NASA, Boy Scouts Create Robotics Merit Badge

April 12, 2011—Could you create the next R2-D2? Or how about creating the next Robonaut 2, the robotic assistant helping astronaut crews with chores and repairs on the International Space Station? If you’re a Boy Scout, you can now answer yes to the above questions. In fact, Boy Scouts can now work with NASA and other technology professionals to design, build, and demonstrate a robot to earn the new Robotics merit badge. And who knows what your robot will be able to do? NASA and BSA developed the badge because of the wide-reaching impact of robotics and its role in science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM careers. In fact, the new merit badge is one of 31 STEM-related merit badges. Scouts will have access to engineering software and work with professional mentors worldwide to earn the badge. “Last century, camping was an essential survival skill,” Matt Myers, who oversees the Boy Scouts’ STEM initiative, told National Public Radio. “Sometimes, you might have had to live outside in the 1900s to survive. We view STEM as an essential survival skill in the 21st century. We’re just trying to keep relevant with what kids need to learn.” The badge involved approximately 14 months of development and input from 13 organizations and more than 150 BSA youth members and leaders and industry professionals from across the nation. Ken Berry, who led the effort, told NPR that the badge is a bit overdue given that hundreds of thousands of children and teens already are participating in robotics competitions around the country. “We’re promoting stretching of the mind like athletics promotes stretching of the body,” said Berry, assistant director of the Science and Engineering Education Center at the University of Texas at Dallas. Scouts will spend approximately 14 hours meeting the requirements of the badge, during which they will design a robot and demonstrate how it works. To earn the badge, a scout is required to understand how robots move, sense the environment and understand how to perform an operation. The BSA anticipates more than 10,000 Robotics merit badges will be earned the first year. For a full list of the requirements to earn the badge, click here.

The Boy Scouts of America’s new Robotics merit badge depicts NASA’s Mars rover. Photo credit: Boy Scouts NASA astronaut Cady Coleman, right, and Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli proudly display the newest resident of the International Space Station, the humanoid Robonaut 2 robot, to cameras on March 15, 2011. Credit: NASA TV

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