Elective Merit Badges

Topics

• Basketry Merit Badge

  Three requirements. The first two are safety and knowledge: the hazards of basketry tools and materials and first aid for the injuries they cause, then identifying four types of basket and describing three types of weave. The third is most of the work: plan and weave a square basket, a round basket and a campstool seat.

  Elective Merit Badges Arts Hobbies Merit Badges Requirements

• Chess Merit Badge

  Seven requirements, nearly all shown at a board. Three need people: a learner to teach for requirement 3, five mate problems from your counselor for 5(e), and requirement 7, which is three games, a scholastic tournament, or a tournament you organize. Learn notation first: the games in 7 are replayed from your score sheets.

  Elective Merit Badges Hobbies Merit Badges Requirements

• Collections Merit Badge

  Seven requirements, all about a collection of your own, which may not be stamps or coins. A written report or outline (1), its growth (2), preserving, displaying, events and cataloging (3), investing (4), and in 5 its terms, two groups shown to your counselor, its value, grading, associations and identification marks. Then your future plans (6) and a career (7).

  Elective Merit Badges Hobbies Merit Badges Requirements

• Canoeing Merit Badge

  Nine requirements, and requirement 2 stands in front of eight of them: the swimmer test gates everything except requirement 1, including the dry-land parts about naming canoe components. Requirement 9 is eight manoeuvres multiplied by two seats and two sides.

  Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

• Climbing Merit Badge

  Thirteen requirements, and three of them add up to eighteen separate turns on a rope: three climbers belayed, three climbs backed up, three rappellers belayed, three rappels backed up, three routes climbed and three rappelled. Twelve of the eighteen need somebody else on the other end of the rope, which is the fact the requirement text never states.

  Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

• Bugling Merit Badge

  Six requirements, of which five are a week of work and the sixth is three months of serving as your troop's bugler. That term is a troop appointment, so the clock starts when somebody gives you the job rather than when you decide to earn the badge. Bugler counts as a position of responsibility toward Star and Life but not toward Eagle, the instrument may be a trumpet or a cornet rather than a bugle, and the ten calls chosen in requirement 3 are the ten that requirement 4 makes you explain.

  Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Rank Requirements

• Bird Study Merit Badge

  Thirteen requirements. The long one is requirement 5: 20 wild species observed and identified, each in a field notebook, and requirement 7 then asks for five of those same 20 by song alone. Start early. Requirements 8, 9 and 13 are choices, and two routes in 8 need a club or a banding program.

  Elective Merit Badges Animals Conservation Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

• Coin Collecting Merit Badge

  Seven requirements. The long ones are 4, a set of U.S. coins from stated year groups and programs, each with its design features, designer's name and initials and where to find them; and 7, ONE of 20 world coins, 20 world paper money, 20 tokens or medals, or a coin show, club meeting, Mint tour or virtual exhibit. The rest are explanations: minting, terms, storage, the Bicentennial designs and paper currency.

  Elective Merit Badges Hobbies Merit Badges Requirements

• Archaeology Merit Badge

  Eleven requirements, of which nine are desk work and the last two cannot be done without a qualified archaeologist or instructor agreeing to work with you. The definition of who counts is buried in a note under requirement 10(b) and is far wider than the word archaeologist suggests. Requirement 4 is one line of text asking for twenty five answers, requirement 7 hides a week long wait inside its cheapest option, and requirements 2 and 3 are the vocabulary that requirements 10 and 4 are marked in.

  Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Requirements Teaching

• Athletics Merit Badge

  Four of nine options in requirement 5: the widest choice on this site, 126 combinations. And two separate three-month clocks that the badge never says are the same three months, which is the difference between a three-month badge and a six-month one.

  Elective Merit Badges Health Merit Badges Requirements

• Animation Merit Badge

  Five requirements. The big one is requirement 3: two animation techniques, chosen with your counselor's approval, each planned with thumbnail sketches or layout drawings, created and shared with your counselor. Around it: what animation is and its history (1), five of the 12 principles (2), a studio tour and animation's future (4), and careers (5).

  Elective Merit Badges Arts Merit Badges Requirements

• Art Merit Badge

  Seven requirements. Three are discussions of what art is, its elements and the principles of design. The making is requirement 4, one subject in four media, and requirement 5, one of three projects. Requirement 6 is a visit that needs permission and approval first.

  Elective Merit Badges Arts Merit Badges Requirements

• Archery Merit Badge

  Requirement 5 hides a choice inside a choice inside a choice, and a one-sentence note that sends anyone shooting a camp Genesis bow to Option A rather than the compound option its heading suggests.

  Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Requirements Shooting Sports

• Artificial Intelligence Merit Badge

  Eight requirements that look like desk work, three of which are appointments: two counselor-led games and an approval that has to come before the project starts. The badge has no pamphlet, so both games come from the counselor rather than from anything a Scout can look up, and requirements 2 and 3 ask the same five questions about artificial intelligence and about automation, which is a trap for anyone who has not separated the two ideas.

  Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Requirements Technology

• Astronomy Merit Badge

  Nine requirements, and nine separate parts of them need a clear night that the badge never mentions. Requirement 6(b) wants four Moon sketches at the same hour within a single one-week period; requirement 8(b) wants ten objects beyond those observed in requirement 4, which makes requirement 4 its prerequisite; and requirement 8 as a whole is agreed with your counselor rather than simply chosen.

  Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements Safety

• Backpacking Merit Badge

  Eleven requirements, of which two are the badge: requirement 10 is three treks of three days and fifteen miles each, and requirement 11 is a five-day thirty-mile trek with a service project on it. That is fourteen days in the field and seventy-five miles carried, arriving tenth on a list that opens with a discussion of blisters.

  Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

• Architecture Merit Badge

  Five requirements. Requirement 1 is a tour of your community with a sketch, and research into a historical achievement. Requirement 2 is one discussion of sustainable architecture. Requirement 3 is ONE of three: meet an architect to see a model and drawings, meet one at a construction site, or interview a possible client. Requirement 4 is a scaled floor plan of a room you measure, and 5 is careers.

  Elective Merit Badges Arts Merit Badges Requirements STEM

• Automotive Maintenance Merit Badge

  Twelve requirements, and you need access to a car or truck and its owner's manual. Safety and registration; general maintenance checks; the dashboard; tires; engine; cooling; fuel; ignition and electrical systems; drive train; brakes; TWO of four projects (vehicle costs, cleaning and waxing, changing a tire, or an oil change); and automotive careers.

  Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Requirements Safety STEM

• Aviation Merit Badge

  Five requirements. Requirement 1 is eight explanations of aircraft and flight, one with a model aircraft. Requirement 2 is ONE thing to build and fly, requirement 3 is TWO flight operations from five, and requirement 4 is ONE visit from four. Requirement 5 is pilot certificates, the instrument rating, Aviation Exploring or Civil Air Patrol, and a career.

  Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Requirements STEM

• Animal Science Merit Badge

  Six options in requirement 6, and three of them hide an inner choice whose first branch is months of raising livestock: a lamb, a feeder pig, five chickens, or an egg flock for five months. Every one has an afternoon-long alternative. Also carries a cross-reference to "the four breeds of horses" that requirement 1 does not produce.

  Elective Merit Badges Conservation Merit Badges Requirements

• American Cultures Merit Badge

  Five requirements, and the sentence that governs the first three is not one of them: an unnumbered note above requirement 1 tells you to choose three groups, one of them your own, and use them for requirements 1, 2 and 3. That choice also decides whether requirement 1 is possible, because four of its five options need access to a community and only one does not. Requirement 4 then asks about a different three, on a different list of categories.

  Elective Merit Badges Citizenship Merit Badges Requirements Teaching

• American Labor Merit Badge

  Nine requirements, and the first one is not the warm-up it looks like: requirement 2(b) names it by number and asks you to take that list of eight worker concerns to a union and ask which matter most. Requirement 7 then draws on the same work without naming it. Requirement 2 also carries its own fallback, contacting an organization online, so no union office needs to be within reach, and requirement 3 is twelve definitions printed as a single conversation.

  Elective Merit Badges Citizenship Merit Badges Requirements

• American Indian Culture Merit Badge

  Five requirements. Identify the cultural areas (1), research one tribe, group or nation across fifteen subjects (2), learn ten terms in a language, ten place names and five leaders (3), describe the settlers' encounter and eight things adopted from American Indians, and learn a game and teach and lead it with a Scout group (4). Then ONE of a museum visit, in person or virtual, or a contemporary American Indian gathering (5).

  Elective Merit Badges Culture Merit Badges Requirements Teaching

• American Business Merit Badge

  Six requirements. The first three are explanations: free enterprise, history, labor and the economy (1), financial statements, capital and insurance (2), profit, green marketing, ethics and online business (3). Requirement 4 is the Department of Labor and two labor laws. Requirement 5 researches a real business across the five primary areas, and 6 is a career or an interview with a business leader.

  Elective Merit Badges Business Merit Badges Requirements

• American Heritage Merit Badge

  Six requirements. Requirement 1 is the Declaration of Independence, one section rewritten in your own words. Requirement 3 is a topic in the news, the national symbols and your family's history. Three are choices: two of four in 2 (people, an organization or interviews), two of five in 4 (local history), one of three in 5 (films, a biography or songs). Several routes need your counselor's approval first.

  Elective Merit Badges Citizenship Merit Badges Requirements