Scouts BSA

American Heritage 

Every Scout swears an oath that includes duty to his country. A better understanding of American heritage, the ways in which the past has led to our present nation, and how we can move forward is key to truly knowing what it means to be an American. 

Chemistry

The Chemistry merit badge explores how substances react with each other, how they change, how certain forces connect molecules, and how molecules are made are all parts of chemistry. Stretch your imagination to envision molecules that cannot be seen—but can be proven to exist—and you become a chemist. Scouts will be performing several experiments to study the laws of nature and the physics of everyday objects and chemicals.

Citizenship in the Community

A nation is a patchwork of communities that differ from each other and may be governed differently. But regardless of how local communities differ, they all have one point in common: In the United States, local government means self-government. Scouts will learn how they can make a difference in their community by contacting their own officials.

Citizenship in the Nation

As Scouts fulfill the requirements for this merit badge, they will learn how to become active citizens who are aware of and grateful for their liberties and rights, to participate in their governments and protect their freedom, helping to develop their country and standing up for individual rights on behalf of all its citizens.

Citizenship in the World

Scouts learn about the rights, duties, and responsibilities of citizens in different countries, how governments function around the world, and the role of international organizations like the United Nations. Though the world is big, scouts can hold the knowledge of current events to impact the world. This badge builds understanding about the world beyond our own country.

Communication

Communication focuses on how people use messages to generate meanings within and across various contexts, cultures, channels, and media. The field of communication promotes the effective and ethical practice of human communication. Scouts will be learning how to write a speech, learning how to persuade, how to interview, and much more to make communication in later life much easier.

Cooking

The Cooking merit badge introduces principles of cooking that can be used both at home and outdoors. Scouts who earn this badge will learn about food safety, nutritional guidelines, meal planning, and methods of food preparation, and will review the variety of culinary (or cooking) careers available. Scouts will be learning about important food/kitchen safety in the University of Houston’s industrial kitchen in the Cameron building.

Crime Prevention 

Preventing crime, which can be as simple as reducing the opportunities for crime to occur, is far less costly than apprehension and bringing legal action against those who break the law. This course helps equip Scouts with the tools to protect the public from the anguish of being victims. 

Dentistry

Teeth do a lot more than just peek out from under that winning smile. They have all sorts of duties, and having healthy teeth will help a person to eat, speak, and look great. Scouts will be meeting a special guest to learn how to make dental stone of their teeth and how teeth do much more than tear food apart.

Emergency Preparedness

Scouts are often called upon to help because they know first aid, and they know about the discipline and planning needed to react in an emergency. Earning this merit badge helps a Scout to be prepared by learning the actions that can be helpful and needed before, during, and after an emergency. Scouts will be performing a large-scale triage simulation to test their prioritization, first aid skills, and ability to prepare with limited resources.

Entrepreneurship 

By earning the Entrepreneurship merit badge, Scouts will learn about identifying opportunities, creating and evaluating business ideas, and exploring the feasibility (how doable it is) of an idea for a new business. They will also have the chance to fit everything together as they start and run their own business ventures. 

Environmental Science

While earning the Environmental Science merit badge, Scouts will get a taste of what it is like to be an environmental scientist, making observations and carrying out experiments to investigate the natural world. Scouts will be studying the interaction of plant, insect, animal, and human actions in an outdoor setting, and observing natural change over 2 days.

Family Life 

The family is the basic unit of society and is important to both individuals and communities. The world is rapidly changing, making today’s society much more complex than ever before. As Scouts earn this merit badge, they will understand the importance of awareness about family life and how to strengthen their families. 

Fingerprinting

Scouts will learn about and use an important technique that is used by law enforcement officers, along with other materials like matching dental records and DNA sampling, to help identify amnesia victims, missing persons, abducted children, and others. They will also learn the important functions of the skin physiologically.

First Aid

Caring for injured or ill persons until they can receive professional medical care is an important skill for every Scout. With some knowledge of first aid, a Scout can provide immediate care and help to someone who is hurt or who becomes ill. First aid can help prevent infection and serious loss of blood. It could even save a limb or a life. Scouts will be making a first aid kit to take home and learning how to bandage, splint, do CPR, and much more to master the skills needed for proficient first aid.

Geocaching 

The word geocache is a combination of “geo,” which means “earth,” and “cache,” which means “a hiding place.” Geocaching allows participants to find hiding places in their community and around the globe with the help of a GPS unit. In this merit badge, Scouts will get to make and hide their own geocaches while going on a guided hunt around the Museum District. 

Golf  

This course is an exclusive offering for up to 8 Scouts, ages 12 and above. In golf, every player must be chivalrous to another, while employing various techniques such as driving and putting to advance. In this course, Scouts will learn the history of golf and proper stroke technique, with guided instruction at the driving range, concluding their day at Hermann Park Golf Course to practice their new skills. 

Healthcare Professions

Explore the different types of healthcare fields and professions with the Health Care Professions Merit Badge. Scouts will learn how professionals in different health care fields work together to keep people healthy. Scouts will also be learning the essential skills of some of these professionals, including starting an IV line, suturing, intubation, and more.

Music 

The history of music is rich and exciting. Through the ages, new music has been created by people who learned from tradition, explored new ideas, and made innovations. Yet, there is still great music to write. Today, the possibilities for creating new music are limitless, and Scouts will delve into their creative side in this badge. 

Personal Fitness

Personal fitness is an individual effort and a desire to be the best one can be. Regardless of their current levels of personal fitness, in the twelve weeks it will take Scouts to complete the athletic requirements for this merit badge, they will be in better shape, feel better about themselves, have more energy, and gain self-confidence in their overall abilities. Scouts will make their training schedule and begin their first training session at Hermann Park.

Personal Management 

Personal management is about mapping a plan for your life through activities such as setting short-range and long-range goals and investigating different ways to reach those goals. Education, training, and experience all help make your goals become a reality. To achieve your goals, you will take a planned path and make a commitment to it, while remaining flexible enough to deal with changes and new opportunities. 

Public Health

The field of public health deals with maintaining and monitoring the health of communities, and with the detection, cure, and prevention of health risks and diseases. Although public health is generally seen as a community-oriented service, it starts with the individual. From a single individual to the family unit to the smallest isolated rural town to the worldwide global community, one person can influence the health of many.

Robotics 

Build your own working robot with the Robotics Merit Badge! Engineering and arts collide in this merit badge offering. Learn about the robotics industry, discover the different fields of robotics, and design, build, program, and test your own robot. 

Safety

Knowing about safety helps Scouts to make the right choices and to take the best actions to avoid accidents by making informed choices in their everyday activities and to respond appropriately during an emergency. Any place, even the home, can have incidents. Scouts learn how to keep their homes and families safe and educate the community about safety for their safety project. Scouts will be meeting a special guest with extensive experience in home safety.

Sustainability

Reduce waste and teach sustainable practices to others so you can help conserve Earth’s resources with the Sustainability Merit Badge. Scouts will develop and implement a plan to reduce their water usage and household food waste, and learn about the sustainability of different energy sources, including fossil fuels, solar, wind, nuclear, hydropower, and geothermal.

Traffic Safety 

Staying safe in traffic wherever you live is getting more difficult all the time, as more and more people take to the road. Earning the Traffic Safety merit badge will give Scouts some crucial tools to stay safer when driving a car on a highway, riding a bike across town, or jogging across a busy street. 

Weather 

Meteorology is the study of Earth’s atmosphere, its weather, and how temperature, wind, and moisture act together in the environment. In addition to learning how everyday weather is predicted, Scouts can learn about extreme weather such as thunderstorms, tornadoes, and hurricanes, and how to stay safe. 

Registration & Attendance    

• Merit Badge Classes require a minimum of 10 scouts and a maximum of 20 scouts.
• Online pre-registration is required.
• A Scout must get approval from their Assistant Scoutmaster (ASM) and bring the blue card with them to class.

Conduct & Class Expectations

Requirements can be withheld from a scout due to the following:

• Disruptive behavior
• Non-participation
• Incomplete requirements
• Use of a cellphone or AirPods during class
• Scouts must be present for the entire class to receive a signed blue card

What’s Included

• Registration for Scout includes a tour of The Health Museum.  All additional adults and children will need to pay regular admission to tour the museum.
• The program fee includes a trained Scouts Program Educator, all workshop materials, free admission for the scout to tour the museum on the day of class, and Free Parking. Workshop fees do not include badges.

Food & Drink

• Scouts should bring a refillable water bottle.
• Scouts are expected to bring their own lunch/snack. Lunch is NOT provided.

Dress & Identification

• Class A or Class B uniforms are required, with the exception of Personal Fitness. 

Scout Communications & MB Requirements

• Any requirements that need to be emailed to the merit badge counselor should have a parent cc’d in accordance with Safeguarding Youth Training (SYT) guidelines.
• For requirements fulfilled before the date of the merit badge class, the student and parent/guardian should provide proof of completion. Approval of the requirement will be at the discretion of the merit badge counselor.
• Please refer to the website for any prerequisites and post-requisites.

Cancellations & Refunds

• Cancellations made at least 14 days in advance are eligible for a full refund.
• No refunds for cancellations less than 14 days before the program.
• The museum reserves the right to cancel or reschedule programs due to low enrollment or unforeseen circumstances.

Do I need to bring a blue card for my scout?

Yes! A Scout must get approval from their Assistant Scoutmaster (ASM) or Scoutmaster (SM) and bring the blue card with them to class.

How do requirements that need to be completed outside of the class get signed off?

Proof of completion of all requirements should be sent to Faten Shanar at fshanar@thehealthmuseum.org, and cc a parent per Safeguarding Youth guidelines. The blue card will be hand-signed and sent via email.

Is there a time limit that requirements finished outside of class need to be done?

Nope! Take as long as you need to finish your requirements fairly and completely. In some cases, a partial blue card can be given.

Can the guardian/parent of the scout walk around the museum during class?

The payment for the class does not include admission for a guardian/parent to tour the museum. An admission ticket needs to be purchased to explore the museum. Otherwise, parents are more than welcome to sit with the class.

1. Submit your request by filling out this Request Form.
2. You will receive a response from our Scouts Program team within 2-4 days.
3. Please note this form does NOT confirm your booking.
4. For questions about on-demand classes, please contact Faten Shanar at fshanar@thehealthmuseum.org