National Outdoor Badge

[AdvT77C]

Curious when the clock starts for these awards? Do you count items the boys have all ready completed? Or do you only count items earned from this point on?

 

I have two young Eagle scouts that seem to fit the Camping National Outdoor Badge. They have the rank, they have the camping/first aid merit badges. I am reading this correctly that they just need Cooking and five more nights camping?

[Nike]

If they only count activities that occur from this day forward, then the medal won't be given out for years. Also, the award it replaces isn't currently listed on scouting.org on the BSA Youth Awards page.

 

To be extra sure, call your DE or Council Office.

[Oak Tree]

I also noticed the absence of any statement about when the clock started on these awards. I'm going to presume that it counts all of a Scout's activity.

 

Now, Cub Scout camping is under the auspices of the BSA (as are any other activities done as a Cub Scout). So presumably this award counts all of a Scout's Cub Scouting history as well. That was true for the National Camping Award that this replaces.

 

The National Camping Award was very clear on this point. It had a start date. It had a statement about what camping counted. It would be nice to have that clarification for the replacement award as well.

 

What I'm going to do is to count all of a Scout's entire Scouting history - it seems clear that this award is intended to count retroactively. It's not obvious that it's supposed to count Cub Scouting, but that is definitely included from the current wording.

[dkurtenbach]

I see this as another sign that BSA has been getting the message: re-emphasize the outdoors, re-emphasize adventure. I've seen an increased promotion of Cub Scout camping in the last couple of years, and there is the building of the new high adventure base in West Virginia. Now, if this re-emphasis would filter down into the actual Boy Scout advancement requirements in addition to these "non-core" awards and programs . . .

 

Dan K.

[Hawkrod]

I just wanted to thank you guys for doing what you all do so well. I have a really tough time tracking all the stuff going on in Scouting and just recently started participating in various forums when I was looking for help on some other issues. Now I get ideas daily and something like this is great because I have boys in my unit that qualify or are very close to qualifying and I didn't even know it existed! I don't even have to worry about the dates as all of the requirements have been completed since last summer when this award already existed (one of the few benefits of a new unit, nobody did anything a long time ago! LOL). Thanks again

[Nike]

Some missing activities for the activity badges:

 

1) Kayaking isn't listed as an aquatic activity.

 

2) Cross country skiing and snowshoeing to get somewhere aren't listed either.

 

Seeing as these are all very popular activities, where possible, I'm surprised they weren't included.

[Oak Tree]

I agree, Nike.

 

Although, for these purposes, I would count kayaking as a class of canoeing, and I would count snoeshoeing as a type of hiking. I would probably even count cross-country skiing as a form of hiking.

 

As a general point, though, they clearly couldn't include every possible form of outdoor activity. There is nothing for hours spent on the climbing wall, or on the shooting range. Nothing for fishing, or downhill skiing, or snowboarding, or scuba.

 

The only one that strikes me as a big omission is kayaking. I'd be curious to know if they intentionally left it off the list. I'm going to stick with counting it as time on the water, though. Per wikipedia (that authoritative source) - "kayak (sometimes generalised as a canoe)"

 

[Eagle92]

Nike,

 

Across the pond, they call kayaks "canoes" and canoes "Canadian canoes." SOOOOOOOOO

 

Kayaks are good to go under canoeing for me.

 

 

[Nike]

When our troop goes sailing here, the boats are basically American kayaks with sails. Weirdness.

 

I thought maybe they left out kayaking becuase there isn't a kayaking specific MB.

 

 

[Eagle92]

But there is a Kayaking BSA award.

 

[ScoutBox]

We have Lake Geneva here in Switzerland so it makes it a bit better.. and several fo the parents own sail boats.. was great for the boys last Summer getting the Sailing MB..

[advancement lady]

Love this one because I have some answers!!!!! My son recently earned the Aquatics segment. He was able to count his mile swim from '07. He also could count any time he spent on the water (or in it) which included his summer camp's battle on the lakes. Since he is also in Venturing and attended 2010 Jamboree, he had a lot of "water time" in. And yes BSA Kayaking was included in his water time!

 

We filled out the form, had his Scoutmaster sign it, took it to our local council ..... they take it from there (MAKE A COPY). Because it comes under the "National" section ~ it can only be entered by council, same as Eagle and the Palms.

 

My son has no desire to pursue anymore merit badges, so this maybe the only segment he earns (missing cooking to get Camping Segment), but this may change when he actually receives the award. (Fall COH)

 

Hope this helped!!!

[AZMike]

BSA also has the new STEM and Nova Award for achievements in science, technology, engineering, and math that looks interesting.

 

http://www.scouting.org/stem/AboutSTEM.aspx?SRC=ET&ET_CID=ET_nova_2_07162012&Page=http%3a%2f%2fwww.scouting.org%2fstem%2fAboutSTEM.aspx&ET_RID=

[advancement lady]

I just spent sometime looking over the STEM award. I agree it looks interesting and I see a place for it in scouting. I am curious to see the "finished" product ~ are they pins, badges, linked together, separate ETC?

 

My son has had his fill of Merit Badges (16 years old and Eagle with enough badges for 4 palms, but needs to do the time!) He is up for something different and currently has 7 scout awards. I am hoping that STEM sparks his interest to work on more scout related activities. Although he has NOA Aquatics, he has zero interest in going for the camping segment because he would need to earn cooking or pioneering.

 

Does anyone know why scouts cannot earn knots? I know they have the religious knot, but why are the knots reserved for adults? The scout recognition patches seem to get bigger and bigger with each new concept that is introduced. Maybe knots are the way to go?!?

 

Any thoughts?

[BartHumphries]

"The Camping one looks kind of sad compared to the others. 25 days/nights could easily be snagged in a year of plop & drop car camping. But the others seem to require real effort - 100 miles hiking or backpacking is nothing to sneeze at."

 

To get the full medal, you have to earn the Silver device for Camping. That's 125 days/nights camping. Most people only do weekend campouts (car or not) for a single night. If they went out every month, except for a week of scout camp in the summer, that'd be 18 days/nights a year. That's almost 7 years of camping like that to earn the full medal.

 

If a person was to go camping for two days/nights (Fri night, Sat, Sat night, Sun?) a month, plus a week of scout camp in the summer, plus a week-long 50-miler every other year, with another four days/nights to become a LNT Trainer and get Wilderness First Aid, that'd still be about five years, and at this point camping in general would be a serious part of your life.