Outdoors

Rowing Merit Badge

Nine requirements, of which requirement 2 names four others by number and gates all of them: the Scouting America swimmer test must be passed before requirements 4, 5, 6 and 7. Rowing is the aquatics badge that does not print that test, so what it asks for is found elsewhere. Requirements 1, 3, 8 and 9 are seventeen dry steps the gate does not touch, requirement 4 offers an afternoon or a competitive season, and two of its five knots appear nowhere else in Scouting.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements Safety

First Class Rank

Thirteen requirements, including a five-part cooking project that must all happen on one planned campout, a rubbish-reduction requirement needing two outings, and the last four weeks of a fitness chain that began at Tenderfoot.

Scouts BSA Ranks Boards of Review Outdoors Rank Requirements

Second Class Rank

Twelve requirements, two of which are months long: five separate activities with two nights of camping, and four weeks of daily activity that cannot start until Tenderfoot requirement 6c is done.

Scouts BSA Ranks Boards of Review Outdoors Rank Requirements

Tenderfoot Rank

Eleven requirements, one of which is a thirty-day fitness calendar that Second Class and First Class then continue, and six of which wait on a single campout.

Scouts BSA Ranks Boards of Review Outdoors Rank Requirements

Swimming Merit Badge

Nine requirements, twenty-five parts, and one of them is a gate: the swimmer test comes before six of the other eight, because the badge says so in advance rather than leaving it to be worked out.

Eagle-Required Merit Badges Eagle Required Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Reptile and Amphibian Study Merit Badge

Ten requirements, and the one that decides the shape of the badge is requirement 8: a month with an animal in your own custody, or three months of weekly visits to one in somebody else's. The prohibitions that govern it (no venomous reptiles, no protected species, no collecting in most parks) are in a standing note above the requirements rather than in any numbered one.

Elective Merit Badges Animals Conservation Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Scuba Diving Merit Badge

Six requirements, and two of them are whole other qualifications: the Swimming merit badge, which gates requirements 3 to 6, and an Open Water Diver certification earned outside Scouting. The other four are conversations. Do not judge this badge by its length.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Search and Rescue Merit Badge

Eight requirements, seven of which are explained to a counselor and one of which, requirement 7, is a practice search run with a team of Scouts, friends or family, in five parts the requirement text puts in order itself. A standing note that is not a numbered requirement forbids youth members from flying in aircraft on a SAR mission, and requirement 3(d) uses a term requirement 6(b) has not defined yet.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Small-Boat Sailing Merit Badge

Nine requirements, three gates. The swimmer test stands in front of everything but requirement 1; requirement 4 says "before going afloat" and requirement 5 says the wind work comes before setting sail, both of which point at the ten-part requirement 6. And the boat itself has to qualify: capsizable, able to sail to windward, and not a sailboard.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Snow Sports Merit Badge

Requirements 4 and 5 both say "the option you choose in requirement 7", so the choice printed seventh has to be made fourth. And only two of the four options state an adaptive alternative.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Surveying Merit Badge

Eight requirements, and two of them are the same afternoon: requirement 4 levels from the corner markers set up for requirement 2, so both need the counselor's five-sided lot still standing, while requirement 3, numbered between them, is map drawing done indoors afterwards. The counselor supplies the site and the instruments, so nothing can start until a field session is arranged, and requirement 5 needs a property approved and then a deed fetched from a courthouse.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Sustainability Merit Badge

Nine requirements, six of which are choices: five "do one of three" and one "do two of six". Answer them and two-thirds of the branches disappear; two of the ones that remain are measured in weeks.

Eagle-Required Merit Badges Eagle Required Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Water Sports Merit Badge

Six requirements and one of them is a whole day behind a boat. Requirements 1 and 2 are open to anybody; the swimmer test at requirement 3 gates 4 through 6; and 4, 5 and 6 all need a boat, a driver and an observer, so they are one session rather than three.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Whitewater Merit Badge

Twelve requirements, and the third is a gate over the other nine: earn the Canoeing merit badge if you are in a canoe, or the Kayaking merit badge if you are in a kayak, before doing requirements 4 through 12. That one answer also decides requirement 4's option and requirement 7, and if you choose a tandem canoe, it doubles requirement 10.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Wilderness Survival Merit Badge

Ten requirements, and the one that decides how long the badge takes is requirement 5(e): improvise a natural shelter and spend a night in it. That is a campout, a permitted site and a forecast, buried as the fifth letter of the fifth requirement. Requirement 6 (three fires by three methods, none of them matches) is the other one that costs more than it reads.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Mammal Study Merit Badge

Seven requirements, two of which are choices where the routes are nothing like equal: requirement 3 is 6 hours in the field, 15 hours across five days, or no field time at all, and requirement 4 offers seven routes from a book report to making study skins. Requirement 4(c) points back at requirement 3(c) by number, and requirement 5 is a project a counselor has to agree before it starts.

Elective Merit Badges Animals Conservation Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Motorboating Merit Badge

Five requirements, and the swimmer test gates exactly one of them. Requirement 2(a) names requirement 5 and stops, so four-fifths of this badge is available before anybody gets wet. The lead time to watch is requirement 4(b): a state boating permit, where state law requires one.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Multisport Merit Badge

Eight requirements, and the fourth of them exists four times over: pick triathlon, duathlon, aquathlon or aquabike in requirement 3(d) and that answer decides requirement 4, requirement 5 and the race in requirement 7. Three of the four formats need the Swimming merit badge first; duathlon does not.

Elective Merit Badges Health Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Nature Merit Badge

Seven requirements, and the fourth is a choice of five fields from eight that decides how long the badge takes. Six are an afternoon of looking and identifying. Birds needs a month of records from a box or feeder you built, and Insects and Spiders can cost a season. Both prices sit two levels below the choice. Requirement 5 is written in the past tense about requirement 4, so Leave No Trace has to be read before the collecting starts, and the rules on collecting are numbered nowhere.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Orienteering Merit Badge

Ten requirements, and the long pole is requirement 7: three orienteering events run by other people, one of them cross-country, each needing a written report with the master map and control sheet from that day. Keep them on the day or the report cannot be written. Requirement 9 can be folded into requirement 8. The badge says so itself.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements Teaching

Pioneering Merit Badge

Nine requirements, and requirement 3 tells you its own prerequisites part by part, each of its three builds names the lashings and knots from requirement 2 that it needs. Requirement 9 is a full-size structure built by a group: spars, a site, a date, and the Guide to Safe Scouting height standards, which the requirements insist on twice.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Plant Science Merit Badge

The largest badge here, and most of it will not apply to you. Requirement 8 is three options with a second choice nested inside each, so two answers decide your path. The fact that should decide the first one (whether you must grow something through a season) is never stated: Option B always does, Option A usually does, Option C never does.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Fishing Merit Badge

Ten requirements, and only one of them depends on a fish co-operating. Requirement 9 is "catch one fish", and requirement 10 deliberately does not wait on it, because it provides its own route for a Scout who cannot catch one. The arrow the numbering invites is the arrow that is wrong.

Elective Merit Badges Conservation Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Hiking Merit Badge

Five requirements, and one of them is five separate days: four 10-mile hikes and a 20-mile hike, each of continuous miles, each with a written plan approved before you start walking.

Eagle-Required Merit Badges Eagle Required Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Kayaking Merit Badge

Eight requirements, and requirement 2 gates seven of them by name: the swimmer test stands in front of requirements 3 through 8, so requirement 1 is the only part you can start early. Requirement 6 needs a second boat; requirements 7 and 8 are solo.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements