Robotics Merit Badge

Recently, I helped teach the Robotics Merit Badge.  In helping, I talked about my experience in the FLL, or First Lego League. In addition, I also showed several young scouts the basics of programming in the Mindstorm language. I showed them a program I had created to count steps on a fit bit. The scouts then went and created their own robots and then I was able to help them program them.  All in all, I'd say it was a very successful merit badge.

NYLT

NYLT, or National Youth Leadership Training, is a youth leadership program for scouts.  In order to become an eagle scout, you need to go through it. It focuses on how to teach, and how to lead.  I was fortunate enough to be able to go at K-M (pronounced: kay bar em) this summer. For more information, you can visit https://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/BoyScouts/Resources/nylt.aspx

At NYLT, I learned a whole bunch. Generally, you want to be calm, so people feel that you're approachable. At one point we, we being the collective camp, got in trouble because some unnamed, found out person decided to draw some vulgar images on the brand new bathrooms. Elliot, the lead scout person there, when the head leader Kim announced the bathroom scenario, stood there with his arms crossed. He later used that as a teaching moment to say that he wasn't really angry, more just disappointed.  So body language and vocal pitch play a part of how much of a leader you are,  because if you're acting as if your best friend just kicked your new puppy, then people aren't going to want to tell you about problems,  which in  turn means that you might not know about it until the whole machine stops because of that.

Paper Making

Archaeological evidence of papermaking predates the traditional attribution given to Cai Lun, an imperial eunuch official of the Han dynasty (202 BC-AD 220), thus the exact date or inventor of paper can not be deduced. Paper also plays a large pert in society, from reducing to eliminating hacking attacks. Because trees take so long to grow, their planted in segments, and their maintained until its their turn to be harvested, normally every 10-20 years or so. Actually, paper is surprisingly easy to make. To make it, You'll need

• blender or egg beater
• mixing bowl
• flat dish or pan (9"x13" or a little larger than the screen)
• round jar or rolling pin
• newsprint, scrap paper or wrapping paper
• piece of non-rusting screen (about 12" x 8" or the size of paper you want to make)
• 4 pieces of cloth or felt to use as blotting paper (same size as screen)
• 10 pieces of newspaper for blotting
• 2 cups of hot water
• 2 teaspoons of instant starch (optional)

That's all the ingredients you need, but to turn that into paper, here's what you'll do:

1. Tear the newspaper, scrap paper, or wrapping paper into very small bits. Add 2 cups of hot water to ½ cup of shredded paper.
2. Beat the paper and water in the blender, or with the egg beater, to make pulp. Mix in the starch (optional). Completed pulp should be the consistency of split pea soup.
3. Pour the pulp into the flat pan.
4. Slide the screen into the bottom of the pan and move it around until it is evenly covered with pulp.
5. Lift the screen out of the pan carefully. Hold it level and let it drain for a minute.
6. Put the screen, pulp-side up, on a blotter that is placed on top of newspaper. Put another blotter over the pulp, and more newspaper over that.
7. Roll a jar or rolling pin over the "sandwich" of blotter paper to squeeze out the rest of the water.
8. Take off the top newspaper. Flip the blotter and the screen very carefully. Do not move the pulp, it will take at least 12 to 24 hours to dry depending on how thick and wet the paper is. Wow!! There is your own hand-made paper! (If you have leftover pulp, don't pour it down the drain--you might clog things up. Put it in the trash.)
9. Try this again and use some decorative elements such as colored thread, glitter, dried flowers and leaves to add some flair. Now you can make cards or note paper out of your newly created paper.

Granted, it might not look as nice as store bought paper, but it's still really nice for making parchment looking documents. I actually made a scroll out of one, wrote a message on it, sealed it by meeting a crayon onto it and used a signet ring I had 3D printed on the molten wax. Needless to say, he was confused. 

And this above image is a great example of what you can do with paper, so let your imagination run wild.

Tree Decorating

Hometown Troops - Tree Decorating Volunteering

Different organizations put up trees at the local nursing home. This one is Hometown troops!

Lighting the tree

First ornaments

The whole group

Finished Product with our "care packages" below! 

Hometown troops - Volunteer

November 10th - Care packages

Gum Drive - I was asked to collect packages of gum to
go into care packages.  Overall, I collected over 300 packs of gum!

Some of the completed bags stuffed with candy, chap stick and everything some one might need :) 

Me, helping to load the bags.

Taking a doughnut break. Those big boxes in the back... we will fill over 50 of them with donations... including mini Christmas Trees and hats.. 

Pet Care!

Started: Oct 1, 2012
Will complete: January 31, 2013

2 Springs ago

I started raising chickens two years ago.  I think that is why this Merit Badge is taking FOREVER! The requirements are easy for what you write up. All you really do is explain how you take care of the animal BUT you have to track your care taking for 4 months! UGH!!!! So the paper work is done and other then the daily checks I put into the chore chart... I am done... plus I thought you wouldn't mind some pictures of some Chicks :)

This years chicks 3/12

In the basement til feathered 

Coin Collecting Merit Badge

Started: 10/15/12
Completed: 11/1/12


This was interesting. I got to go to a coin shop and ask all sorts of questions. My Mom gave me her coin collection which made the badge pretty easy. You had to collect 50 coins from 10 different countries as one possible requirement.  This sounded harder then it was. Most coin shops sell foreign coins in bulk by the pound I already had a good start from my Mom's coins it didn't take much. It was fun looking at where the coins came from. If you need help the US Mint has tons of information on the US Mint Site.