Environmental Science Merit Badge

Thirty-one parts, and you are doing thirteen

Six of the eleven requirements here are "do ONE of the following", each offering three routes:

• Requirement 3, air pollution: particulates, transport, or the Clean Air Act
• Requirement 4, water: your community's supply, flooding and drought, or the Clean Water Act
• Requirement 5, land: pesticides and fertilisers, erosion, or a Superfund site
• Requirement 6, species: one endangered, one recovered, or a habitat project visited with a professional
• Requirement 7, conservation: five ways to save resources, resource recovery, or household hazardous waste
• Requirement 8, pollination: investigate it, observe it for an hour, or study its role in agriculture Answer the six questions above the plan and the twelve branches you are not taking come off your list. Answer none of them and you see all eighteen, each marked as one that may not apply to you. Nothing is hidden because you have not spoken.

Two things with a clock

Requirement 2(a) asks you to observe an ecosystem (sight, sound and smell) over a two-day period, in an area your counselor approves. Everybody does this one, so plan for it. The approval comes first, so ask before you go.

Requirement 7(a) asks you to practise at least two of your five conservation methods for at least one week. That one only applies if you take the first route through requirement 7. It is a good reason to decide requirement 7 early: pick 7(a) in your last week and it costs you another one.

The one that needs another person's diary

Requirement 6(c) means working with a natural resource professional and visiting a completed habitat project, with approval from both your parent or guardian and your counselor. It is the most interesting of the three routes and the only one you cannot finish from a desk. Choose it deliberately, and early.

What this page is

The Environmental Science merit badge, laid out so its real size is visible. It is not a copy of the requirements: each step is a short label with a link to the official requirements, which are what actually governs and which change from year to year.