Weather Merit Badge

[Ceci_Minow 10]

hey, does anyone here have a merit badge lesson plan for weather, or any ideas as to how to make it interesting? I'm supposed to be a merit badge counselor at summer camp this year and don't know how to teach it without just giving a talk bout it.

[packsaddle 753]

Welcome to the forum. There is a resource on the internet at the url:

http://www.meritbadge.com/files/mb-docs/Weather.doc

I view this resource as a great place to begin for the boys and the counselors. But the merit badge pamphlet is just as good. Plus you can carry it around camp with you. Plus it contains more information. And although the worksheet on the internet provides all the appropriate blanks, it is up to the counselor to make sure the boys understand and complete the requirements. One way to make this more interesting is to reproduce the water cycle for them. You can do this using a pot of boiling water and a cool condensing surface (bottom of another pot with cool water or ice in it) that allows the condensed steam to 'rain' onto a container of soil. Then they experiment on ways to 'pollute' the steam that you are condensing. Spray some seltzer (carbonic acid) or some vinegar (acetic acid) into the steam to create acid rain. Or blow some dust into it, believe me they'll think of some odd options.

Making the vane, anemometer, etc., should be fun and fairly easy. If you have a powerful vacuum cleaner that has a 'blow' end, you can chisel an ice cube sort of spherical and show them formation of hail in reverse, suspending it in the blown air (the same way you've seen ping pong balls suspended above blowers) and watching it melt in mid-air. If you have access to shaved ice you can use this (packing it into various sized 'hail stones') to experiment on how big hail can get with that velocity of flow.

[Ceci_Minow 10]

hey, thanks for the ideas. The site causes a thing to pop up, asking for my network password for http://www.meritbadge.com/files/mb-docs/Weather.doc

I'll probably use those ideas though

[packsaddle 753]

OK, either try manually typing in the URL...or...start just with www.meritbadge.com and then work your way to the proper location. The system we're in right now sometimes gimps the links, or seems to.

[Ceci_Minow 10]

hey, thanks, i'm also going to be teaching the nature merit badge, if you have any ideas on how to make that one more interesting, I already got the thing from meritbadge.com

[packsaddle 753]

Yeah, the nature stuff. Before I refresh my memory on those requirements, I'll mention that this badge can always be livened by including non-required information on stuff that is 'gross', having to do with eating (who eats whom), reproduction (have to be a bit careful), and elimination of waste (a perennial favorite of the scouts). Dissection of an owl pellet instructs on many levels, for example. Also mating behaviors, what's really poisonous (please mention that daddy-longlegs are not spiders, not poisonous, have no fangs, etc.). Try not to forget that plants are also organisms and some are really interesting (like the ones that produce animal smell chemicals and attract pollinators just so). This one is really fun. Later

[Ceci_Minow 10]

Thanks, I don't think I'll be able to get any owl pellets in time, but those other ideas sound great!

[Ceci_Minow 10]

hey, the merit badges went great, the scouts had fun, and got them done, thanx for your help.