Computer Merit Badge (UPDATED)

[EagleBoy62204]

While I was a scout, i never earned this badge because the simple fact that the requirements were out dated. As technology has rapidly increased since i have joined Boy Scouts (97), the badge should of been updated when they did the giant update of 2001 (?).

Below is what I think the requirements should look like.
They are seperated and listed as OLD and NEW.

OLD:
3. Show how the following may be stored in computer memory: text, numbers, pictures, and sound.
4. Do THREE of the following:
1. Use a database manager to create a troop roster, providing name, rank, patrol, and telephone number of each Scout. Sort the register by rank, by patrol, and alphabetically by name.
2. Use a spreadsheet program to develop a weekend campout food budget for your patrol.
3. Use a word processor to write a letter to parents of your troop's Scouts, inviting them to a court of honor. Use the mail merge feature to make a personalized copy of the letter for each family.
4. Use a computer graphics program to design and draw a campsite plan for your troop.

Idea:
A merge of the two. The same purpose but at the end of the "old requrement 4" could be number three as sub requirement. Also the mail merge part of #3 in Requirement 4 would be taken out. #1 would be changed from a database manager (Micro. Access is way to expensive now days) to a spreadsheet and would be merged with #2.

New #4:
Do ALL of the following:
1. Create TWO spreadsheet that consist of a troop roster, providing name, rank, patrol, and telephone number of each Scout. Another which develops a weekend campout food budget for your patrol. Show three different ways to sort these spreadsheets.
2. Use a word processing program to write a letter to scoutmaster, inviting them to a court of honor. Show how to use proper Letter format.
3. Use a computer graphics program to design and draw a campsite plan for your troop.



Old #5:
Do TWO of the following:

1. Visit a business or industry that uses computers. Study what the computer accomplishes and be prepared to discuss what you observed.
2. Use a computer attached to a local area network or equipped with a modem to connect to a computer network or bulletin-board service such as Prodigy, CompuServe, or America Online. Send a message to someone on the network or download a program or file from the network.
3. Use a general-purpose programming language to write a program application of your choice, subject to approval by your counselor.

Idea:
# 2: Explain three ways to connect to the internet. Using one of these ways download a program or file from a website of the counselors choosing. Explain how to save and view the file after the program/file is completed its download.
#3. Deleted. To the fact. that i never really seemed the real point of this requirement.

New #5:

1. Visit a business or industry that uses computers. Study what the computer accomplishes and be prepared to discuss what you observed.
2. Explain three ways to connect to the internet. Using one of these ways download a program or file from a website of the counselors choosing. Explain how to save and view the file after the program/file is completed its download.

Comments. Additions. Critisim Please.

[hops_scout]

I'd add using some kind of software (up to Scout and his counselor) to design a basic website.

I understand that not everyone can do work like mine, but something very basic just so that they have a general idea of what to do.

[optimist]

Actually Hops, I think you gave EagleBoy62204 a good example of why requirement #5-3 exists. There will always be a need for programming on some level. When computers first began to be used by the general public (25 years ago!), anyone who had one had to learn how to program it to make good use of it. Even when the IBM PC hit the market, those who knew how to make batch files and how to modify the CONFIG.SYS file were the people who got the best out of their computer.

These days, most people don't dig that far into programming and the operating systems they work on. However, whether they know it or not, HTML (the language used to create web pages) is a minor form of programming. When you include things like XML, Java, and .NET, it becomes a major form of programming. This and other web technologies have become big business in what is now referred to as "web services" or "enterprise applications".

Programming will always be important. The problem with the requirement is not that programming shouldn't be required, it's that the authors were very specific about what kind of programming languages whould be used to complete the requirement. Maybe it would have been best to make it simpler and allow the Scout and the counselor to choose the programming language or idea.

[optimist]

P.S. I've been informed by a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers that they have just recently helped complete a rewrite of the Computer merit badge. I'm sure the publication process is not instantaneous but we might have new Computer merit badge requirements by next year.