Engineering


Engineering
BSA Supply No. 33376

Engineers use both science and technology to turn ideas into reality, devising all sorts of things, ranging from a tiny, low-cost battery for your cell phone to a gigantic dam across the mighty Yangtze River in China.

Requirements

  1. Select some manufactured item in your home (such as a toy or an appliance) and, under adult supervision and with the approval of your counselor, investigate how and why it works as it does. Find out what sort of engineering activities were needed to create it. Discuss with your counselor what you learned and how you got the information.
  2. Select an engineering achievement that has had a major impact on society. Use the resources available to you to research it. Tell your counselor about the engineer(s) who made it possible, the special obstacles they had to overcome, and how this achievement has influenced the world today.
  3. Explain the work of six types of engineers. Pick two of the six and explain how their work is related.
  4. Visit with an engineer (who may be your counselor or parent) and do the following:
    1. Discuss the work this engineer does and the tools the engineer uses.
    2. Discuss with the engineer a current project and the engineer's particular role in it.
    3. Find out how the engineer's work is done and how results are achieved.
    4. Ask to see the reports that the engineer writes concerning the project.
    5. Discuss with your counselor what you learned about engineering from this visit.
  5. Do ONE of the following:
    1. Use the engineering-systems approach to make step-by-step plans for your next campout. List alternative ideas for such items as program schedule, campsites, transportation, and costs. Tell why you made the choices you did and what improvements were made.
    2. Make an original design for a piece of patrol equipment. Use the engineering-systems approach to help you decide how it should work and look. Draw plans for it. Show the plans to your counselor, explain why you designed it the way you did, and explain how you would make it.
  6. Do TWO of the following:
    1. Transforming motion. Using common materials or a construction set, make a simple model that will demonstrate transforming motion. How does this make use of basic mechanical concepts like levers and inclined planes? Describe an example where this mechanism is used in a real product.
    2. Using electricity. Make a list of 10 electrical appliances in your home. Find out approximately how much electricity each uses in one month. Learn how to find out the amount and cost of electricity used in your home during periods of light and heavy use. List five ways to conserve electricity.
    3. Using materials. Do experiments to show the differences in strength and heat conductivity in wood, metal, and plastic. Discuss with your counselor what you have learned.
    4. Converting energy. Do an experiment to show how mechanical, heat, chemical, solar, and/or electrical energy may be converted from one or more types of energy to another. Explain your results. Describe to your counselor what energy is and how energy is converted and used in your surroundings.
    5. Moving people. Find out the different ways people in your community get to work. Make a study of traffic flow (number of vehicles and relative speed) in both heavy and light traffic periods. Discuss with your counselor what might be improved to make it easier for people in your community to get where they need to go.
    6. Science fair. Build an engineering project for a science or engineering fair or similar competition, and enter it. (This requirement may be met by participation on an engineering competition project team.) Discuss with your counselor what your project demonstrates and what kind of questions visitors to the fair asked you about it. How well were you able to answer their questions?
  7. Find out what high school courses you need to take to be admitted to an engineering college. Find out what other subjects would be helpful in preparing for an engineering career.
  8. Explain what it means for an engineer to be a registered Professional Engineer (P.E.). In what types of engineering work is registration most important?
  9. Study the Engineer's Code of Ethics. Explain how it is like the Scout Oath and Scout Law.

Resources

Scouting Literature

Architecture, Automotive Maintenance, Chemistry, Composite Materials, Computers, Drafting, Electricity, Electronics, Energy, Model Design and Building, Nuclear Science, Space Exploration, and Surveying merit badge pamphlets

Books

Organizations and Web Sites

American Indian Science and Engineering Society
P.O. Box 9828 Albuquerque, NM 87119-9828
Telephone: 505-765-1052
Web site: http://www.aises.org

American Institute of Chemical Engineers
3 Park Ave.
New York, NY 10016-5991
Toll-free telephone: 800-242-4363
Web site: http://www.aiche.org

American Society of Civil Engineers
1801 Alexander Bell Drive
Reston, VA 20191-4400
Toll-free telephone: 800-548-2723
Web site: http://www.asce.org

ASME International (American Society of Mechanical Engineers)
3 Park Ave.
New York, NY 10016-5990
Toll-free telephone: 800-843-2763
Web site: http://www.asme.org

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
3 Park Ave., 17th Floor
New York, NY 10016-5997
Telephone: 212-419-7900
Web site: http://www.ieee.org

Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109
Telephone: 818-354-4321
Web site: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Junior Engineering Technical Society
1420 King St., Suite 405
Alexandria, VA 22314-2794
Telephone: 703-548-5387
Web site: http://www.jets.org

Kennedy Space Center
Telephone: 321-452-2121
Web site: http://www.ksc.nasa.gov

National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering
440 Hamilton Ave, Suite 302 White Plains, NY 10601-1813
Telephone: 914-539-4010
Web site: http://www.nacme.org

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NASA Headquarters
Washington, DC 20546-0001
Telephone: 202-358-0000
Web site: http://www.nasa.gov

National Society of Black Engineers
1454 Duke St.
Alexandria, VA 22314
Telephone: 703-549-2207
Web site: http://www.nsbe.org

National Society of Professional Engineers
1420 King St.
Alexandria, VA 22314-2794
Telephone: 703-684-2800
Web site: http://www.nspe.org

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Seventh and Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20560
Telephone: 202-357-2700
Web site: http://www.nasm.si.edu

Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers
5400 E. Olympic Blvd., Suite 210
Los Angeles, CA 90022
Telephone: 323-725-3970
Web site: http://www.shpe.org

Society of Manufacturing Engineers
1 SME Drive
P.O. Box 930
Dearborn, MI 48121
Toll-free telephone: 800-733-4763
Web site: http://www.sme.org

Society of Petroleum Engineers
P.O. Box 833836
Richardson, TX 75083-3836
Toll-free telephone: 800-456-6863
Web site: http://www.spe.org


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