reality. Over 100 Scouts BSA earned their Inventing Merit Badges with the tutelage of the USPTO’s summer events, and we are so grateful!

Above all, we thank the Eastern Regional Outreach Office of the USPTO for developing the infrastructure to counsel the Inventing Merit Badge and for encouraging youth inventors!

 

Seneca District Passes First Female Eagle

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On Wednesday, August 25, 2021, Seneca District of the NCAC held its regular Eagle Boards of Review and passed its first female Eagle Scout – Bethany H.

Bethany is a member of Troop 1920 in Montgomery Village, MD. This is a remarkable achievement, because as few as 2 1/2 years ago, young women did not even have the opportunity to earn the prestigious award, or even to participate in, what was at the time, the Boy Scouts program, now called Scouts BSA.

Bethany’s dedication allowed her to earn this award in just 30 months, while many who earn this award take over six years to learn these skills and complete these requirements. Over these 30 months she, and the other Scouts of Troop 1920 have learned many basic Scouting and camping skills, cooking, citizenship, first aid, and leadership. She has then taken these skills and applied them both within the troop serving in roles of Patrol Leader and Senior Patrol Leader, and applied these skills in her daily life at School, in her job, at her church and with her family.

We are all very proud of her achievement.

The Scouts BSA has a saying … “Once and Eagle, always an Eagle”, and this is very true. These skills will always be a part of her life, and we look forward to learning of the journey that they help to take her on.

Back Country Outdoor Leader Skills

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This course is aimed at all adults working with older youth regardless of program (Scouts BSA, Sea Scouts, Venturing, or Exploring). This training IS NOT recommended for Cub Scout leaders. All participants must have completed Introduction to Outdoor Leader Skills, as well as the position-specific training for their program area prior to attending this course and be able to meet physical requirements of the BSA Annual Health & Medical Record.

September course:
9/20, 7pm-8pm online
9/25, 9am-7pm @ Frederick MD

https://scoutingevent.com/082-50510

October course:
10/11, 7pm-8pm online
10/16, 9am-7pm @ Haymarket VA

https://scoutingevent.com/082-49968

For more information, contact Dominick Caridi at dscscouting@aol.com or 703-625-4196.

 

Hike the DC STEM Trek!

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The Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Trek is a hike around the Mall area of downtown Washington DC highlighting some of the STEM that was involved in the creation of Washington D.C., and showcasing the government agencies and private organizations involved in STEM that are located in Washington DC.

The Trek includes 24 stops; each has a question for you to answer (a cub scout level question, a Scout BSA level question and an on-site question).

For a glimpse of the questions: At stop #7, the Eisenhower National Presidential Memorial, we want to know how tall the Eisenhower figure in the left-most sculpture is? At stop #16,  the Octagon House, we want to know how many angles are formed by the main house outline?

There is an ‘abbreviated’ trek highlighted in the guide for those who prefer that. The shorter hike begins at the Smithsonian Metro station and ends at the Boy Scout Memorial, with a route of 4.75 miles. The longer trek is a 10.57-mile hike and routes through 24 stops from the Smithsonian Metro station to the USDA.

To see the STEM Trek Guide, visit www.ncacbsa.org/stem and expand the section titled ‘DC STEM Trek’. We hope to see you earn your patch!

 

The origin story of the Trek:
The STEM Trek concept originated from the NCAC STEM Committee, chaired by Dr. Arden Dougan, in 2019. STEM Committee member and Colonial District Supernova Mentor Mr. Tony Springer originally identified over a dozen Trek stops and presented this in a working session at University of Scouting 2020.

Girl Troop 1853 with the Albert Einstein Statue during one of their STEM Trek hikes!

From that original idea, Girls Troop 1853 of Springfield, Virginia adapted, enhanced and completed the development of the Trek! Special thanks to Reagan and Cordelia, who were the Senior Patrol Leaders during this development. Inputs were provided by Sarah, Kyra, Sadie, Paige, Sydney, Tessa, Evelynn, Lauren, Moksha, Sumi, Rowan, Aubrie, Reagan, and Cordelia. Input was also provided by Scouters Mrs. Foster, the Scoutmaster, and Mrs. Embry, Mrs. Kelley and Mr. Schulke.

Finally, we would be remiss if we did not recognize Mr. Donlin, a truly unsung hero of the DC STEM Trek. Mr. Donlin took the initiative to rally GTroop 1853 to adopt the development of the Trek during covid. He dedicated countless hours mentoring the group in this endeavor and that does not even include the several miles of hiking/exploring to pilot the Trek! Over several months, Mr. Donlin led the group to complete the design, stops and questions for the DC STEM Trek that you see today.

We hope you enjoy the Trek, and learn about our Nation’s Capital and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics!

STEM Lab 314 in Powhatan

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Powhatan District welcomes a brand new STEM Scouts Lab this fall! This is the District’s first STEM Scouts Lab, and following in similar vein as several other NCAC Labs, the group picked a unit number with some mathematical significance: 314.

Lab 314 is led by wonderful leaders of Pack 159 who took the initiative to start this standalone STEM program. The first meeting was Lab Safety & Orientation, as is required for every STEM Scout year. Then, last week, the Lab met to begin its’ first activity module of the year – all about Wildlife Sciences.

The STEM Scouts received their individual activity kits, but they met in a classroom all wearing masks for the Lab meeting.

This first module is titled “Into the Wild” and is described as: Warm blood, cold blood, bones or no bones, these Scouts will go into the wild to discover the variety of animals that inhabit our planet. Scouts will first explore the biomes of this world and then determine which animal calls each biome home. From there, they will get their “gloves dirty” to experience the food chain in person by dissecting an owl pellet and investigate various bird adaptations. Scouts will get to see how long an alligator actually is, discover which amphibian is clear, and end by building an aquatic marine biome ecosystem, also known as a coral reef!

Up next, they’ll be exploring aerodynamics with a module called “A Flying Fluid”!