How to obtain an astronomy merit badge - 1940

On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 10:03:03 -0400, Larry Brown
wrote:

How times have changed! I dug out my Dad's old scout book. Here are the
requirements for obtaining a boy scout merit badge in 1940:

To obtain a Merit Badge for Astronomy, a Scout must:
snip

It would be interesting to see a comparison with the requirements today.


--
Tom Hise - NCØO
N42° 06' 41" - W91° 52' 59"

On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 09:28:15 -0500, Tom Hise wrote:

It would be interesting to see a comparison with the requirements today.

http://www.meritbadge.com/mb/022.htm

While in principle a Scout would have about the same knowledge after
earning the current badge or the one in 1940, there is a very clear
shift away from research and study towards observation, which I don't
think is a good thing. My guess is that most people earning the older
badge developed a better understanding of astronomy. There is a rigor to
many of the older requirements that has been softened in the new ones.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

Larry Brown:
How times have changed! I dug out my Dad's old scout book. Here are the
requirements for obtaining a boy scout merit badge in 1940...

Both impressive and admirable.

It's too bad that the BSA gets most of its publicity today for its
anachronistic policies on religion (no Buddhists or other atheists
permitted, e.g.) and exclusion based on the false belief that
homosexuality is immoral. I agree with those courts that have ruled
that, as a private organization, the BSA has the right to discriminate
as it chooses. But I can't support the BSA, and I can't abide my tax
dollars supporting or subsidizing it, either.

Davoud

--
usenet *at* davidillig dawt com

Be careful or you might inject religion and politics (what, no Macs?) into
this thread. We wouldn't want that now, would we.

Ed T.

Larry Brown wrote:

How times have changed!

The existence of at least one urban legend "oh the tests were so
much harder in the past",

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.htm

the lack of a specific reference to the book (name, publishing date,
page numbers, etc) and the general tone (especially the last paragraph)

In meeting the requirements, do more than merely follow the
requirements
technically. Show that you have a real knowledge of the subject. As
you
know, this knowledge should be practical rather than just
"book-learning", and a Scout is ready at any examination to answer
questions on previous tests given to him.

are enough for me to question the authenticity of your tale.

These are matters you can easily rectify though.

Tom Hise wrote:

It would be interesting to see a comparison with the requirements
today.

First, we need to know that the claim made 1940 is in fact true.
Assuming it is, then a few seconds at google pulls up:

http://www.usscouts.org/mb/framesindex.html

Click on "Astronomy" for the current "requirements".

A more useful question is: should we care?

I earned my Astronomy merit badge during the 1980s. It was my hobby back
then and I would eventually start working in a planetarium, but at the time
the requirements struck me as being kind of tough. The "toughest"
requirement for me then (remember, I was only about 13 or so at the time)
was determining your latitude. This is easy to do with the North Star, but
not as easy when you're trying to determine it from the Sun.

The BSA does change requirements of merit badges as time marches on. If
they didn't, nobody would work on them. For example, the Aviation badge
used to require you to build and fly a model airplane ("You may use a kit
but must carve the propeller yourself."). When I earned the Computers
badge, it pictured a reel of magnetic tape and a punched card.

Some badges have even been dropped over the years and new ones added.

I wonder what the requirements for Space Exploration are like today? They
must stay up nights having to rewrite the requirements on that one.

Check www.meritbadge.com (another great invention in and of itself) for the
Space Ex requirements. Its a fun badge to
teach (but frustrating for the Scouts when their rockets get lost in the
trees as they sometimes do no matter how big a field you use!).

"Matt J. McCullar" wrote in message
. ..
I earned my Astronomy merit badge during the 1980s. It was my hobby back
then and I would eventually start working in a planetarium, but at the
time
the requirements struck me as being kind of tough. The "toughest"
requirement for me then (remember, I was only about 13 or so at the time)
was determining your latitude. This is easy to do with the North Star,
but
not as easy when you're trying to determine it from the Sun.

The BSA does change requirements of merit badges as time marches on. If
they didn't, nobody would work on them. For example, the Aviation badge
used to require you to build and fly a model airplane ("You may use a kit
but must carve the propeller yourself."). When I earned the Computers
badge, it pictured a reel of magnetic tape and a punched card.

Some badges have even been dropped over the years and new ones added.

I wonder what the requirements for Space Exploration are like today? They
must stay up nights having to rewrite the requirements on that one.

I did fine on the questions - until the one about all the different
kinds of time. Did everyone else get that one? I could answer most of
it, but what is "apparent" time? And what is "mean" time?

In the mean time, isn't project option "(e)" - making a 4" telescope
mirror, MUCH more difficult than some of those other project options.
(What is a "star clock" anyway?) Personally, I'd go for "(f)" - the
sundial. With an old toilet lid, a Sharpie and some duct tape I could
have a Red Green style sundial ready to go in 15 minutes!

On 26 Apr 2005 19:24:29 -0700, "Jeff" wrote:

I did fine on the questions - until the one about all the different
kinds of time. Did everyone else get that one? I could answer most of
it, but what is "apparent" time? And what is "mean" time?

In the mean time, isn't project option "(e)" - making a 4" telescope
mirror, MUCH more difficult than some of those other project options.
(What is a "star clock" anyway?) Personally, I'd go for "(f)" - the
sundial. With an old toilet lid, a Sharpie and some duct tape I could
have a Red Green style sundial ready to go in 15 minutes!

that was the trick of doing a merit badge. you always had one
requirement, offered as an option that was just plain nutty in time,
money or knowledge

examples:

atomic energy: draw a picture of an atom, develop a cloud chamber, or
build your own working atomic pile

genetics: draw a picture of a double helix, take pictures of a
fissioning cell, make a new chimeric mouse that isn't in the current
mouse annals.


granted, these are made up, but you know the kid is going to do the
easiset one, anyway. i suspect it was about letting the kid know that
there really wasn't an upper limit on what would qualify as an
acceptable badge project. plus it gave the adult that was grading the
work some latitude about acceptability.