We Own Adventure

Scouting News for the DC Metro Area

Scouting Programs

Troop 1577 Hosts Chopped Cooking Competition

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Troop 1577 held a Cooking competition at Runnymede Park. The Scouts worked in teams of 2 or 3. They knew in advance that they needed to make a dish that included Oreos, pretzels and bananas. They planned a dish understanding that a mystery ingredients would be revealed. It was – bread! The Scouts came up with delicious desserts including crepes, dipped bananas and sundaes. Judges evaluated the dishes on a list of criteria that included how well the team worked together and how well they cleaned up. The Scouts were very focused and say they can’t wait to do it again! One Scout made a trophy from a cutting board where he is engraving the winners’ names.

Earning Silver Medals in STEM in Scouting

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I don’t think I ever truly knew what STEM really was until I discovered NOVA awards and did my first one. It was much more difficult than I expected, taking a lot of time, energy, and creativity. The more I worked on it, the more I learned and became interested in the world of STEM. Specifically I loved the aerospace and engineering parts of it, having watched several rocket launches for activities and building a fan powered car out of a gatorade bottle and some bottle caps. After completing four of these NOVA awards, I set my sights on the biggest challenge yet – the Supernova.

It took months to complete all of the requirements and challenges for this award, but even though at times I wanted to drop it all together, I pushed through. My favorite activities were the coding project I did, shadowing a heliophysicist, and teaching cub scouts how to make a fan powered car. Especially during the shadowing, I learned so much about what it’s like to work at NASA, and so much on recent projects and interesting things happening in the world of engineering right now.

When I finished my first Supernova award, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue and do another one. But with spare time on my hands, and a growing interest in STEM I began it. My favorite activities were creating the Electroscope for the nuclear science merit badge, running a meeting with different science experiments, and writing an essay on the history of nuclear power.

I think the Thomas Edison Supernova opened the door to my interest in nuclear sciences, beginning with the all day merit badge course which I really enjoyed – going in depth on atoms and fission which I found particularly interesting. While doing the essay on nuclear power I felt myself getting really intrigued with each piece of information I found, causing me to write out the 1,500 words in only an hour. Everything about it made me nervous, how such tiny things could explode cities and have so much power, but it also excited me to think that was possible.

After completing it I was really proud, but also very glad for all the opportunities it provided me with. I got to meet some fantastic people, and learn a lot about myself and the STEM world.

 

Sydney is pictured above (right) along with Lauren (left) who also earned the Edison Supernova, and Mr. Bruce Donlin (center), the Supernova Mentor for both scouts. As Sydney and Lauren display their Supernova medals, Mr. Donlin displays the Silver Pyramid, a STEM Award he was presented for creating a Council-wide, large scale, sustainable STEM event!

 

Colonial District’s Fall Skilled Trades Camporee

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The Colonial District’s Fall Camporee theme this year was SKILLED TRADES What’s in your Tool Box? We had Trade Union Apprentice School Instructors on hand to work with the Scouts in learning more about career opportunities as a skilled trades person and to do hands on take home projects.

The electricians’ Union IBEW Local 26, Plumbers’ Union Local 5, Carpenters’ Union Local 107 and the Sheet Metal Worker SMART Local 100 were all on hand. We also had a Penn State Architectural Engineer graduate and Junior Engineer with Bala Consulting Engineers delivering a Site Layout Challenge Station.

The Scouts had to draw a foundation plan at quarter scale and then layout out at full scale. The Scouts had a great time bending electrical conduit, building wooden tool boxes, making a plaque with their Troop number made out of copper plumbing pipe, cutting out sheeting metal and riveting it to make movable shapes and forms and making a camping boot rack out of PVC pipe. The Unions were all very appreciative of the opportunity to show off their particular skills and work with the youth.

 

 

 

NCAC is proud to have a Sea Scout Quartermaster in the newly chartered Ship 1191!

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Great to have a new Ship 1191 in the National Capital Area Council! Congratulations to all the Sea Scouts in the Ship1191 receiving the “Founder” bars and their proud families. Special thanks to Skipper John Wright, his Boatswain Patrick B., and the new Charter Organization for making it a successful venture.

In addition, National Sea Scout Commodore Ben Feril, NST12 Commodore Stanley Kwok, and NCAC Commodore Lorrie Hartwell were honored to be part of the Quartermaster Bridge of Honor celebration for Eagle Scout Doug I. On average nationally there are about 30 to 45 Quartermasters every year and much fewer with the Eagle Scout rank as well.

 

Woodbridge Cub Scouts Visit Water Treatment Facility

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Last month, Prince William District’s Cub Scout Pack 295 had the opportunity to visit their local water treatment facility to learn about the technology used there as part of NOVA STEM’s Tech Talk adventure!

The Virginia American Water staff were extremely generous with their time, information sharing, and PPE during the tour. Youth and adults alike learned a ton about the treatment process on this amazing outing!

 

To learn more about the Tech Talk Nova, read the requirements on BSA’s STEM page.

NCAC 2022 Powder Horn Delivers High Adventure Skills!

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The 2022 NCAC Powder Horn Course wrapped up this August at the beautiful Camp Saint Charles located on the banks of Charleston Creek and the Wicomico River in Newburg Maryland. The participants, 10 older youth Scouts and Sea Scouts and 11 adult Scouters, spent the weekend experiencing hands on activities that included, astronomy, emergency prep, backcountry communications, scuba, small boat sailing, paddle boarding, kayaking, canoeing, COPE course challenge, fly fishing, mountain biking, shooting sports, orienteering, geo-caching, and leave no trace practices.

Powder Horn is a resource course designed to introduce Scouting’s adults and youth to the exciting high-adventure program possibilities for their unit. The course supports the mission of strengthening units so they can achieve the mission of the Boy Scouts of America. Its purpose is to educate the youth and adult Scouting leaders about specific high-adventure skills, to connect them to resources to deliver those skills, and to get them excited about delivering those skills in an exciting, challenging way to youth.

Mark your calendar now as we are starting the planning for our 2023 Course to again be held on the last weekend in August.