Boy Scouts Give Up Entirely, Offer Video Game Badge

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by agzg

That post really has nothing to do with the OP. I wonder if Eagle Scouts can create a video game for their project? That might be really cool, actually, especially if it were educationally-based and could be used to teach reading to little kids or something.

I doubt that would be approved. (Sorry AGDee.) Even if you could work it out as a service project (like for a school), the major compenent of the Eagle project is leadership -- demonstrating leadership skills, both in terms of organization/planning and execution. The idea is really come up with and plan the project and then oversee a group of others in seeing it through to completion. Not sure how that would work with designing a video game.

But it might be worth exploring, especially (I kind of hate to say this) if you're in a district that's a little less strict about the requirements. With some imagination, you might be able to figure out how to make it work.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

I doubt that would be approved. (Sorry AGDee.) Even if you could work it out as a service project (like for a school), the major compenent of the Eagle project is leadership -- demonstrating leadership skills, both in terms of organization/planning and execution. The idea is really come up with and plan the project and then oversee a group of others in seeing it through to completion. Not sure how that would work with designing a video game.

But it might be worth exploring, especially (I kind of hate to say this) if you're in a district that's a little less strict about the requirements. With some imagination, you might be able to figure out how to make it work.

Hmm, interesting. Our district may be a little less strict. I think a lot of kids have done their project completely alone. I'm not certain about that though.

[agzg]

Originally Posted by AGDee

Hmm, interesting. Our district may be a little less strict. I think a lot of kids have done their project completely alone. I'm not certain about that though.

That's a bummer. I asked live-in about it last night and he said it would probably take about 6 months to a year to develop a non-word-based (if that makes sense) game about multiplication. Isn't that about how long they spend on these projects, or am I remembering things completely wrong?

I was thinking of the teaching aspect because I know it has to benefit the community in some way. I feel like I remember that one of the guys in boy scouts with my brother did some sort of cemetary clean-up project for his Eagle Scout thing.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by agzg

That's a bummer. I asked live-in about it last night and he said it would probably take about 6 months to a year to develop a non-word-based (if that makes sense) game about multiplication. Isn't that about how long they spend on these projects, or am I remembering things completely wrong?

He has plenty of time. He's on track to get Life at the next Court of Honor (November) and he's only 14! LOL

My daughter is trying to figure out what to do for her Girl Scout Gold Award too. She has less time since she's already 16.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by agzg

I was thinking of the teaching aspect because I know it has to benefit the community in some way. I feel like I remember that one of the guys in boy scouts with my brother did some sort of cemetary clean-up project for his Eagle Scout thing.

And you're right about that. It is supposed to be a service project. Here is the actual wording of the requirement:

While a Life Scout, plan, develop, and give leadership to others in a service project helpful to any religious institution, any school, or your community. (The project should benefit an organization other than Boy Scouting.) The project plan must be approved by the organization benefiting from the effort, your Scoutmaster and troop committee and the council or district before you start. You must use the http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/512-927.pdf, in meeting this requirement.

So while it is a service project, it is supposed to involve giving leadership to others in carying out that project. Many would say the leadership aspect is the most important part.

[alum]

The Eagle Candidate provides a list to the BOR of the people who he led and how many hours each of them spent on his project. My son led a three-day project. It was supposed to be 4 but they finished the project early. His volunteers logged over 120 hours. His project, like those of most of the boys in his troop, was a construction project of sorts that benefited the community.

The Gold Award expects the project to involve leadership but the Scout only turns in HER hours spent on the project, not her volunteers. The Gold Award used to require 50+ hours of the candidate's time . It may still be the same but my daughter earned her Gold Award in 2003 so who knows. Her project involved training Cadette Scouts in a skill and then they all taught elementary school children the particular skill. With their newly acquired skills, the young ones created items for a children's charity.

Both BSA and GSUSA (at least our councils) frown upon collection projects as valid Eagle/Gold Award projects.

[AGDee]

I am more familiar with the Gold Award requirements at this point because my daughter already attended the workshop so I've seen the packet they gave her. They do still expect 50+ hours of her time to be spent on the project. I suggested that she talk with her principal about the schools' needs. We are undergoing massive budget cuts and I'm sure there is something she can do around the school to improve things. The only problem there may be interfering with the unions. She is also considering doing something with a homeless shelter but she really isn't sure what direction she would go with that.

I guess I see why it seems like all the Boy Scouts do the same thing. Most of them do some project at Historic Fort Wayne or their church and it's usually yard work, gardening, painting or rebuilding something. My son has helped other boys with a lot of theirs. Several of our committee members are on the board of the Fort Wayne Preservation Society so it's a fairly easy project to do something there. I guess I was encouraging innovation and maybe that's not really necessary.

[carnation]

I haven't seen the requirements yet, but so help me--there's an Older Girl Interest Project in Scouting called "Couch Potato".