Merit Badges

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

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

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

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 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 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 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

How to Earn a Merit Badge

Four signatures, two of them before you start. The order matters more than most people are told, and the step that is skipped most often is the first one.

Merit Badges Blue Card Merit Badge Counselors Merit Badges Process

Merit Badge Miscellany

The requirements changed halfway through. The badge was discontinued. A Scout came back from camp with an implausible number of them. May a council charge for a merit badge fair? Is Swimming really a prerequisite for Scuba Diving? Section 7.0.4 of the Guide, drawn one question at a time.

Merit Badges Appeals Council Merit Badge Counselors Merit Badges Process