Merit badge requirements and school activities

[jmodrall]

I would be grateful for guidance and/or rules regarding whether scouts can use school assignmnets to satisfy merit badge requirements. Some requirements -- such as doing a short presentation for the Communications merit badge -- mesh nicely with things the boys do for school but may not be so easy to do outside of school.

Many thanks, Jay

[wagionvigil]

Sure as long as the Counselor accepts Them These things are up to the counselor as long as te requirements are met.

Welcome to the Forum

[alex gregory]

A lot of citizenship MB requirements are covered in school. Participation in school band obviosuly satisifes a Music MB requirement. A lot of woodworking and automotive maintenance MB requirements are taught in elective classes. There are a lot more examples, most of which I have yet to think about. My only hard rule of thumb as a MBC is that the coursework was done while a registered boy scout (so the trip in 4th grade does not count). I generally prefer that the coursework for which merit badge credit is sought happen after the scout started working on the merit badge, but I think there are plenty of situations where merit badge credit can be allowed before the scout formally started working on the merit badge.

[Mrw]

My son did the entire graphic arts badge in a graphics class at school and then discovered that he had covered all the requirements and decided to call a counselor. His MBC was quite impressed that he had actually done it all and only needed a sign-off when he saw the completed projects.

[evmori]

I'm working with a couple Scouts on Citizenship in the Community. When I get a call form a Scout to work on a MB, we make an appointment and get together to discuss the MB and what I expect them to do. This helps alleviate the Scout doing something that is unnecessary.

[VenturingL]

As an MBC for Communications, if the scout does one of the requirements as part of his class work, I accept a note from the scout's teacher. Usually it is the requirement to give a 5 minute speech. I ask the scout how it went, what worked, what didn't, what he would do differently next time, how the class responded, etc.

[smtroop168]

Having scouts use work done in school is also an excellent way to sell the program to those teachers who don't know much about scouting.

[jr56]

As a MBC I have always accepted school assignments for merit badge requirements.