Geocaching and BSA merit badge popularity.

[JohnX]

I ran across an article about Boy Scout merit badge popularity. It has a short mention about the geocaching badge. This is a quote from the article:

 

"Newcomers Chess, Kayaking, Geocaching, and Robotics were all in the top 50, despite the fact that each is only a few years old."

 

The article can be found in it's entirety here: http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2013/04/22/mbs-2012/

[+K13]

The popularity of that one is tied directly to it being one that is easily taught at Summer Camps by anyone on Camp Staff.

 

Last summer, I came to the aid of the two staffers who were teaching the class by just reading the merit badge book. I helped out by teaching the class for the last three days of camp. It was fun for me to teach the class, and the staffers learned practical Geocaching from a geocacher in addition to the information in the merit badge book.

[+cejs]

My son (the C of cejs) just crossed over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts so we're still figuring out process for stuff, but my wife nominated me to be a badge counselor for the geocaching badge. I looked at the requirements, looks pretty straight forward, but I'd be interested in some tip and tricks to teaching this badge.

[+fishgeek]

Three things: 1. Have one experienced geocacher on hand for each three or four Scouts in the class when they go out looking for caches. Have them bring along different types of containers and trackables to show the Scouts. 2. Have at least one GPS (pre-loaded with geocaches) for each two boys. Make sure that the experienced cachers know how to use those GPS's. 3. Try to hold the class at a park or other location where the Scouts can go out and find official geocaches. (I have assisted twice at the local Scout Camp where the Scouts found temporary caches. They were all great hides, but I think that it would have been nice for them to get real smileys for their finds.) You may not have a choice.

 

A group with two adult cachers, 5-8 Scouts and 3-4 GPS's for the Scouts seemed to work well when we went out looking for caches. Have the Scouts stand away from the cache once they have found it to give everyone a chance.

 

Feel free to message me if you have any more questions.

 

My son (the C of cejs) just crossed over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts so we're still figuring out process for stuff, but my wife nominated me to be a badge counselor for the geocaching badge. I looked at the requirements, looks pretty straight forward, but I'd be interested in some tip and tricks to teaching this badge.

[+CdAGeoGeeks]

We did caching bikes rides and hiking. More than once prior to a meeting I (as the leader) would place ingredients around the campsite or city, depending where we were. I marked coordinates and wrote them out on papers. When the kids were camping, they had to split up into groups and find the ingredients for dessert. When we did it in the city for a meeting, they rode bikes and found toppings and ingredients for ice cream sundaes (the ice cream stayed with me).

 

They got familiar with working in small groups, reading the gps and then deciding whether to eat what they found immediately or wait until all the groups returned for a greater combined reward.

 

Sweets almost always encourage cooperation and learning. Those were fun events.

[+CdAGeoGeeks]

Also, we had one Troop account for logging troop caching trips. All of the youth set up caches using this account, and it prevented minors from getting emails. It allowed the parents to control what was sent back and forth, and the kids set up their own accounts when they got older if they wanted to. We started caching with Scouts back in 2007.

Edited May 5, 2013 by CdAGeoGeeks