New Merit Badges?

[scoutaholic]

Anyone want to play the MB consolidation game?

My top candidates:

Communications-Public Speaking - Journalism - Computers

I don't like this idea.
Communications is a small part of the Computers subject matter. Computers needs some updating, but ignoring the non-communcation aspects won't help.
Public Speaking and Journalism are specialized subjects within communications. If they were to add these into communications, they would probably end up as a do-this-or-that type requirement and many scouts would get one or the other but not both. I think both should stand on their own.
Communications is a bit weak and could stand some updating/improvement, but I don't think merging any of the others into it would be beneficial.

Camping - Wilderness Survival

Wilderness Survival may be a bit weak on it's own, but I think the important skills would be weakend/ignored even more if they were combined into Camping.

Collections - Stamp Collecting - Coin Collecting

I'm all for combining these 3. Stamps and Coins are just specialized collections. They could be covered in one badge.

Pets - Dog Care

Again, I don't see a need for a specialized badge for dogs. Pets are pets. We don't have a Cat Care MB or Rodent Raising MB.

Automotive Maintenance - Traffic Safety

Wrong place for merging Traffic Safety. If we want more in the Automotive Maintenance/Mechanics MB, they should add Small Engine Repair.

Eprep- Safety - Fire Safety

I think E Prep stands on it's own.
Safety should be combined with Traffic Safety, but not as part of E Prep.
I don't think Fire Safety is a good match for merging into E Prep nor Safety.

Orienteering and GPS...

Orienteering and GIS would be a good match. Parts of Surveying could go here too, although it might drop some other useful parts of Surveying in order to combine it into these others.


How about these other possibilities:

Soil and Water Conservation, Fish and Wildlife Management, and Forestry

Fishing and Fly Fishing

Sports and Athletics and Golf (and maybe Personal Fitness) (Why does Golf get its own badge, but none of the other sports? Baseball, Hockey, Tennis, etc.,)

Nature with Bird Study, Mammal Study, Reptile and Amphibian Study, Insect Study, Fish and Wildlife Management, Fishing, Soil and Water Conservation, and Geology. Nature requirement 4 covers parts of all of these as well as a section on Mollusks/Crustaceans that is missing from Oceanography.

Architecture and Landscape Architecture

American Business, Entrepreneurship and Salesmanship

Astronomy and Space Exploration

SCUBA and Snorkeling

Motorboating and Watersports

Rifle Shooting and Shotgun Shooting (These used to be combined. I don't know why they separated them). If you also combine with Archery, they you could just call it Shooting Sports.

Medicine and Public Health

Pottery and Sculpture

Theater and Cinematography

[alex gregory]

Anyone want to play the MB consolidation game?
Nature with Bird Study, Mammal Study, Reptile and Amphibian Study, Insect Study, Fish and Wildlife Management, Fishing, Soil and Water Conservation, and Geology. Nature requirement 4 covers parts of all of these as well as a section on Mollusks/Crustaceans that is missing from Oceanography.

I agree that Nature is a little redundant in addition to all the other natural science merit badges, but I single merit badge covering all natural sciences is way too much material. I think Nature could easily be retired, and simply transfer the requirements to other more specific natural science merit badges.

I love all the natural science merit badges, and loved them as a scout. It would be nice to see some more attention to Physics and Mathematics. How about Robotics?

[kwildman]

scoutaholic

how about no! Leave most of the badges as is. No need to consolidate them.

Orienteering definately needs to stand by itself ...i would update it and call it land navigation and make it eagle required to replace the lame Communications MB.

[AquilaNegra2]

Some of the ones that mine are "stacking" (and could therefore be combined):

American Business and Entrepreneurship

Fingerprinting could be PART of Crime Prevention

Plumbing could be rolled into Home Repairs

Graphic Arts could be a subset of Computers

Reading could be part of Scholarship

Roll the *easiest* ones into others. I'd love to see no more 30-minute badges.

[wagionvigil]

First Aid should be A Real 8-16 hour First Aid Course. Basic Red cross with CPR and AED

[scoutaholic]

For those of you not liking my list of possible badges to combine (kwildman, alex gregory), I didn't say I would combine all of those listed. It was just a list of possibles, because someone asked. I probably would combined Dog Care into Pets, and Coin Collecting and Stamp Collecting into Collections, but I would leave all the others alone for now.

AquilaNegra2,
If you want to put plumbing into home repairs, we should probably also include painting and electricity.

alex gregory,
I too have noticed physics and math missing from the current MB curriculum. Robotics was one of the rumors that started this thread. Here are some more 'academic' subjects I would like to see considered for MBs: Physics, Math, Writing, Literature, Language (Learning others as well as learning to use your own correctly)...

[smtroop168]

Don't anyone get riled up. Just trying to have a little fun. I don't think any of our ideas will come to fruition. Most of these have been stand alone MBs for a very long time. My Comms consolidation comes from my feeling that everyone needs better Speaking and Writing skills for the real world. 22 minutes of "speeches" doesn't make a public speaker anymore than writing a 200 word article on a scout event makes a journalist or being an emcee at a campfire makes you a great communicator. The BSA has a process for adding/changing MBs. I've offered my services but I'm sure so have many others.

[AquilaNegra2]

http://www.divenewswire.com/NewsITems.aspx?newsID=10132

SCUBA now a merit badge?

Anyone know anything about this? I didn't see anything on the Scout site.

[wagionvigil]

That is what I am hearing that it will be. That the course must be taught by a PADI certified instructor and there will no longer be a scuba award.

[alex gregory]

That is what I am hearing that it will be. That the course must be taught by a PADI certified instructor and there will no longer be a scuba award.

Cool!

[wagionvigil]

For eveyones information the First Post in this thread listed Scuba, Robotics and GPS Merit Badge. The GPS will be combined with GIS into one MB.

[PaulSWolf]

Before anyone gets TOO excited, If I were to hazard a guess as to the timing for release of the new badges, My bet would be NEXT summer (2010) at the Jamboree.

The Cinematography badge was first available at the 1989 Jamboree, Fly Fishing at the 2005 Jamboree, and Composite Materials was demonstarted, at the 2005 Jambo and released shortly after then. There were a number of other badges (Metalwork, Traffic Safety, and others) with major updates released at the 2001 Jamboree, also.

[FrankJ]

Just think! Earn the Scuba merit badge in 4 hours at the Jamboree. No swimming required!!

[smtroop168]

And the scout has to stay in a tent they pitched!

Actually I wonder how the MB requirements will differ from the current Scuba BSA and can you grandfather your patch to meet the MB requirements?

Also how many scouts receive Scuba BSA annually?

PADI obviously brought the necessary resources to the table to fund this effort and Paul is probably right, the MB won't be available until 2010.

[alex gregory]

For eveyones information the First Post in this thread listed Scuba, Robotics and GPS Merit Badge. The GPS will be combined with GIS into one MB.

Will the new GIS MB also include Orienteering? Seems a little silly to have Orienteering and GIS, when a single MB could easily incorporate all the material into one outdoor/wilderness navigation MB.

[wagionvigil]

What I know I have posted I guess it will be wait and see.

[kwildman]

For eveyones information the First Post in this thread listed Scuba, Robotics and GPS Merit Badge. The GPS will be combined with GIS into one MB.

Will the new GIS MB also include Orienteering? Seems a little silly to have Orienteering and GIS, when a single MB could easily incorporate all the material into one outdoor/wilderness navigation MB.

Orinteering and GIS are completeley different. GIS deals primarily with organizing and presenting spatially related data. Map and compass work are not required and I can teach GIS without even going outside. GIS is not navigation related unless you use it to produce a map which is one of the most simple aspects of GIS. I would hope that the GIS MB only briefly talk about GPS as a data collection method for GIS development.

[Quailman]

A link to the wikipedia article on Geographic Information Systems, in case there's anyone else who thought GIS=GPS.

[smtroop168]

Here's another rumored change: Cooking returns as an Eagle Required Badge and Cit in Nation and Comms are combined into one to keep total required at 12.

[wagionvigil]

Here's another rumored change: Cooking returns as an Eagle Required Badge and Cit in Nation and Comms are combined into one to keep total required at 12.