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New: Robotics Merit Badge!
At the Arrow Head Boy Scout camp at near Barboursville, WV, we worked
on the requirements for the Robotics Merit badge.
1. Safety
2. Kinds of things robots can do
3. General knowledge
4. Design, build, program, test.
5. Demonstrate. Do the following:
a. Demonstrate for your counselor the robot you built in requirement
4.
b. Share your robot engineering notebook with your counselor. Talk
about how well your robot accomplished the task, the improvements
you would make in your next design, and what you learned about the
design process.
6. Competitions - attend a robotics competition and report or report
on 3 kinds
7. Careers opportunities in robotics.
See http://netapps.marshall.edu/lego/1/BoyScoutsBadge.html
for the complete requirements.
Since 1910, scouting has helped mold the future leaders of this country
by combining
educational activities and lifelong values with fun. The Boy Scouts
of America
believes and, through over a century of experience, understands that
helping youth
puts us on a path toward a more conscientious, responsible, and productive
society.
Robotics is an incredibly exciting and dynamic field that has transformed
into the
premier vehicle for hands-on delivery of science, technology, engineering,
and
math concepts. Through the creation of the Robotics merit badge, the
Boy Scouts
of America has joined with LEGO Education to give Scouts access to
the latest in
robotics technology, preparing them for life after school and potential
careers in the
various STEM industries.
www.LEGOeducation.us/BoyScouts
http://www.legoeducation.us/about/item.aspx?art=4668
http://www.legoeducation.us/sharedimages/PDF/BoyScout17x11emailer.pdf
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For two weeks, from July 25 - July 2, 2011, Boy Scouts in four counties
in West Virginia, as well as three counties in Ohio and Kentucky acquired
more than life skills at Camp Arrowhead in Ona, W.Va. Through a cooperative
agreement with the Tri-State Area Council for the Boy Scouts of America
(BSA), RTI staff presented the robotics programming class Tuesday through
Thursday each week from 10 a.m.-12 noon. Fourteen scouts and 4 Scout Masters
worked in teams of two as instructed by Linda Hamilton, RTI Coordinator
K-12 Outreach Intelligent Transportation Systems using LEGO robotics; Joseph
Ingram, Student Assistant, Computer Science Engineering; Pankaj Pande,
Graduate Assistant, Management Information Systems; and LeAndria Reed,
Research Associate, Certified NTX program trainer.
The new Robotics merit badge was offered both weeks as part of the
Boy Scouts of America's new STEM (science, technology, engineering, and
math) curriculum, one of 31 STEM related merit badges. To earn the
Robotics badge, scouts must, among other robot related requirements:
Design, build, program, and test a robot; demonstrate the robot and share
their engineering notes; and explain how robots are used today. The
BSA took nearly 14 months to develop the badge with input from organizations
including iRobot, Vex Robotics, and Boston's Museum of Science; plus Carnegie
Mellon Robotics Academy and NASA. The BSA estimates that more than 10,000
of the nation's 2.7 million Boy Scouts will earn a Robotics badge in this
inaugural year.
