We Own Adventure

Scouting News for the DC Metro Area

Merit Badges

Fingerprinting & Traffic Safety Merit Badges

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Montgomery County Police Department has been hosting a youth career development program, Exploring, for decades! Their Explorer Post 1986 is eager to lend a hand to the scouting community and will host 2 workshops teaching the Fingerprinting and Traffic Safety Merit Badges.

This event will take place on Saturday, April 29 at the Montgomery County Police Training Academy.

Schedule:

9:45AM Checkin

10AM Fingerprinting (15 youth)
11:15AM Traffic Safety (15 youth)
12:30PM Dismissal

Scouts BSA and same-age friends are welcome!

 

The Explorer Post Advisors are registered Merit Badge Counselors with NCAC, and will be able to sign blue cards for scouts who complete all requirements at the event.

The registration fee for the event is $22; this covers class materials for both merit badges and will go to support Explorer Post 1986. We hope to see you there!

Register here: Fingerprinting & Traffic Safety Merit Badges

 

Join America’s Innovation Ecosystem!

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The United States Patent & Trademark Office and HERL of University of Pittsburgh (Human Engineering Research Laboratories) are hosting a hybrid event for Scouts BSA youth and friends to earn the Inventing Merit Badge.

The event is graciously being hosted by the University of Pittsburgh’s Human Engineering Research Laboratories and will include tours and demos of their labs and machine shop!

There is also an option to join the event as a virtual participant. 

 

What: Inventing Merit Badge
Where: at University of Pittsburgh, Human Engineering Research Laboratories & virtually

When: July 23, 2022

Registration: https://scoutingevent.com/082-inventing

Scouts Weld Nameplates on their way to earning new awards

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The Welding merit badge was first offered by BSA in 2012. The cover of the MB pamphlet shows a welder, safety gear, and on the bottom right corner, a patch of the BSA Nova Award. That emblem indicates that a merit badge counts for towards an additional award – a BSA STEM Nova or Supernova Award. Specifically, the Welding MB counts towards the Dr. Bernard Harris and Thomas Edison Supernova Awards. You can read their full requirements  here.

On April 23 and May 21, 2022, NCAC’s STEM Committee partnered with an Alexandria, VA based organization to offer the Welding Merit Badge class to nearly 200 scouts.

The organization, Building Momentum, offers military training as well as community education thru dynamic programs. Often, their programs involve Arduinos, drones, welding, CAD, laser engraving, etc. The NCAC STEM Committee is working with Building Momentum’s Senior Education Associate, Cecily, to map Building Momentum’s incredible capabilities with scouting events.

To kickstart our partnership, Building Momentum held two days of workshops this spring, focused on Welding. Each workshop totaled 3.5 hours. Scouts learned about welding safety, practiced welding, then welded their own nameplates. The event was made possible thanks largely to Ms. Cecily Wynne of BuildMo who took the time to design this welding experience for scouts, as well as other incredible facilitators of Building Momentum, and over a dozen SBSA volunteers who assisted as classroom helpers, registration assistants, and general volunteers.

Science Fair Project Inspired by Merit Badges – What Keeps Food Cold the Longest?

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My name is Russell and I am a tenth grade student. I’m a Life Scout with Troop 1577 in Herndon. My science fair project this year was inspired by Scouting and my project won second place for my school.

My project was about DIY refrigerants. I tested which materials keep food cold the longest.

I got this idea from working on my Cooking, Hiking and Backpacking merit badges. For those badges, we learn about keeping food safe when you are outside for a long period of time. While the safest option might be dehydrated foods, I like to eat non-dehydrated foods like cheese. I wanted to know which refrigerants might work best for the longest period of time.

For the experiment, I bought a wireless thermometer and put it in a Styrofoam cooler. I put different refrigerants in the cooler with the thermometer and monitored the temperature. It was important to use a wireless thermometer so I would not open the cooler and impact the temperature.

The refrigerants that I tested were:

  • 330 mL of water, 170 mL of rubbing alcohol, 125 mL of salt (the salt dissolved and did not increase the volume)
  • 500 mL of dish soap
  • Two plastic sponges in water with 500 mL of water
  • Commercial ice packs
  • Control = 500 mL water

I got the ideas for these refrigerants by reading blog articles by backpackers. I also researched the concept of “phase change,” meaning materials that release or absorb energy and provide useful heat or cooling.

What were the results? The frozen sponge refrigerant maintained the lowest temperature for the longest time, although the control (water) and commercial ice packs performed similarly.

However, for my next hiking trip, I won’t freeze sponges. I will just use frozen water. Then I can drink it and not have to carry sponges. But I definitely won’t bring commercial ice packs which add a lot of weight to my pack.

So when you work on these badges, you can show your merit badge counselors this information, and use frozen water to keep your food cold as well.

Welding and Composite Materials

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On April 23 and May 21, 2022, Building Momentum in Alexandria, VA will host Welding and Composite Materials merit badge sessions, packed with hands-on experiences. Each merit badge class is a half-day session. Scouts BSA (and friends, same age friends are invited to join too!) may elect to only attend one class, or both classes.

All of the classes balance instruction with hands-on shop time so the youth can gain practical experience with Welding and Composite Materials. In order to maximize their workshop experience and project time, youth are asked to come prepared with a few pre-requisites.

Welding Pre-requisites

  • Requirements: 1a-b
    o We recommend that scouts earn the First Aid MB in advance, but at a minimum, please come prepared to demonstrate first aid knowledge as it requires to Welding MB requirements 1a-b.
  • Requirement: 5a
    o One of the processes that scouts research should be MIG welding.

Composite Materials Pre-requisites

  • Requirement: 1a-c

For more detail about the event, please visit the event page and register here: https://scoutingevent.com/082-buildMoSTEM

 

Building Momentum is a problem-solving organization based in Alexandria, Virginia. Their Innovation Academy empowers youth and adults in 21st Century technology, to become a creative problem solver, and work in a hands-on environment! NCAC is thrilled to introduce our scouting merit badges with BuildMo!

8/28 Scout Invention Showcase & Facebook Live with TIME Kid of the Year, a STEM Scout Inventor!

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Join us on Saturday, August 28th at 5 pm EST for another STEM Speaker Series with the TIME Kid of the Year and STEM Scout Gitanjali Rao. Gitanjali was honored for her work using STEM skills to address issues like bullying, opioid addiction and contaminated drinking water. You can catch this special edition of the STEM Speaker Series on the NCAC STEM Facebook page!

Photo from Time: from: https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2020/12/09/first-ever-time-kid-of-the-year-is-a-stem-scout-from-colorado/

Want to join the conversation?

If your Scout would like to submit a question for the chance to see it answered live, you can submit it via this form.

Have you invented something? Want to share in the Inventing Showcase?

Send us a photo or video clip and we will include it in the August 28th Scouts’ Inventing Showcase!

Share in this Google Drive or email to 082stem@gmail.com

Be sure to include: your name, city, state, grade, and a brief statement of what problem your invention aims to solve.

This is an especially excellent opportunity for Scouts BSA youth working on their Inventing Merit Badge. Or if you’ve already created an invention, please share with us as we want to feature it!

 

 

What is STEM Scouts?

STEM Scouts is a BSA program for girls and boys in grades 3-8 to explore science, technology, engineering and math. STEM Scouts meet in groups called Labs and explore hands-on experiments through 20 activities designed by educators at National each year. You can read more about this here.