We Own Adventure

Scouting News for the DC Metro Area

STEM

Superhereos are STEM-powered at Mattaponi Cub Day Camp

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This year NCAC’s Cub Scout Day camp had the theme of Superheroes. Mattaponi District STEM Chair, Wendy Latella, designed a series of STEM stations all of which were right on theme!

In an action-packed week, Cub Scouts learned about density with Aquaman, properties of water with Superman/ Mr. Freeze, and  machines with Wonderwoman. For the culminating activity on Friday, all Cubs worked thru an escape room, themed around X-Men unite. The cubs had a blast as you can see from the photos!

Ms. Latella generously shared her STEM-action hero themed day camp plans below:

Monday (Aquaman / Water)

  • STEM – Water / Cool – Power of Water (Aquaman) – Sink or Float, water bottle tornado, water bottle diving character
  • Explore Superpower – Save Fred (gummy worm)
  • Make a SuperHero Float – (design a float for a ‘superhero’)

Tuesday (Superman vs Mr. Freeze / Lasters)

  • STEM – Water / Cool – Leak-proof bag
  • Explore Superpower – Laser eyes: Melt Ice to save Superheroes
  • Make – magnifying glass & solar power s’mores (s’more 2 ways!)

Wednesday (Wonderwoman / Flying Machine and Robin / Water Boat)

  • STEM – Water / Cool / Make – Rubberband-Powered Boat
  • Explore Superpower / Make – It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s a Superman
  • Paper Plane! (exploring shape & size in comparison to how paper planes fly, furthest flight, coolest trick

Thursday (Mr. Freeze / Frost / Cold)

  • STEM – Water / Cool and Explore Superpower – Make Frost in Can and explore a “Greek Tower”
  • Make – Plastic Bag Ice Cream / fruit slushies for kids with allergies

Friday (X-Men Unite / Escape Room)
STEM – ESCAPE ROOM

Pack 278 Celebrates it’s First Supernova as a Family Pack

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Cub Scout Pack 278 is proud to award its 3rd Dr. Luis W. Alvarez Supernova Award to Fiona H. Fiona joined the pack as a Wolf when she became the first girl registered in Pack 278.

During the COVID-19 shutdown, the Leaders of Pack 278 took on the task of becoming a Family Pack that serves all youth in the Middletown Valley. Fiona watched her older brother learn important life skills while having fun since she was 3 years old. Today, at 9 years old, she has earned her Bear Rank and successfully completed the Alvarez Supernova requirements.

The Dr. Luis W. Alvarez Supernova honors Dr. Alvarez’s many achievements. While working on the Alvarez Supernova, Fiona was challenged to research 3 different scientists and innovators. Fiona chose to research the lives of Jane Goodall, Marie Curie, and Mary Anning. These three women forged ahead in their scientific fields despite many telling them that scientific discovery was not the role of women. Fiona continued to learn about women scientists by interviewing Jennifer Karschner, a Forensic Specialist working for the Montgomery County Police Department. During this interview, Fiona learned that a simple love of puzzles and helping people combined with “lots of school” can be a recipe for a successful career in Science.

Fiona pursued her interest in science by completing a science experiment investigating the result of placing chicken bones in vinegar and other liquids. Along with learning about acids and bases, she discovered that science can be cool and gross at the same time. Finally, Fiona spoke with her Den Leader about why learning science and math is important in education. Fiona learned that science is in everything that we do, from building fires to baking cookies. Understanding why the recipe works is the first step in creating your own.

Volcano Snow Supernova

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(From left to right) Supernova Award Recipient Robert El-Hage, Sully District Unit Commissioner Randy Young.

On May 29, 2021, Robert El-Hage was awarded the Dr. Luis Alvarez Supernova Award by Mr. Randy Young, Sully District Unit Commissioner, at Pack 717’s Blue & Gold event. Robert is a Bear in Cub Scout Pack 717, chartered by St. Andrew the Apostle Catholic Church in Clifton Virginia, where he is a 3rd Grader at the church’s school. Robert started off as a Cub Scout in the Lion pilot program as a kindergartener. He was quickly inspired by Mr. Young to work on Cub Scout Awards that are not earned very often. Robert first earned the International Spirit Award after expressing his interest in ham radio during the Jamboree-on-the-Air at Camp Snyder. This accomplishment led Robert to discover the Nova program.

(From left to right) Cub Master Elias El-Hage, Supernova Award Recipient Robert El-Hage, Sully District Unit Commissioner Randy Young.

To receive the Supernova Award, a Scout first must earn a certain number of Nova awards. He earned four Nova awards: Down and Dirty, Fearful Symmetry, Out of this World, and Up and Away. His favorite Nova was Down and Dirty because he got to make a Papier Mache volcano. He also enjoyed earning the Out of this World award which is all about astronomy. To earn this, Robert watched astronomy videos, participated in a two hour Zoom meeting hosted by the NCAC STEM Committee, and did some cool crafts. After completing this Nova award, Robert was inspired to become an astronomer.

Even after completing these Nova awards, Robert was determined to achieve the Supernova award. He wanted to earn a medal that meant something to him. Robert was mentored by Dr. Hatcher Tynes, who is the Sully District STEM Coordinator. For his scientific method demonstration he created “volcano snow”, experimenting so he could create the right consistency of “snow”. It took him six months to earn his Supernova. If Robert could describe his overall experience in three words it would be “hard, interesting,” and (most importantly) “fun.”

 

Article authored by Supernova recipient’s big sister, Kiernan El-Hage, SPL Troop 1137G. 

Cubs have STEM portfolios, thanks to a remarkable mentor

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Mr. Robert Stallings Jr. has been a Supernova Mentor in Goose Creek District for a few years now. As a Supernova Mentor, he guides cub scouts thru their pursuit of STEM activities, learning, science projects, research and field trips to broaden their horizons of STEM disciplines. While mentoring 5 Webelos/AOLs for the Dr. Charles H. Townes Supernova and 2 Wolves/Bears for the Dr. Luis W. Alvarez Supernova Award, Mr. Stallings had his hands full with 70 individual requirements to keep track of.

Yet, Mr. Stallings didn’t stop there. He went on to help each of these Cub Scouts develop digital portfolios of their STEM explorations! The NCAC STEM Committee is beyond impressed. Take a look at a snapshot of the portfolios below…

Starting with the Dr. Charles H Townes Supernova recipients: Olivia, David, Whit, Neil and Abhyunday

For Requirement 1: Olivia visited a geological site, created a simple circuit, and did several mathematics activities!

For Requirement 2: Neil earned the Build It adventure at Michael’s Woodshop at Camp Snyder.

 

For Requirement 4: Abhyuday learned about five famous scientists, technology innovators, engineers or mathematicians.


For Requirement 7: Whit visited scientists at the Washington University in St. Louis and interviewed researchers looking for a cure for tuberculosis!

 

For Requirement 8: David investigated a question about what materials are soundproof, and made a box!

 

So did Olivia!

And Whit!

And Abhyuday! They measured the decibel level to test their soundproof boxes.

 

The Dr. Luis Alvarez Supernova recipients: Seaton and Noah also explored some fantastic experiments in pursuit of their awards. 

For requirement 7: Seaton visited with a scientist, and got to try his hand at labwork!

 

For requirement 8: Seaton learned about the scientific method with his mentor.

For requirement 9: Noah participated in a pack STEM event – airplanes and lego races.

 

Congratulations to all 7 Supernova recipients, and thank you to Mr. Stallings for being an incredible Supernova Mentor!

Last year, Mr. Stallings created the first set of digital folios for his Cubs out of necessity – as the Cubs were on the brink of finishing their Supernovas when Covid hit, so they had to complete and submit their work digitally.

If you want to see the full story of when Mr. Stallings first started creating digital folios, please check out this link! https://weownadventure.com/four-pack-1500-cub-scouts-earn-the-dr-luis-w-alvarez-supernova-award-electronically/

This year, Mr. Stallings took it to a new level. Thank you for your service, Mr. Stallings!

Hiking the DC STEM Trek

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Eight Cubs (including 3 dual-enrolled in STEM Scouts) pose before the Washington Monument during their DC STEM Trek adventure.

Last weekend, our group of 8 Cub Scouts, including 3 Cub and STEM Scouts, completed the “Cub Scout portion” of the DC STEM Trek. We hiked all 14 stops from the Smithsonian Metro to the Boy Scout Memorial.

Our Scouts had a great time! They came prepared, answered every Cub Scout and On-site question, learned a lot about how STEM helped in the creation of Washington DC and enjoyed the time spent together.

Olivia, Nehemiah and David are in STEM Scouts Lab 605 together! Lab 605 is sponsored by the Burke Centre Conservancy and holds hybrid meetings.
Nehemiah and his dad Ty join STEM Scouts Lab 605 via ZOOM every Monday from Florida. They made a special trip to DC just to join this DC STEM Trek with their Lab friends!

While we are local Cub Scout pack from Ashburn, VA, we did have one STEM Scout from our Lab, fly from Florida to DC just to join our hike!

Editor’s note: The DC STEM Trek was designed by GTroop 1853 to encourage families to explore the Nation’s capital from a STEM perspective! To see the Trek Guide, visit www.ncacbsa.org/stem

Pack 1967 Scout Completes Every Nova and Supernova Award

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One Webelos Scout from Pack 1967 recently earned the Dr. Charles H. Townes Supernova Award, thus completing his achievement of earning all Nova awards (11) and Supernova Awards (2) available at the Cub Scout level.

Henrik M. of Den 4, Pack 1967, began his Cub Scouts STEM journey by earning the Nova Swing award (#1) in the spring of 2019. His den has finished all the Tiger adventures and began working on a Nova award at the end of the school year. Later on in his Wolf year, Henrik earned the Nova Tech Talk award (#2) by learning about different types of technology and that technology was all around them. He completed the award in December 2019 and visited the Area 9-Division 7 Office of the Virginia State Police to see a place where technology was used.

Henrik completed the Dr. Luis W. Alvarez Cub Scout Supernova Award in March 2020. To earn the award, he visited Duck donuts to learn about the science that goes into making donuts, conducted an experiment using the scientific method (testing mentos in soda; diet ginger ale worked the best), and researched Dr. Alvarez and three other scientists: Nikola Tesla, Willard Libby (inventor of radiocarbon dating) and Dr. Louis J. Camati (the first veterinarian in the United States with a practice dedicated just to cats). Henrik completed the requirements for the award by visiting bank to learn about compound interest on March 12, 2020.

While he was touring Sun Trust, parents across the National Capital Area Council received the email that in-person Scouting activities was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But that did not slow Henrik down. Scouts in his pack were encouraged to put the outing in Scouting, even if it was only with their families. In April 2020, Henrik completed the Down and Dirty Nova award (#3) , learning about geology and ecosystems and visiting the park near his home to find and classify rocks.

In the summer of 2020, Pack 1967 created the Summer Adventure Club (SAC) that allowed Scouts to meet virtually to keep Scouting going and to earn a few Nova awards. In July, Henrik completed the 1-2-3 Go Nova award (#4) , learning about the math behind secret codes and how to create empirical probability distributions to make inferences. He and his fellow Scouts counted and graphed the number of m&m’s by color and used that to determine which factory their m&m’s were made (they were made in Cleveland, TN). In August, the SAC completed the Cubs Can Code (#5) and Uncovering the Past (#6) Nova award. For the Cubs Can Code award, Henrik learned the basics of computer programming and programmed a path used in Minecraft. Through the Uncovering the Past award, he learned about archeology and completed a dig.

As a Bear Scout, Henrik earned the Out of this World Nova award (#7) in January 2021. For this award, he learned about astronomy and constellations, and took a virtual field trip to a college planetarium. In March 0f 2021, he earned the Up and Away Nova award (#8), learning about fluid dynamics. For this award, he conducted an experiment about terminal velocity, measuring the speed that steel ball bearings fell through air, water, and corn syrup. In May 2021, he earned the Nova Wild award (#9), learning about food webs and invasive species. For this award, Henrik and his den visited Bear’s Den in Bluemont, VA, hiked the Appalachian Trail, and observed wildlife.

In the summer of 2021, the SAC returned and through it, Henrik earned the Fearful Symmetry Nova Award (#10). For this award, he learned about different lines of symmetry, how symmetry exists in nature, music, and art, and how symmetry can translate into strength for various crystalline structures.

In August and September 2021, Henrik completed the Science Everywhere Nova Award (#11), earning the final Nova award.  For this award, he learned more about the scientific method, and visited Luck Stone quarry in Manassas, VA, to learn about the science that goes into blasting.  His pack was lucky enough to meet with two of the blasters from Luck Stone and to watch a blasting!

Starting as a Webelos Scout in June 2021, Henrik began work on Cub Scouts’ most challenging STEM award, the Dr. Charles H. Townes Webelos Supernova Award.   This award is similar to the Dr. Luis W. Alvarez award but involves more detailed and more challenging requirements.  In addition to completing various STEM requirements, Henrik completed the Adventures in Science, Engineer, Build It, First Responder, Into the Woods and Into the Wild Webelos adventures for the award.  In June 2020, Henrik’s den learned how to wire simple circuits with a battery, LED lights and a switch.  They wired circuits both in series and in parallel and tested the differences in the lights that resulted.  Also in June, Henrik and his den visited Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers and met with the General Manager to learn how science, technology, engineering, and mathematics were used extensively in the frozen custard-making process.

In July 2021, Henrik met with representatives from Fairfax County and Sagres Construction as he and his den toured an active construction site.  Scouts and parents wore personal protective equipment including hardhats and safety vests as they toured the Burke Virginia Railway Express Connector site.  They learned about the geology that goes into a construction project, including how geology impacts where sites are built, what materials that are used, and how those materials can influence the way in which water run-off is directed.

As with the Cub Scout Supernova award, the Webelos award requires a Scout to research scientists.  But for the Webelos award, a Scout must research Dr. Townes and five other scientists or inventors.   For his five, Henrik chose William Higinbotham (the inventor of the first video game), Adolph Rickenbacher (one of the inventors of the electric guitar), David Baszucki (creator of Roblox), Satoshi Tajiri (creator of Pokémon), and Alexander Graham Bell (inventor of the telephone).

Henrik completed the Webelos Supernova Award by conducting a science experiment using the scientific method and writing a short report about the results.  He and his den conducted an experiment to test which soda cans would sink or float in a mystery solution, and then using the results of the experiment to calculate an upper and lower bound for the density of the solution.

Congratulations to Henrik Mann on an accomplishment three years in the making!  Pack 1967 is proud to have such an accomplished Scout in its ranks, and looks forward to more junior mathematicians, engineers and scientists in Scouting!