We Own Adventure

Scouting News for the DC Metro Area

Merit badges at home

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!

 

USPTO invites Scouts BSA to learn about Inventing

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This summer, the United States Patent & Trademark Office will host a 2-day virtual event for Scouts BSA to earn the Inventing Merit Badge. This event is organized by the Eastern Regional Outreach Office at the USPTO, and several USPTO employees (now registered Merit Badge Counselors) who are volunteering!

The USPTO’s Inventing Merit Badge program will include two synchronous sessions for youth:

  •  July 17, 2021: the virtual class
  • August 28, 2021: the virtual inventions showcase

Between the two sessions, youth will design and build prototypes of their inventions. They will have the opportunity to consult with USPTO employees and Inventing Merit Badge Counselors via ‘virtual office hours’. Youth will all submit videos of their presentations by August 27, to be included in the virtual inventions showcase!

Agenda for Inventing Merit Badge class 

July 17, 2021

12:30 – 1:00 Opening remarks

1:00 – 1:30 The Impact of Invention & Inventing

1:30 – 2:00 An Introduction to Intellectual Property

2:10 -2:30 Invention Case Study

2:30 – 3:15 Why do you invent: panel discussion

3:15 – 4:15 Break-out sessions, interactive discussion

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

In the past, the USPTO had held an Inventing Merit Badge class on site in Alexandria, VA. Below are some photos from the past events! We can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with this year – join us in this summer’s Inventing Merit Badge series!

 

SIGN UP – Seeking Counselors for March 2021 NCAC MB@Home

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NCAC is looking for Merit Badge Counselors for the March 2021 session of the MeritBadges@Home program.

Counselors will conduct remote instruction for Scouts through the Zoom and collaborate through the Basecamp platform between a period of March 15-April 3, 2021.

If you are interested in serving as a counselor, please follow the link below to learn more and sign up. The counselor registration deadline is Monday, February 22.

March 2021 MB@Home Counselor Registration Form (https://forms.gle/TsvZK1PuFhnQTay88)

Feel free to share these links with your Scouting and professional colleagues.

I have more Merit Badges than my sister………

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Tonight we had an in-person court of honor and I got my Scout rank and 5 merit badges that I got online over the summer working with virtual merit badge counselors. We did a socially distanced mask wearing ceremony outside. We made s’mores at the fire ring and it started to rain so we went home. My mom and sister in 1158G took photos of me for this because I’m now 5 merit badge ahead of my sister and the same rank as her. Mom is calling this sibling rivalry… in a good way. I love having more merit badges than her.

Will you build a bridge?

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Attention, all those who are up for a challenge…

The Great STEMaTHON Invitational includes a bridge building competition that will be showcased live online, on Saturday, September 5, 2020. Will you build a bridge?

Everyone will receive the same set of materials upon registration, and have 16 days to build their bridges! You can see the full set of materials and how the bridges will be measured (or weighted, rather!) in this PDF: BridgeCompetition.

Scouts are also invited to pre-STEMaTHON sessions to help you earn the Engineering Merit Badge. Sessions will be held on August 4, 5, 17 and 18. Of course, by participating in this bridge competition, you will already earn requirement 6!

Register here for the Bridge Competition: https://scoutingevent.com/082-STEMaTHON

Be sure to join us for the whole event: September 5-6, 2020 for a STEMaTHON in which you will be part of Scouts Building Bridges and Feeding the World through the lens and tools of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This two day event includes online workshops, keynotes, tours, presentations and even activities!

 

Public Health Merit Badge in the COVID Pandemic

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To be perfectly honest, when I signed up for the online Public Health Merit Badge, I only wanted to get another merit badge towards Eagle. I thought “well, I suppose I’ll do it. I want more merit badges”. The funny thing is, sometimes the merit badges you think will be just something to earn end up being the most interesting. First of all, I had an awesome merit badge counselor. Unlike the other merit badges I earned, she seemed genuinely interested in my class learning, not just going through the motions. She encouraged us to research questions for ourselves and share information and ideas about our experiences and knowledge in class.

Second, we learned outside of what was required. We learned all sorts of things in class including (but definitely not limited to) how water spreads disease, the difference between immunization and vaccination, and about diseases like gonorrhea, West Nile virus, Zika, botulism, influenza, syphilis, hepatitis, emphysema, meningitis, herpes, and lead poisoning, to name a few. I also learned about the health drawbacks of water, air, and noise pollution. I had no idea there are so many!

One thing I learned that I hadn’t even thought about is how racism, especially systemic racism, is a public health crisis. If systemic racism forces some American minorities to have fewer economic and social opportunities than white Americans, this can put minorities in less than ideal living conditions and can lead to a decline in their physical and mental health. It made me think: The fact that people live in conditions like these at all is not okay, and the fact that systemic racism is an underlying cause is even worse. It is un-just to have people suffering when what makes them suffer is the unfairness of others.

This merit badge also taught me more about Covid-19, both in a public health way and a personal way. I learned about the spread of diseases like Covid-19 and even made this about staying safe during the pandemic video , but I also learned that you can still go to interesting places and learn new things during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the one plausible option for requirement 5, you have to go to a solid waste management operation. Normally during non-Covid-19 days we would go on a “field trip” in class, but this time we went by ourselves. I went to a transfer facility, or as many call it, “the dump”. Even though we had to wait in line to get in, it was definitely worth it. I had no idea what a dump looked like, and it was really interesting to see what people brought to the dump. I even saw a wagon in the pile and the pick-up truck in front of us dropped off a mattress!

I think that one of the main lessons to get out of this is that there is always time for learning, and that often scouts enjoy the merit badge more if their counselors seem excited and make an effort to teach scouts outside of the requirements. I really enjoyed this merit badge, and I think the others in my session did too.

Stay home! Stay safe!

Written by Scout Evelyn