Elective Merit Badges

Webelos/AOL Elective Adventure: Adventures in Science

Complete the following requirements.

1. An experiment is a 'fair test' to compare possible explanations. Draw a picture of a fair test that shows what you need to do to test a fertilizer's effects on plant growth.
2. Visit a museum, a college, a laboratory, an observatory, a zoo, an aquarium, or other facility that employs scientists. Prepare three questions ahead of time, and talk to a scientist about his or her work.
3. Complete any four of the following:
   1. Carry out the experiment you designed for Requirement 1.
   2. If you completed 3A, carry out the experiment again but change the independent variable. Report what you learned about how changing the variable affected plant growth.
   3. Build a model solar system. Chart the distances between the planets so that the model is to scale. Use what you learned from this requirement to explain the value of making a model in science.
   4. With adult supervision, build and launch a model rocket. Use the rocket to design a fair test to answer a question about force or motion.
   5. Create two circuits of three light bulbs and a battery. Construct one as a series circuit and the other as a parallel circuit.
   6. Study the night sky. Sketch the appearance of the North Star (Polaris) and the Big Dipper (part of the Ursa Major constellation) over at least six hours (which may be spread over several nights). Describe what you observed, and explain the meaning of your observations.
   7. With adult assistance, explore safe chemical reactions with household materials. Using two substances, observe what happens when the amounts of the reactants are increased.
   8. Explore properties of motion on a playground. How does the weight of a person affect how fast they slide down a slide or how fast a swing moves? Design a fair test to answer one of those questions.
   9. Read a biography of a scientist. Tell your den leader or the other members of your den what the scientist is famous for and why his or her work is important.

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Webelos/AOL Elective Adventure: Aquanaut

Complete Requirements 1-4 and at least two others.

1. State the safety precautions you need to take before doing any water activity.
2. Discuss the importance of learning the skills you need to know before going boating.
3. Explain the meaning of 'order of rescue' and demonstrate the reach and throw rescue techniques from land.
4. Attempt the BSA swimmer test.
5. Demonstrate the precautions you must take before attempting to dive headfirst into the water, and attempt a front surface dive.
6. Learn and demonstrate two of the following strokes: crawl, sidestroke, breaststroke, or elementary backstroke.
7. Invite a current or former lifeguard, or member of a rescue squad, the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, or other armed forces branch who has had swimming and rescue training to your den meeting. Find out what training and other experiences this person has had.
8. Demonstrate how to correctly fasten a life jacket that is the right size for you. Jump into water over your head. Swim 25 feet wearing the life jacket. Get out of the water, remove the life jacket, and hang it where it will dry.
9. If you are a qualified swimmer, select a paddle of the proper size, and paddle a canoe with an adult's supervision.

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Webelos/AOL Elective Adventure: Art Explosion

Complete Requirements 1-3. Requirement 4 is optional.

1. Visit an art museum, gallery, or exhibit. Discuss with an adult the art you saw. What did you like?
2. Create two self-portraits using two different techniques, such as drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, and computer illustration.
3. Do two of the following:
   1. Draw or paint an original picture outdoors, using the art materials of your choice.
   2. Use clay to sculpt a simple form.
   3. Create an object using clay that can be fired, baked in the oven, or air-dried.
   4. Create a freestanding sculpture or mobile using wood, metal, papier-mâché, or found or recycled objects.
   5. Make a display of origami or kirigami projects.
   6. Use a computer illustration or painting program to create a work of art.
   7. Create an original logo or design. Transfer the design onto a T-shirt, hat, or other object.
   8. Using a camera or other electronic device, take at least 10 photos of your family, a pet, or scenery. Use photo-editing software to crop, lighten or darken, and change some of the photos.
   9. Create a comic strip with original characters. Include at least four panels to tell a story centered on one of the points of the Scout Law. Characters can be hand-drawn or computer-generated.
4. Choose one of the following methods to show your artwork:
   1. Create a hard-copy or digital portfolio of your projects. Share it with your family and members of your den or pack.
   2. Display your artwork in a pack, school, or community art show.

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Webelos/AOL Elective Adventure: Aware and Care

Complete the following requirements.

1. Develop an awareness of the challenges of the blind or visually impaired through participation in an activity that simulates blindness or visual impairment. Alternatively, participate in an activity that simulates the challenges of being deaf or hard of hearing.
2. Engage in an activity that simulates mobility impairment. Alternatively, take part in an activity that simulates dexterity impairment.
3. With your den, participate in an activity that focuses on the acceptance of differences in general.
4. Do two of the following:
   1. Do a Good Turn for residents at a skilled nursing facility or retirement community.
   2. Invite an individual with a disability to visit your den, and discuss what activities he or she currently finds challenging or found challenging in the past.
   3. Attend a disabilities event such as a Special Olympics competition, an adaptive sports event, a performance with sign language interpretation, or an activity with service dogs. Tell your den what you thought about the experience.
   4. Talk to someone who works with people who have disabilities. Ask what that person does and how he or she helps people with disabilities.
   5. Using American Sign Language, sign the Scout Oath.
   6. With the help of an adult, contact a service dog organization, and learn the entire process from pup training to assignment to a client.
   7. Participate in a service project that focuses on a specific disability.
   8. Participate in an activity with an organization whose members are disabled

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Webelos/AOL Elective Adventure: Build It

Complete the following requirements.

1. Learn about some basic tools and the proper use of each tool. Learn about and understand the need for safety when you work with tools.
2. With the guidance of your Webelos den leader, parent, or guardian, select a carpentry project and build it.
3. List the tools that you use safely as you build your project; create a list of materials needed to build your project. Put a checkmark next to the tools on your list that you used for the first time.
4. Learn about a construction career. With your Webelos den leader, parent, or guardian, visit a construction site, and interview someone working in a construction career.

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Webelos/AOL Elective Adventure: Build My Own Hero

Complete Requirements 1-3 plus at least one other.

1. Discover what it means to be a hero. Invite a local hero to meet with your den.
2. Describe how citizens can be heroes in their communities.
3. Recognize a hero in your community by presenting him or her with a 'My Hero Award'
4. Learn about a real-life hero from another part of the world who has helped make the world a better place.
5. Learn about a Scout hero.
6. Create your own superhero.

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Webelos/AOL Elective Adventure: Castaway

Complete the following requirements.

1. Complete A. and your choice of B. or C.
   1. On a campout or outdoor activity with your den or family, cook two different recipes that do not require pots and pans.
   2. With the help of an adult, demonstrate one way to light a fire without using matches.
   3. Using tree limbs or branches that have already fallen or been cut, build a shelter that will protect you overnight.
2. Do all of the following.
   1. Learn what items should be in an outdoor survival kit that you can carry in a small bag or box in a day pack. Assemble your own small survival kit, and explain to your den leader why the items you chose are important for survival.
   2. With your den, demonstrate two ways to treat drinking water to remove impurities.
   3. Discuss what to do if you become lost in the woods. Tell what the letters 'S-T- O-P' stand for. Tell what the universal emergency signal is. Describe three ways to signal for help. Demonstrate one of them. Describe what you can do to help rescuers find you.
   4. Make a list of four qualities you think a leader should have in an emergency and why they are important to have. Pick two of them, and act them out for your den. Describe how each relates to a point of the Scout Law. Describe how working on this adventure gave you a better understanding of the Scout motto, 'Be Prepared.'

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Webelos/AOL Elective Adventure: Earth Rocks!

Complete the following requirements.

1. Do the following:
   1. Explain the meaning of the word 'geology.'
   2. Explain why this kind of science is an important part of your world.
2. Look for different kinds of rocks or minerals while on a rock hunt with your family or your den.
3. Do the following:
   1. Identify the rocks you see on your rock hunt. Use the information in your handbook to determine which types of rocks you have collected.
   2. With a magnifying glass, take a closer look at your collection. Determine any differences between your specimens.
   3. Share what you see with your family or den.
4. Do the following:
   1. With your family or den, make a mineral test kit, and test minerals according to the Mohs scale of mineral hardness.
   2. Record the results in your handbook.
5. Identify on a map of your state some geological features in your area.
6. Do the following:
   1. Identify some of the geological building materials used in building your home.
   2. Identify some of the geological materials used around your community

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Webelos/AOL Elective Adventure: Engineer

Complete Requirements 1 and 2. Requirements 3 and 4 are optional.

1. Pick one type of engineer. With the help of the Internet, your local library, or an engineer, discover three things that describe what that engineer does. (To use the Internet, be sure that you have a current Cyber Chip or that you have permission from your Webelos den leader, parent, or guardian.) Share your findings with your Webelos den.
2. Learn to follow engineering design principles by doing the following:
   1. Examine a set of blueprints or specifications. Using these as a model, prepare your own set of blueprints or specifications to design a project.
   2. Using the blueprints or specifications from your own design, complete your project. Your project may be something useful or something fun.
   3. Share your project with others at a den or pack meeting.
3. Explore other fields of engineering and how they have helped form our past, present, and future.
4. Pick and do two projects using the engineering skills you have learned. Share your projects with your den, and also exhibit them at a pack meeting.

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Webelos/AOL Elective Adventure: Fix It

Complete the following requirements.

1. Put a Fix It Toolbox together. Describe what each item in your toolbox can be used for. Show how to use three of the tools safely.
2. Be ready. With the help of an adult in your family, do the following:
   1. Locate the electrical panel in your home. Determine if the electrical panel has fuses or breakers.
   2. Determine what heat source is used to heat your home.
   3. Learn what you would do to shut off the water for a sink, a toilet, a washing machine, or a water heater. If there is a main shut-off valve for your home, show where it is located.
3. 3. Describe to your Webelos den leader how to fix or make safe the following circumstances with help from an adult:
   1. A toilet is overflowing.
   2. The kitchen sink is clogged.
   3. A circuit breaker tripped, causing some of the lights to go out.
4. 4. Let's Fix It. Select and do eight of the following. You will need an adult's supervision for each of these Fix It projects:
   1. Show how to change a light bulb in a lamp or fixture. Determine the type of light bulb and how to properly dispose of it.
   2. Fix a squeaky door or cabinet hinge.
   3. Tighten a loose handle or knob on a cabinet or a piece of furniture.
   4. Demonstrate how to stop a toilet from running.
   5. Replace a furnace filter.
   6. Wash a car.
   7. Check the oil level and tire pressure in a car.
   8. Show how to replace a bulb in a taillight, turn signal, or parking light, or replace a headlight in a car.
   9. Help an adult change a tire on a car.
   10. Make a repair to a bicycle, such as adjusting or lubricating the chain, inflating the tires, fixing a flat, or adjusting the seat or handlebars.
   11. Replace the wheels on a skateboard, a scooter, or a pair of inline skates.
   12. Help an adult prepare and paint a room.
   13. Help an adult replace or repair a wall or floor tile.
   14. Help an adult install or repair a window or door lock.
   15. Help an adult fix a slow or clogged sink drain.
   16. Help an adult install or repair a mailbox.
   17. Change the battery in a smoke detector or a carbon monoxide detector, and test its operation.
   18. Help an adult fix a leaky faucet.
   19. Find wall studs, and help an adult hang a curtain rod or a picture.
   20. Take an old item, such as a small piece of furniture, a broken toy, or a picture frame, and rebuild and/or refinish it. Show your work to your Webelos leader or another adult.
   21. Do a Fix It project agreed upon with your parent or guardian.

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Webelos/AOL Elective Adventure: Game Design

Complete the following requirements.

1. Decide on the elements for a game.
2. List at least five of the online safety rules that you put into practice while using the Internet on your computer or smartphone. Skip this if your Cyber Chip is current.
3. Create your game.
4. Teach an adult or another Scout how to play your game.

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Webelos/AOL Elective Adventure: Into the Wild

Complete at least six of the following requirements.

1. Collect and care for an 'insect, amphibian, or reptile zoo.' You might have crickets, ants, grasshoppers, a lizard, or a toad (but be careful not to collect or move endangered species protected by federal or state law). Study them for a while and then let them go. Share your experience with your Webelos den.
2. Set up an aquarium or terrarium. Keep it for at least a month. Share your experience with your Webelos den by showing them photos or drawings of your project or by having them visit to see your project.
3. Watch for birds in your yard, neighborhood, or area for one week. Identify the birds you see, and write down where and when you saw them.
4. Learn about the bird flyways closest to your home. Find out which birds use these flyways.
5. Watch at least four wild creatures (reptiles, amphibians, arachnids, fish, insects, or mammals) in the wild. Describe the kind of place (forest, field, marsh, yard, or park) where you saw them. Tell what they were doing.
6. Identify an insect, reptile, bird, or other wild animal that is found only in your area of the country. Tell why it survives in your area.
7. Give examples of at least two of the following:
   1. A producer, a consumer, and a decomposer in the food chain of an ecosystem
   2. One way humans have changed the balance of nature
   3. How you can help protect the balance of nature
8. Learn about aquatic ecosystems and wetlands in your area. Talk with your Webelos den leader or family about the important role aquatic ecosystems and wetlands play in supporting life cycles of wildlife and humans, and list three ways you can help.
9. Do ONE of the following:
   1. Visit a museum of natural history, a nature center, or a zoo with your family, Webelos den, or pack. Tell what you saw.
   2. Create a video of a wild creature doing something interesting, and share it with your family and den.

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Webelos/AOL Elective Adventure: Into the Woods

Complete Requirements 1-4 and one other.

1. Identify two different groups of trees and the parts of a tree.
2. Identify four trees common to the area where you live. Tell whether they are native to your area. Tell how both wildlife and humans use them.
3. Identify four plants common to the area where you live. Tell which animals use them and for what purpose.
4. Develop a plan to care for and then plant at least one plant or tree, either indoors in a pot or outdoors. Tell how this plant or tree helps the environment in which it is planted and what the plant or tree will be used for.
5. Make a list of items in your home that are made from wood and share it with your den. Or with your den, take a walk and identify useful things made from wood.
6. Explain how the growth rings of a tree trunk tell its life story. Describe different types of tree bark and explain what the bark does for the tree.
7. Visit a nature center, nursery, tree farm, or park, and speak with someone knowledgeable about trees and plants that are native to your area. Explain how plants and trees are important to our ecosystem and how they improve our environment.

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Webelos/AOL Elective Adventure: Looking Back, Looking Forward

Complete the following requirements.

1. Create a record of the history of Scouting and your place in that history.
2. With the help of your den leader, parent, or guardian and with your choice of media, go on a virtual journey to the past and create a timeline.
3. Create your own time capsule.

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Webelos/AOL Elective Adventure: Maestro!

Complete the following requirements.

1. Do A or B:
   1. Attend a live musical performance.
   2. Visit a facility that uses a sound mixer, and learn how it is used.
2. Do two of the following:
   1. Make a musical instrument. Play it for your family, den, or pack.
   2. Form a 'band' with your den. Each member creates his own homemade musical instrument. Perform for your pack at a pack meeting.
   3. Play two tunes on any band or orchestra instrument.
   4. Teach your den the words and melody of a song. Perform the song with your den at your den or pack meeting.
   5. Create original words for a song. Perform it at your den or pack meeting.
   6. Collaborate with your den to compose a den theme song. Perform it at your pack meeting.
   7. Write a song with words and music that expresses your feelings about an issue, a person, something you are learning, a point of the Scout Law, etc. Perform it at your den or pack meeting, alone or with a group.
   8. Perform a musical number by yourself or with your Webelos den in front of an audience.

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Webelos/AOL Elective Adventure: Moviemaking

Complete the following requirements.

1. Write a story outline describing a real or imaginary Scouting adventure. Create a pictured storyboard that shows your story.
2. Create either an animated or live-action movie about yourself. Your movie should depict how you live by the Scout Oath and Scout Law.
3. Share your movie with your family, den, or pack.

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Webelos/AOL Elective Adventure: Project Family

Complete the following requirements.

1. Interview a grandparent, another family elder, or a family friend about what life was like when he or she was growing up.
2. With members of your family or a family friend, discuss some of your family names, history, traditions, and culture. Do one of the following:
   1. Create a family tree of three generations.
   2. Make a poster or webpage that shows the places that some of your family members came from.
   3. Choose a special celebration or holiday that some of your family members participate in, and create either a poster, picture, or photo slideshow of it.
3. Show your understanding of your duty to family by creating a chart listing the jobs that you and other family members have at home. Choose three of the jobs you are responsible for, and chart them for two weeks.
4. Select a job that belongs to another family member, and help that person complete it. Some examples would be to create a grocery shopping list for the week, to take out trash for a week, to do the laundry for your family one time, to prepare meals for your family for one day, or to complete some yard work.
5. With the help of an adult, inspect your home and its surroundings. Make a list of hazards or security problems you find. Correct one problem you found, and tell what you did.
6. Complete one of the following:
   1. Hold a family meeting to plan an exciting family activity. The activity could include:
      • A family reunion
      • A family night
      • A family outing
   2. Create a list of community service or conservation projects that you and your family can do together, and present it to your family. Select one project, plan it, and complete it with members of your family.

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Webelos/AOL Elective Adventure: Sports

Complete the following requirements.

1. Show the signals used by officials in one of these sports: football, basketball, baseball, soccer, or hockey.
2. Participate in two sports, either as an individual or part of a team.
3. Complete the following requirements:
   1. Explain what good sportsmanship means.
   2. Role-play a situation that demonstrates good sportsmanship.
   3. Give an example of a time when you experienced or saw someone showing good sportsmanship.

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Protect Yourself Rules

Webelos Requirements

Complete each of the following:

1. Watch the 'Protect Yourself' video lessons for this adventure.
2. Know the six Protect Yourself Rules.
3. Describe what cyberbullying is and identify things you should never tell about yourself to others when online.
4. Describe three ways to get out of a situation with someone who is making you feel unsafe.
5. List five safe adults you could tell if someone has made you feel unsafe.

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Arrow of Light Requirements

Complete each of the following:

1. Watch the 'Protect Yourself' video lessons for this adventure.
2. Know the six Protect Yourself Rules.
3. Describe what cyberbullying is and identify things you should never tell about yourself to others when online.
4. Explain what you would do if you or a friend felt unsafe at home.
5. List five safe adults you could tell if someone has made you feel unsafe.
6. Name two of Scouting's Barriers to Abuse that adults are to follow.

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Yo-Yo

Webelos Requirements

Complete each of the following:

1. Learn the safety rules of using a yo-yo and follow them at all times.
2. Using a real yo-yo string, a regular string, or a piece of yarn, show how to find the proper yo-yo string length for you.
3. Explain why it is important to have the correct string length and to be in the right location before throwing a yo-yo.
4. Demonstrate how to properly string a yo-yo and how to create a slip knot.
5. In an area where there are no hazards or other people, conduct the pendulum experiment with a yo-yo. Explain what happens to the yo-yo when the string is longer.
6. Show that you can properly wind a yo-yo.
7. Demonstrate one of the following:
   1. Gravity pull
   2. Sleeper
   3. Breakaway

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Arrow of Light Requirements

Complete each of the following:

1. Learn the safety rules of using a yo-yo and follow them at all times.
2. Using a real yo-yo string, a regular string, or a piece of yarn, show how to find the proper yo-yo string length for you.
3. Explain why it is important to have the correct string length and to be in the right location before throwing a yo-yo.
4. Demonstrate how to properly string a yo-yo and how to create a slip knot.
5. In an area where there are no hazards or other people, conduct the pendulum experiment with a yo-yo. Explain what happens to the yo-yo when the string is longer.
6. Show that you can properly wind a yo-yo.
7. Demonstrate TWO of the following:
   1. Gravity pull
   2. Sleeper
   3. Breakaway
   4. Elevator

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