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Merit Badges

Hiking Merit Badge (one of 3 choices for Eagle Requirements)
 
Requirements:
 
  1. Show that you know first aid for injuries or illnesses that could occur while hiking, including hypothermia, heatstroke, heat exhaustion, frostbite, dehydration, sunburn, sprained ankle, insect stings, tick bites, snakebite, blisters, hyperventilation, and altitude sickness.
  2. Explain and, where possible, show the points of good hiking practices. including the principles of Leave No Trace, hiking safety in the daytime and at night, courtesy to others, choice of footwear, and proper care of feet and footwear.
  3. Explain how hiking is an aerobic activity. Develop a plan for conditioning yourself for 10-mile hikes, and describe how you will increase your fitness for longer hikes.
  4. Make a written plan for a 10-mile hike, including map routes, a clothing and equipment list, and a list of items for a trail lunch.
  5. Take five hikes, each on a different day, and each of at least ten continuous miles. Prepare a hike plan for each hike.*
  6. Take a hike of 20 continuous miles in one day following a hike plan you have prepared.*
  7. After each of the hikes (or during each hike if on one continuous "trek") in requirements 5 and 6, write a short report of your experience. Give dates and descriptions of routes covered, the weather, and interesting things you saw. Share this report with your merit badge counselor.
*The hikes in requirements 5 and 6 can be used in fulfilling Second Class (2a) and First Class (3) rank requirements, but only if Hiking merit badge requirements 1, 2, 3, and 4 have been completed to the satisfaction of your counselor. The hikes of requirements 5 and 6 cannot be used to fulfill requirements of other merit badges.
 
 
 
 
 
Wilderness Survival Merit Badge
 
Requirements:
 
  1. Show that you know first aid for and how to prevent injuries or illnesses likely to occur in backcountry settings, including hypothermia, heat reactions, frostbite, dehydration, blisters, insect stings, tick bites, and snakebites.
  2. From memory list the seven priorities for survival in a backcountry or wilderness location. Explain the importance of each one with your counselor.
  3. Describe ways to avoid panic and maintain a high level of morale when lost, and explain why this is important.
  4. Describe the steps you would take to survive in the following conditions:
    1. Cold and snowy
    2. Wet (forest)
    3. Hot and dry (desert)
    4. Windy (mountains or plains)
    5. Water (ocean, lake, or river)
  5. Put together a personal survival kit and be able to explain how each item in it could be useful.
  6. Using three different methods (other than matches), build and light three fires.
  7. Do the following:
    1. Show five different ways to attract attention when lost.
    2. Demonstrate how to use a signal mirror.
    3. Describe from memory five ground-to- air signals and tell what they mean.
  8. Improvise a natural shelter. For the purpose of this demonstration, use techniques that have little negative impact on the environment. Spend a night in your shelter.
  9. Explain how to protect yourself from insects, reptiles, and bears.
  10. Demonstrate three ways to treat water found in the outdoors to prepare it for drinking.
  11. Show that you know the proper clothing to wear in your area on an overnight in extremely hot weather and in extremely cold weather.
  12. Explain why it usually is not wise to eat edible wild plants or wildlife in a wilderness survival situation.
 
Camping Merit Badge
 
Requirements:
 
 
  1. Show that you know first aid for and how to prevent injuries or illnesses that could occur while camping, including hypothermia, frostbite, heat reactions, dehydration, altitude sickness, insect stings, tick bites, snakebite, blisters, and hyperventilation.
  2. Learn the Leave No Trace principles and the Outdoor Code and explain what they mean. Write a personal plan for implementing these principles on your next outing..
  3. Make a written plan for an overnight trek and show how to get to your camping spot using a topographical map and compass OR a topographical map and a GPS receiver.
  4. Do the following:
    1. Make a duty roster showing how your patrol is organized for an actual overnight campout. List assignments for each member.
    2. Help a Scout patrol or a Webelos Scout unit in your area prepare for an actual campout, including creating the duty roster, menu planning, equipment needs, general planning, and setting up camp.
  5. Do the following:
    1. Prepare a list of clothing you would need for overnight campouts in both warm and cold weather. Explain the term "layering."
    2. Discuss footwear for different kinds of weather and how the right footwear is important for protecting your feet.
    3. Explain the proper care and storage of camping equipment (clothing, footwear, bedding).
    4. List the outdoor essentials necessary for any campout, and explain why each item is needed.
    5. Present yourself to your Scoutmaster with your pack for inspection. Be correctly clothed and equipped for an overnight campout.
  6. Do the following:
    1. Describe the features of four types of tents, when and where they could be used, and how to care for tents. Working with another Scout, pitch a tent.
    2. Discuss the importance of camp sanitation and tell why water treatment is essential. Then demonstrate two ways to treat water.
    3. Describe the factors to be considered in deciding where to pitch your tent.
    4. Tell the difference between internal- and external-frame packs. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each.
    5. Discuss the types of sleeping bags and what kind would be suitable for different conditions. Explain the proper care of your sleeping bag and how to keep it dry. Make a comfortable ground bed.
  7. Prepare for an overnight campout with your patrol by doing the following:
    1. Make a checklist of personal and patrol gear that will be needed.
    2. Pack your own gear and your share of the patrol equipment and food for proper carrying. Show that your pack is right for quickly getting what is needed first, and that it has been assembled properly for comfort, weight, balance, size, and neatness.
  8. Do the following:
    1. Explain the safety procedures for:
      1. Using a propane or butane/propane stove
      2. Using a liquid fuel stove
      3. Proper storage of extra fuel
    2. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different types of lightweight cooking stoves.
    3. Prepare a camp menu. Explain how the menu would differ from a menu for a backpacking or float trip. Give recipes and make a food list for your patrol. Plan two breakfasts, three lunches, and two suppers. Discuss how to protect your food against bad weather, animals, and contamination.
    4. Cook at least one breakfast, one lunch, and one dinner for your patrol from the meals you have planned for requirement 8c. At least one of those meals must be a trail meal requiring the use of a lightweight stove.
  9. Show experience in camping by doing the following:
    1. Camp a total of at least 20 days and 20 nights. Sleep each night under the sky or in a tent you have pitched. The 20 days and 20 nights must be at a designated Scouting activity or event. You may use a week of long-term camp toward this requirement. If the camp provides a tent that has already been pitched, you need not pitch your own tent.
    2. On any of these camping experiences, you must do TWO of the following, only with proper preparation and under qualified supervision:
      1. Hike up a mountain, gaining at least 1,000 vertical feet.
      2. Backpack, snowshoe, or cross-country ski for at least 4 miles.
      3. Take a bike trip of at least 15 miles or at least four hours.
      4. Take a nonmotorized trip on the water of at least four hours or 5 miles.
      5. Plan and carry out an overnight snow camping experience.
      6. Rappel down a rappel route of 30 feet or more.
    3. Perform a conservation project approved by the landowner or land managing agency.
  10. Discuss how the things you did to earn this badge have taught you about personal health and safety, survival, public health, conservation, and good citizenship. In your discussion, tell how Scout spirit and the Scout Oath and Law apply to camping and outdoor ethics.
 
 
Orienteering Merit Badge
 
Requirements:
 
  1. Show that you know first aid for the types of injuries that could occur while orienteering, including cuts, scratches, blisters, snakebite, insect stings, tick bites, heat and cold reactions (sunburn, heatstroke, heat exhaustion, hypothermia), and dehydration. Explain to your counselor why you should be able to identify poisonous plants and poisonous animals that are found in your area.
  2. Explain what orienteering is.
  3. Do the following:
    1. Explain how a compass works. Describe the features of an orienteering compass.
    2. In the field, show how to take a compass bearing and follow it.
  4. Do the following:
    1. Explain how a topographic map shows terrain features. Point out and name five terrain features on a map and in the field.
    2. Point out and name 10 symbols on a topographic map.
    3. Explain the meaning of declination. Tell why you must consider declination when using map and compass together.
    4. Show a topographic map with magnetic north-south lines.
    5. Show how to measure distances using an orienteering compass.
    6. Show how to orient a map using a compass.
  5. Set up a 100-meter pace course. Determine your walking and running pace for 100 meters. Tell why it is important to pace-count.
  6. Do the following:
    1. Identify 20 international control description symbols. Tell the meaning of each symbol.
    2. Show a control description sheet and explain the information provided.
    3. Explain the following terms and tell when you would use them: attack point, collecting feature, aiming off, contouring, reading ahead, handrail, relocation, rough versus fine orienteering.
  7. Do the following:
    1. Take part in three orienteering events. One of these must be a cross-country course.
    2. After each event, write a report with
      1. a copy of the master map and control description sheet ,
      2. a copy of the route you took on the course,
      3. a discussion of how you could improve your time between control points, and
      4. a list of your major weaknesses on this course . Describe what you could do to improve.
  8. Do ONE of the following:
    1. Set up a cross-country course of at least 2,000 meters long with at least five control markers. Prepare the master map and control description sheet.
    2. Set up a score-orienteering course with 12 control points and a time limit of at least 60 minutes. Prepare the master map and control description sheet.
  9. Act as an official during an orienteering even. This may be during the running of the course you set up for requirement 8.
  10. Teach orienteering techniques to your patrol, troop or crew.
Note to the Counselor:
While orienteering is primarily an individual sport, BSA Youth Protection procedures call for using the buddy system. Requirement 7a can be completed by pairs or groups of Scouts.
 

 
Backpacking Merit Badge
 
Requirements:
 
  1. Discuss the prevention of and treatment for the health concerns that could occur while backpacking, including hypothermia, heat reactions, frostbite, dehydration, insect stings, tick bites, snakebite, and blisters.
  2. Do the following:
    1. List 10 items that are essential to be carried on any backpacking trek and explain why each item is necessary.
    2. Describe 10 ways you can limit the weight and bulk to be carried in your pack without jeopardizing your health or safety.
  3. Do the following:
    1. Define limits on the number of backpackers appropriate for a trek crew.
    2. Describe how a trek crew should be organized.
    3. Tell how you would minimize risk on a backpacking trek.
  4. Do the following:
    1. Describe the importance of using Leave No Trace principles while backpacking, and at least five ways you can lessen the crew’s impact on the environment.
    2. Describe proper methods of handling human and other wastes while on a backpacking trek. Describe the importance of and means to assure personal cleanliness while on a backpacking trek.
    3. Tell what factors are important in choosing a campsite.
  5. Do the following:
    1. Demonstrate two ways to treat water and tell why water treatment is essential.
    2. Explain to your counselor the importance of staying well hydrated during a trek.
  6. Do the following:
    1. Demonstrate that you can read topographic maps.
    2. While on a trek, use a map and compass to establish your position on the ground at least three times at three different places, OR use a GPS receiver unit to establish your position on a topographic map and on the ground at least three times at three different places.
    3. Explain how to stay found, and what to do if you get lost.
  7. Tell how to prepare properly for and deal with inclement weather.
  8. Do the following:
    1. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of three different types of backpacking stoves using at least three different types of fuel.
    2. Demonstrate that you know how to operate a backpacking stove safely and to handle liquid fuel safely.
    3. Prepare at least three meals using a stove and fuel you can carry in a backpack.
    4. Demonstrate that you know how to keep cooking and eating gear clean and sanitary , and that you practice proper methods for food storage while on a backpacking trek.
  9. Do the following:
    1. Write a plan for a patrol backpacking hike that includes a schedule.
    2. Show that you know how to properly pack your personal gear and your share of the crew’s gear and food.
    3. Show you can properly shoulder your pack and adjust it for proper wear.
    4. Conduct a prehike inspection of the patrol and its equipment.
    5. While carrying your pack, complete a hike of at least 2 miles.
  10. Using Leave No Trace principles, participate in at least three backpacking treks of at least three days each and at least 15 miles each, and using at least two different campsites on each trek. Carry everything you will need throughout the trek.
  11. Do the following:
    1. Write a plan for a backpacking trek of at least five days using at least three different campsites and covering at least 30 miles. Your plan must include a description of and route to the trek area, a schedule (including a daily schedule), a list of food and equipment needs, a safety and emergency plan, and a budget.
    2. Using Leave No Trace principles, take the trek you have planned and, while on the trek, complete at least one service project approved by your merit badge counselor.
    3. Keep a daily journal during the trek that includes a day-by-day description of your activities, including notes about what worked well and thoughts about improvements that could be made for the next trek.
 
 
 
Cooking Merit Badge
 
Requirements:
  1. Do the following:
  2. Review with your counselor the injuries that might arise from cooking, including burns and scalds, and the proper treatment.
  3. Describe how meat, fish, chicken, eggs, dairy products, and fresh vegetables should be stored, transported, and properly prepared for cooking.
  4. Describe the following food-related illnesses and tell what you can do to help prevent each from happening:
    1. Salmonella enteritis
    2. Staphylococcal enteritis
    3. Escherichia coli enteritis (E. coli)
    4. Botulism
    5. Trichinosis
    6. Hepatitis
  5. Do the following:
  6. Illustrate for your counselor the food pyramid that fits you. Label the following food groups in the pyramid and how much of each you should eat each day.
    1. Grains
    2. Vegetables
    3. Fruits
    4. Milk, yogurt, cheese
    5. Meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, nuts
    6. Oils (fats) and sugars
  7. Explain why you should limit your intake of oils and sugars.
  8. Explain the number of servings recommended per day from each group.
  9.  Give your counselor examples from each food group.
  10.  Describe for your counselor the measurements of servings for each food group.
  11.  Describe to your counselor food preparation techniques that result in more healthful and nutritious meals.
  12. Plan a menu for two straight days (six meals) of camping. Include the following:
  13. A camp dinner with soup; meat, fish, poultry, or an appropriate substitute; two fresh vegetables; drink; and dessert. All are to be properly prepared. When preparing your menu, follow the nutritional guidelines set by the food pyramid.
  14. A one-pot dinner. Use foods other than canned.
  15. Using the menu planned for requirement 3, make a food list showing cost and amount needed to feed three or more boys.
  16. List the utensils needed to cook and serve these meals.
  17. Using the menu planned for requirement 3, do the following and discuss the process with your merit badge counselor:
  18. Prepare and serve for yourself and two others, the two dinners, one lunch, and one breakfast. Time your cooking so that each course will be ready to serve at the proper time.*
  19. For meals prepared in requirement 4a for which a fire is needed, use a lightweight stove or build a low-impact fire. Include support for your cooking utensils from rocks, logs, or like material. The same fireplace may be used for more than one meal. Use a backpacking stove to cook at least one meal. (Where local regulations do not allow you to do this, the counselor may change the requirement to meet the law.)
  20. For each meal prepared in requirement 4a, use safe food-handling practices. Dispose of garbage, cans, foil, paper, and other rubbish by packing them out and depositing them in a proper container. After each meal, clean up the site thoroughly.
  21. Plan a menu for one day (three meals) or for four meals over a two-day period of trail hiking or backpacking. Include the following:
  22. A breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a trail or backpacking trip where light weight is important. You should be able to store all foods used for several days without refrigeration. When preparing your menu, follow the nutritional guidelines set by the food pyramid.
  23. Using the menu planned for requirement 5, make a food list showing cost and amount needed to feed three or more boys.
  24. List the utensils needed to cook and serve these meals.
  25. Figure the weight of the foods in requirement 5a.
  26. Using the menu planned for requirement 5, do the following:
  27. Prepare and serve for yourself and two others, the trail breakfast and dinner. Time your cooking so that each course will be ready to serve at the proper time.*
  28. Use an approved trail stove (with proper supervision) or charcoal to prepare your meals. 
  29. For each meal prepared in requirement 6a, use safe food-handling practices. Dispose of garbage, cans, foil, paper, and other rubbish by packing them out and depositing them in a proper container. After each meal, clean up the site thoroughly.
  30. Plan a menu for three full days of meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) to be cooked at home.
  31. When preparing your menu, follow the nutritional guidelines set by the food pyramid. All meals are to be cooked or properly prepared.
  32. Using the menu planned for requirement 7, make a food list showing cost and amount needed to feed yourself and at least one adult (parent, family member, guardian, or other responsible adult).
  33. Tell what utensils were needed to cook and serve these meals.
  34. Prepare and serve a breakfast, lunch, and dinner from the menu you planned for requirement 7. Time your cooking to have each course ready to serve at the proper time. Have an adult verify the preparation of the meal to your counselor.

  35. Find out about three career  opportunities in cooking.  Pick one and find out the education, training, and experience required for this profession. Discuss this with your counselor, and explain why this profession might interest you.

    *The meals for requirements 4a and 6a  may be prepared for different trips. They need not be prepared consecutively. Scouts working on this badge at summer camp should plan around food they can get at the camp commissary.

Cooking Worksheet