Earning STEM merit badges at local colleges (not Merit Bage Colleges)

[RememberSchiff 3662]

Good articles below.

Imagine instead of  20+ scouts spending an hour in a classroon for three Saturdays at a Merit Badge College Mill, a smaller group of 4 or 5 spends over 12 hours  hands-on (Bee Lab in suits and Monarch lab) to earn a STEM merit badge. The article from University Nebraska-Lincoln stated professors and scouts were working on Entomology merit badge which may have been a hint to rename Insect Study merit badge.  

...

Terry Stentz, associate professor and graduate chair in the Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction, and associate professor in the UNMC College of Public Health, said he knows of many faculty members who are involved with Scouting, and he’s thankful to be able to give back to the organization that set him on his career path. He hopes his work with the Boy Scouts now has a similar effect.

“I would say that my career as an engineer in public health really started when I earned the public health merit badge, which was a required merit badge for Eagle Scout,” Stentz said. “I got the public health merit badge and when I went through the requirements, I thought, ‘wow this is interesting. It’s science with engineering together.’ It came back around full circle later in life.”

https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/scouting-goes-on-with-help-of-nebraska-u-faculty/

With apologies to my Nebraska relatives, I will be Scout and give equal shout out to Oklahoma for a similar program.  

https://news.okstate.edu/articles/agricultural-sciences-natural-resources/2020/gedon_insect-adventure.html

[qwazse 4342]

Is it just me, or does this post seem a little buggy?

[MattR 2659]

Entomologists are all kids at heart. I visited the local ag school's dept. when my son was a cub scout and they were just so into it. They were bragging about how you hadn't been stung until you've been stung by this one insect that had a 5" long stinger and they only knew it existed in this one remote corner of the state that few people ever went (hence why it wasn't extinct). Anyway, if they want to change the name of the MB, it's the kid in them and I'd let them change it to whatever they wanted because it would be a great MB.