Energy Merit Badge

Energy
Merit badge requirements
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  1. Demonstrate the flow of heat energy. Use your demonstration to explain in your own words the ideas of heat, temperature, kinetic energy, calorie, and the laws of thermodynamics.

  2. Give an example of each of the following forms of energy: heat, light, mechanical, electrical, chemical, atomic. Prepare a table showing devices for each form of energy that will convert it into another form of energy. Describe the idea of tradeoffs in energy use.

  3. Make a color chart showing the world's known and estimated energy resourses. Explain how long each is expected to last based on today's best estimates. Tell where you got the information.

  4. Do the following

    1. Prepare charts showing:

      • What energy sources supply the United States with its energy

      • What portion of our energy is used by homes, business, industry, and transportation.

      • What fuels are used to generate America's electricity

    2. Tell what is being done to make any three of the following produce more energy. Include cost, pollution, and safety problems in your explanation.

      • Nuclear fission generators

      • Nuclear fusion generators

      • The sun

      • The wind

      • Geothermal

      • The oceans

    3. Tell how our lives in the United States might be affected if energy supplies could not meet our present demands.

  5. Show and explain to your counselor two articles from a current newspaper or magazine about the use or conservation of energy. Tell why these articles are important to the United States and why they are important to you.

  6. Conduct an energy audit of your home. Prepare a written report in two parts:

    1. Describe the ways that your family can use energy more wisely.

    2. Keep a record of what you have done to save energy for a 2-week period.

  7. Find out about and describe in a notebook 10 different examples of energy waste going on in your town. Suggest in each case possible ways to reduce this waste. Find out and write in your notebook five examples you have observed of pollution from energy use. Suggest in each case how this pollution might be reduced.

  8. Give a talk titled "Energy: Why We Need It and How We Can Use It Better." Use all of the material you have prepared in requirements 1 through 7. Choose as your audience your counselor, a den of Cub Scouts, or another group approved by your counselor.

Merit badge requirements courtesy of Troop 586 Farmington