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Home > Documents > Newspaper Articles > Scouts come to town Published in Rensselaer Polytechnic on December 2002. Dan Heiman, Special to the PolyAlpha Phi Omega's members returned to our roots of scouting principles on Saturday, November 23 for Scout Engineering Merit Badge Day. APO, a national co-ed service fraternity, ran the six-hour educational event to introduce scouts to careers in engineering and to help them earn their engineering merit badges. APO successfully condensed a program that normally takes about two months into a day-long program. About 40 Boy Scouts from all over New York State attended, and most of them left with not only a badge, but also knowledge of how to apply engineering principles to real-world applications. "Overall, I think it was a very rewarding experience for the scouts to learn about engineering," said one of the scout masters. Upon arrival, scouts were divided into two groups for the day. The morning session of activities consisted of a discussion of different engineering fields with RPI students and alumni. The discussion was meant to be an introduction into the various disciplines of engineering. The second portion of the morning activities was an introductory lesson to electricity. After this lesson the scouts took apart telephones to study their inner workings. The afternoon session consisted of three hands-on activities. Scouts had fun using the Internet to learn about important historical contributions of engineers to society. The scouts were then split into groups of four or five to create catapults made out of popsicle sticks and masking tape to demonstrate the transfer of energy. Upon finishing the catapults, they were tested using Skittles as ammunition. After firing each catapult, the scouts analyzed and discussed the effectiveness of the design used. Lastly, scouts created a "Beakman's" motor to demonstrate how an electric circuit can create a magnetic field. By the end of this session, each scout had successfully created a working motor. Rensselaer's APO chapter began planning for Scout Engineering Merit Badge Day back in October. The event was organized by the eight members of APO's fall semester pledge cass. This is the second consecutive semester that the chapter has run an event of this nature. Last semester, 94 scouts gained their engineering merit badge as a result of Badge Day. APO hopes to continue to have bdage days due to the success of the previous two. The chapter is also planning on having a smiliar event for the girl scouts next semester. |
