Robotics Merit Badge

[MisterX]

It would be totally awesome to have a robotics merit badge but until then just try to involve in into other meritbadges...

Like we our sponsored by a local Nuclear Power Plant that also hosts a Merit Badge-O-Ree. Among the 15 or 20 merit badges they offer electricty and engineering of which for both we have brought in one of our past robots to show offer various components and let them drive the bot around.

[Rick TYler]

Getting a new Merit Badge approved is a difficult and time consuming process. I heard from Someone Who Knows These Things that a new MB can cost $75,000 to launch. Also, BSA tries to keep the number of total MBs at around 120, so they need to identify an unpopular MB to replace with a new one. Another problem is that MBs are in categories (sports, Eagle-required, hobby-oriented, career-oriented, etc.) and BSA tries to keep this balance. The biggest change over the last 30 years or so has been the collapse of the agricultural MBs from a whole bunch (20 or so?) down to a handful.

For my part, rewriting Computers would come before adding Robotics, not that I am unsympathetic to the idea. If you want to add a new MB you might want to think about which MB you would want to replace. You can see a complete list at www.meritbadge.com. My choice would be American Business or Plant Science, both of which are earned by fewer than 1,000 scouts per year. Perhaps American Business could be combined with Entrepeneurship and Plant Science with Gardening?

Anyway. getting a new MB approved takes several years and a lot of work. Since this discussion started a year ago on this board, has anyone actually done anything to make this happen? I'll write to a scout leader I know who has been part of this process and let you all know who you can contact to support this idea.

Rick Tyler
Mentor, Team 1294
Assistant Scoutmaster, Troop 575, Chief Seattle Council

[Daniel Brim]

I am an Eagle Scout as well. If anyone needs anything done on this in the Los Angeles area, I'll see what I can do (not that I can do much).

BTW I'm taking about 10 members of my troop to the SoCal regional on Saturday (I'm doing my homework ). When I made the announcement, one of the younger scouts asked, "Is there a robotics merit badge? If there is I would like to get it." That made me smile

-Daniel Brim, ES-
Junior Assistant Scoutmaster,
Troop 788, Redondo Beach, CA
Pacifica district, Los Angeles Area Council

[aaronD341]

As a scout this would be so awesome.The req need to be hands on and not as discussion based. great Idea.
Aaron
Life scout troop 540
Team 341

[sburro]

I am an Eagle Scout too. I would love to help, so if there is anything I can do, let me know

Joseph Beauregard
Troop 80
Dracut, MA
Yankee Clipper Council

[spadercool]

I tried to post on an idea for this on MeritBadge.com but it had a problem with debug

[Al Skierkiewicz]

I know that someone had been working with National to get this started. If you want to help, it might be better to contact someone in Dallas at the National office and lend your support.

[Rick TYler]

There's a link on the US Scouting Service Project Website about the process of creating a new merit badge. There have only been 16 new merit badges in the last 22 years.

[Scott Chambliss]

This is my first day on this sight and this was a thread I was hoping to start! My regional camporee (Atlanta) is based on creating a new merit badge, and my entry is going to be a robotics badge. I will try to post what I've got in a few days.

Scott Chambliss
Star Scout, Troop 455
Atlanta, Georgia

[Mark McLeod]

Alright I know this thread's from a long time ago, but I just heard an update that the Robotics Merit Badge has been approved and is expected to debut in spring 2010.

I thought the news belonged here rather than in a new thread.

New Boy Scout Merit Badges:

• Robotics merit badge has been approved. Requirements under development. Debut expected spring 2010.
• GPS/GIS merit badge has been approved. Requirements under development. Debut expected early 2010.
• Scouting Heritage merit badge has been approved. Requirements under development. Debut expected later this year
• Scuba merit badge has been approved. Requirements under development. Debut expected late this year.

[Nieuport]

They are supposed to release the requirments this year. My guess is that they will be released before the Jamboree, because there is going to be a robotics center their...

[IndySam]

Badge was announce at the Vex World Championship yesterday.

[Barry Bonzack]

Originally Posted by IndySam

Badge was announce at the Vex World Championship yesterday.

Pretty darn cool. Can you post a link to see the requirements? The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex has a Salute to Scouts day every so often. I've been one of their educators that helped the scouts meet the requirements for the "Space Exploration" merit badge. I would like to forward these requirements to the space center to see if its possible to meet the Robotic merit badge requirements, too. This should also be sent to every FLL affiliate partner.

[kjolana1124]

While this (obviously) doesn't apply to me directly, I'm very excited for this. I've wanted to do more with some of the local boy scouts, and now we can make it a win-win situation

[gblake]

As well as I can remember the conversation I had with folks in-the-know during the whirlwind of the FIRST Championships, students/scouts won't be able to earn the anticipated Robotics Merit Badge this summer at the National Camporee in Virginia.

However there definitely is a badge in the works and I think it was expected to be available (to be earned) sometime in 2011 (maybe late 2010? - I don't remember if an exact date was given).

Blake
PS: Even without an explicit Robotics badge, our robotics equipment can still easily be connected to the Electricity, Energy, Electronics, and Drafting badges.