I’ve posted a zipped file with all the training material that I produced for this class. The worksheet (.xls file) I did to help the kids understand investing options was particularly instructive. I started the money-management part of the training with a simulated stock trading role play exercise. As I mentioned in the Energy MB, a big upside of scouting is it’s ability to introduce topics to kids at a very early age. They will hopefully always remember the messages in these classes and become just better equipped for life.

This is a time consuming MB and it requires a fair amount of prep, make sure you know what you are getting into when you sign on to run this one. You really need to do this one right, there are very important concepts in here that the kids absolutely need to learn properly.

Personal Management Merit Badge Downloads

See also the “Where Does All The Money Go” and “Best Jobs in America” graphics I have posted under Brick-a-brac. These might be useful.

This is not my work but you might also find useful:  personal_management_v1.ppt

Time management is one of the objectives of this merit badge. Here’s something really cool to help the scouts (and you) keep on top of things:  http://www.pocketmod.com/

What do you know, here it is:

Two suggestions on this if you are in the northeast. In the “off-season” you can go to an indoor climbing gym such as Carabiner’s in New Bedford, MA (pictured), RI Rock Gym in Lincoln, RI, or Boulder Morty’s in Nashua, NH. They provide a MB course to complete this badge as well an the opportunity to do an overnight stay which the scouts love. In Nov-Feb when the holidays dictate low logistic scout outings, this is a great time to put this on your schedule.

You can’t stop here however because the kids don’t really get that real sense of climbing. While there are a few good places to do some basic climbing in the Boston area, the Valhalla of hiking is not too far away – the ‘Gunks. “Gunks” is a shortening of the “Shawangunks” (Sha-WAN-gunks) Mountain Range which stretches over 50 miles in southwest NY (near the village of New Paltz), reaching some 260 feet in height (2,200′ above sea level). There are four most popular and prominent climbing cliffs: the Trapps, Near Trapps, Skytop and Millbrook.

This has been a climbing mecca since the 1930’s. The rock found here is exquisite in quality, quantity (some 1000 climbing routes), and beauty (the views are spectacular). Google Mohonk Preserve, Gunks, or Minnewaska Preserves and you’ll find more info. I’ve done many, many hikes, climbs, and rides in this area and just can’t get enough. Mountain biking in the spring when the mountain laurel blossoms is particularly enjoyable.

When you’re ready, try this one: matterhorn-2007.pdf

Wilderness Survival Merit Badge Supplement 

Here are three good survival scenarios to use with your kids. Not part of the badge requirements but can be used as a warm-up or post-badge activity. If you are cabin camping some night and want an interesting group activity, pull these out.

survival1.doc

survival2.doc

survival3.doc

One of the best scouting activities in our area is Orienteering. One of the best local spots for anything scout related is Nobscot Scout Reservation (in Sudbury, MA). Below is a note to our kids on what to expect. I thought it might be useful if you need anything like this. We have also taken the scouts here and introduced them to Geocaching – a highly recommended activity that the kids really liked. I’ll spend more time on this later. Link to geocaches in Nobscot area:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?lat=42.384659&lng=-71.4180622&dist=25

 nobscot-geocaches.doc  Printout I made of the geocaches in Nobscot (check link above to see if revised)

nobscot-top-map.ppt   Topo Map I put together (may not be too useful at this scale)

nobscotmap.pdf  Park map for Nobscot

The local Orienteering club, NEOC, has a scout-o event here every October (you must register by August, watch the Council website to see when the invitations go out). NEOC also has a similar event in the spring at Hale Reservation in Westwood, MA, but it is signficiantly less challenging.

This is an article on the Nobscot Scout-O that was recently in Scouting magazine:

scout-o-article-sept07.docx and link if this Word07 does not open:

http://www.scoutingmagazine.org/issues/0709/a-orie.html

Link to Scouting Orienteering- if this link stays active, check out this site to see if you can find any local action: http://www.scoutorienteering.com/

Orienteering at Nobscot

MORE INFO:

To give you a little more information – this would be a 2 night campout (Fri/Sat) to Nobscot Scout Reservation (between Framingham and Sudbury). A very nice place to go, lots of interesting things to hike to (such as an overlook to see Boston, a sizable mountain that Thoreau, Longfellow and Emerson once hiked up, and an 18th century small-pox cemetery). We could do as either a large scale “troop campout,” cabins (if not too late to get one), or a backcountry experience (plenty of places to really get that sense of remoteness). You have to hike in all your camping gear, so we either put on wagons or on our backs.

The orienteering instruction is very good. Trained leaders lead the boys through the use of a map and spend a day working with them. It is mainly land navigation as opposed to compass work, but it depends on the leader running it (last year as one of the leaders I spent a good part of the day on compass skills). Sunday is a competitive (but no pressure) orienteering course which is a lot of fun (scouts go off in small groups without adults). It snowed lightly last year, but it really was great being outside that weekend.

I have found that scouts really like orienteering but have limited opportunities to practice their skills. You can’t find better training for those that have never used a map/compass before, or for those that have, a better place to build confidence. 

More on Nobscot – this area of course was settled by indians. Scattered about are a number of artifacts worth pointing out to the scouts. Below is a picture of Lee Swanson of the Sudbury Historical Society pointing out an indian corn grinding stone. Note there are 4 right in this area (just below Legion Cabin). The large flat rock (right on the trail up) across from this one pictured was used to process hides. Here is a link to an article on Lee and Nobscot history: http://www.wickedlocal.com/sudbury/news/x325172021

Nobscot Reservation is also related to the Wayside Inn (“just over the mountain”). The inn has it’s own unique history and Nobscot was a hiking destination for many of its visitors.  More on the Wayside Inn at my other website: www.howetavern.com

(map from Garfield and Ridley, “As Ancient is this Hostelry”)

Howe Tavern (also known as the Red Horse Tavern and now [Longfellow's] Wayside Inn), Sudbury, MA

Thoreau’s Journal, May 22, 1853

“This is the third windy day followed by two days of rain…a washing day…such as we always have at this season methinks. The grass has sprung up as by magic since the rains. The birds are heard through pleasant dashing wind than enlivens everything…Left our horse at the Howe Tavern. The oldest date on the sign is ‘D.H. 1716.’ An old women, who had been a servant in the family, said she was ninety one and that this was the first house built on this spot. Went on to Nobscot.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Journal, November 14, 1848

“T is the coldest November I have ever known. This morning the mercury is at 26. Yesterday afternoon cold, fine ride with Ellery to Sudbury Inn, and mounted the side of Nobscot…

We camp a fair amount and do a lot of activities. Even without thinking about it, we cover a lot of the MB material just in the natural course of having fun and talking about outdoor related subjects. All good stuff and often I wished I started the bluecards to give the kids credit. I’ve done a few things to facilitate this better for the troop.

1) With the approval of the Scoutmaster and Advancement Chairperson, I started a three ring binder with copied blue cards, three to a page (double sided just like the card), with all the scout’s names on them. The Scoutmaster has signed these (as he now does for all new scouts entering the troop), and we have officially enrolled the scouts in camping, hiking, backpacking, wilderness survival, and I threw in cycling as well. As you know, the scouts can not get credit for any work towards the merit badges unless they have the blue cards signed first.

2) I carefully went through all of the above four books as well as all the LNT material, found the overlaps, common themes, natural progressions, and lesson objectives and created this book. The idea is to make it 4.5 x 6 inches, spiral bind it down the side (kinko’s does at a reduced rate of $3/book with plastic covers), put it in a waterproof sleeve, and then have the scouts carry with them on all campouts.

Not only does this help the scout leader properly teach the kids about, say, stove or sleeping bags, but it also gives the kids something interesting to read while lying in their tents trying to sleep. The BSA book on backpacking is exceptionally good, but scouts don’t necessary read them and they don’t give some of the depth a good teacher would want to make the lesson as instructional (and complete) as possible. The attached is a work-in-progress draft. I’m hoping a company like REI, EMS, Eureka, etc. see the virtue and benefit of this and sponsor the production of these large scale. I could also use help finishing it off.

I want to mention that with this doc I’m not trying to cut corners. I am trying to be thorough, complete and efficient. If you are going to teach something, teach it right and completely.

3) Finally, with the troop committee’s approval, I’ve endeavored to create a unique patch for the kids once they complete all the “book” work (most of which is outdoors work). Getting in all those long distance hikes is going to take some time. This rewards them with something very cool for their efforts and outdoorsmenship. This step is a still a work in progress. The scouts were very receptive and interested. I was hoping for feedback from them on patch design. If I had more support, I could pull it off. Frankly, this type of program is not a one man deal, it requires the commitment from everyone to support. You know how hard that can be in scouting. It might have to wait until my younger son gets into scouts. If anyone wants to help on this let me know! (The point was this program needed to be incorporated into every trip we went on (to chip away little by little at all these things) and we needed to dedicate some troop meeting occasionally to it. I don’t think our troop committee really understood that.)

The attached is a real rough draft. It took a fair amount of time to get it this far, but it still needs lots of work and the pics need to be credited properly if possible. Outdoorsman Book rough draft (12MB)

Here is a hiking/camping checklist from the book that might be helpful:

hiking-camping-checklist.xls

If you are looking for an intro handout on hiking, camping, and backpacking, here’s a good start. Not my work, source noted at end.  How-to-Backpack

Probably best suited for the older kids. After teaching this a few times, I remain convinced the kids get it and just want to learn more and more. They do need it spoon feed to them so it is easy to understand and it must include experiments so it is not a lecture. It is a fun few sessions and the kids feel quite accomplished learning all this new and different material.

I am also amazed that while I didn’t start learning this kind of stuff until sophmore year of college, they are getting it now. Kids are staying up late in China and India to learn this and be good at it, we need our kids to be as prepared. The knowledge base has expanded exponentially since we were their age. This is an example of why I like scouting, it facilitates exposure to slices of life they normally just would not get.

 energy-mb.pdf

energymb.ppt   < title page for 2008, new requirement

There is an interesting website with all kinds of home-made science toys/experiments. It’s called sci-toys.com. You may want to incorporate some of these into the program. Just in case the site goes down, here is a printout of their thermodynamic experiments:  scitoys.doc

My original thought was to have a working Stirling engine created for the class, but I ran out of time.

You may want to hook up with your local utility for instruction material. All the bigger companies have someone in corporate communications who is responsible for training. The video I used to start the class – “What is Energy” (a National Geographic film) was borrowed from our utility. It was really good and a great transition into the energy conversion exercise/demos.

Note that BSA changed the requirements in Jan 06. This is one MB where they just watered down the knowledge requirement for the worse. I think the older requirements could have been upgraded, but they did not get it right.

Here is an energy MB handout somebody created for a few of the new requirement (good for the home energy audit/auto analysis):

scout-energymbworkshop.pdf

See the graphic I posted under Brick-a-brac of an illustration of how much surface area is required for solar to power the world.

Here is something new, the American Petroleum Institute (API) has just put together a website to help work through this merit badge:

          http://www.classroom-energy.org/merit_badge/

Update Note: I’m teaching this again right now in our MB college (3/08). I’ll post new notes when I have a chance. I’ve actually been able to use quite a number of my old slides. I’ve reread and reappraised the Boy Scout Energy Merit Badge booklet- it is as bad as I originally thought. Use something else to teach this one. I did not find the API web link I posted above to be that useful either. Good effort, but misses the mark.

Pioneering in many places is not like it used to be. You can’t just go and cut down trees anymore. Furthermore, the risks and liabilities are threatening, as is the cost for all the rope needed. Nevertheless, there is a time and place for this great scout activity.

There are a few free scout books floating around the internet, here are two that are better than most (the color one is from the Irish scout association).

scoutengineering.pdf

pioneeringprojects.pdf

The monkey bridge is probably the most common and really the most interesting project to take on. The books above provide a good resource to help you build one. If I come across something better that is more specific I will post. One trick to a good bridge is getting the large X end supports to incorporate small Y splits near the tops to hold up the guide ropes.

Note the monkey bridge is covered in the Guide to Safe Scouting, specifically:

Rope Monkey Bridges

When constructing monkey bridges, observe the following safety rules:

1. Always follow the steps for constructing monkey bridges outlined in the Pioneering merit badge pamphlet.

2. Before beginning the project, inspect your rope, looking at both the inside fibers and inner strands. Know the size and strength of the type of rope you are using, and its safe working load.

3. Monkey bridges should not be constructed higher than 5 feet above flat-surfaced ground nor longer than 40 feet. Initially, beginnersshould not span more than 25 feet.

4. Know the effect the knots will have in reducing rope strength and the proper care that rope requires.

5. Rope, especially rope carrying a load, should be checked each day before using. Rope carrying a load and left in place tends tobecome slack from fatigue and will break under stress. Tighten rope as necessary to maintain the integrity of the original construction.

6. Exercise special care when members of the public are allowed to use these monkey bridges. Establish controls when monkey bridgesare constructed outside the camp environment. Station Scouts at each end to control access to the bridge. Allow only one adult at atime on the bridge. Never allow unaccompanied children on the bridge. Shut down the bridge when any repairs are being made and donot reopen until the adult leader has approved the repairs.

7. Any activity on rope swings, monkey bridges, slide-for- life, or similar devices that are located over water must comply with SafeSwim Defense.

Last year we did this whitewater rafting trip out in western MA. They actually organize a full Whitewater MB class, but we wanted the kids to have an introductory run first before getting into the whole MB requirement process. It was on class III rapids which I thought were pretty mild (albeit, it was a dam release river and I don’t think we got the benefit of a huge rush of water). These kind of trip can be a little on the expensive side ($65-$100 each), but they are worth it. Every kid wants to do this activity. We did ours in early June and wore wetsuits, which was perfectly fine. Here’s a link to the MB program offered by the company we used:

 http://www.crabapplewhitewater.com/group_outings/scouts.shtml

Here’s a few up in Maine:

http://www.neoc.com/content/4033/_Girl_Scouts/

http://www.proriverrunners.com/index.php?page=scout_badges

http://www.adv-bound.com/

scout-whitewater-badges.pdf

These kind of trips are run all over the country. Here’s a couple in PA:

http://www.laurelhighlands.com/activities/meritbadge.html

http://www.wilderness-voyageurs.com/whitewater_merit_badge.htm

You’ll need to google whitewater MB [your state] to find local ones.

Here’s something that looks pretty interesting – earning the geology merit badge (and mammal study) while exploring a cave. They seem to have a nice program designed. Could do all year, not just a summer activity. Lincoln Caverns is somewhat in the area of Gettysburg (center, bottom of PA), so if you are traveling there from afar, you might want to combine the two.

http://www.lincolncaverns.com/groups/scouts/index.html

I’ve been to this one before, just west of Albany, NY:

http://www.howecaverns.com/

They have all kinds of educational programs, they might be able to work with you to design a MB program.

These type of caverns are developed for visitors so they are not the type of activity as mentioned in caving post. My kids loved  Howe Caverns, it is worth the trip.