Nuclear Science Merit Badge

Today I finished the Nuclear Science Merit Badge. Here are the requirements:
1.Do the following:
a. Tell what radiation is.
b. Describe the hazards of radiation to humans, the environment, and wildlife. Explain the difference between radiation exposure and contamination. In your explanation, discuss the nature and magnitude of radiation risks to humans from nuclear power, medical radiation, and background radiation including radon. Explain the ALARA principle and measures required by law to minimize these risks.
c. Describe the radiation hazard symbol and explain where it should be used. Tell why and how people must use radiation or radioactive materials carefully.
2.Do the following:
a. Tell the meaning of the following: atom, nucleus, proton, neutron, electron, quark, isotope; alpha particle, beta particle, gamma ray, X-ray; ionization, radioactivity, and radioisotope.
b. Choose an element from the periodic table. Construct 3-D models for the atoms of three isotopes of this element, showing neutrons, protons, and electrons. Use the three models to explain the difference between atomic number and mass number and the difference between the quark structure of a neutron and a proton.
3.Do ONE of the following; then discuss modern particle physics with your counselor:
a. Visit an accelerator (research lab) or university where people study the properties of the nucleus or nucleons.
b. Name three particle accelerators and describe several experiments that each accelerator performs.
4.Do TWO of the following; then discuss with your counselor the different kinds of radiation and how they can be used:
a. Build an electroscope. Show how it works. Place a radiation source inside and explain the effect it causes.
b. Make a cloud chamber. Show how it can be used to see the tracks caused by radiation. Explain what is happening.
c. Obtain a sample of irradiated and non-irradiated foods. Prepare the two foods and compare their taste and texture. Store the leftovers in separate containers and under the same conditions. For a period of 14 days, observe their 149 rate of decomposition or spoilage, and describe the differences you see on days 5, 10, and 14.
d. Visit a place where radioisotopes are being used. Using a drawing, explain how and why they are used.
5.Do ONE of the following; then discuss with your counselor the principles of radiation safety:
a. Using a radiation survey meter and a radioactive source, show how the counts per minute change as the source gets closer to or farther from the radiation detector. Place three different materials between the source and the detector, then explain any differences in the measurements per minute. Explain how time, distance, and shielding can reduce an individual’s radiation dose.
b. Describe how radon is detected in homes. Discuss the steps taken for the long-term and short-term test methods, tell how to interpret the results, and explain when each type of test should be used. Explain the health concern related to radon gas and tell what steps can be taken to reduce radon in buildings.
c. Visit a place where X-rays are used. Draw a floor plan of this room. Show where the unit, the unit operator, and the patient would be when the X-ray unit is operated. Explain the precautions taken and the importance of those precautions.
6.Do ONE of the following; then discuss with your counselor how nuclear energy is used to produce electricity:
a. Make a drawing showing how nuclear fission happens, labeling all details. Draw another picture showing how a chain reaction could be started and how it could be stopped. Explain what is meant by a “critical mass.”
b. Build a model of a nuclear reactor. Show the fuel, control rods, shielding, moderator, and cooling material. Explain how a reactor could be used to change nuclear energy into electrical energy or make things radioactive.
c. Find out how many nuclear power plants exist in the United States. Locate the one nearest your home. Find out what percentage of electricity in the United States is generated by nuclear power plants, by coal, and by gas.
7.Give an example of each of the following in relation to how energy from an atom can be used: nuclear medicine, environmental applications, industrial applications, space exploration, and radiation therapy. For each example, explain the application and its significance to nuclear science.
8.Find out about three career opportunities in nuclear science that interest you. Pick one and find out the education, training, and experience required for this profession and discuss this with your counselor. Tell why this profession interests you.
I did 1, 2, 3a, 4a, 4d, 5b, 6a, 7, 8

Scouts

Today in scouts we worked on the book work for the Physical Fitness Merit Badge.

Court of Honor

At the court of honor today, I got the patches for Camping, Soil and Water Conservation, Fish and Wildlife Management, Climbing, Pioneering, Geology, and my Life Scout rank. Also I got the packet from my ordeal in April.

Camping Merit Badge

I finished the Camping merit badge today. Here are the requirements:
1.Show that you know first aid for and how to prevent injuries or illnesses that could occur while camping, including hypothermia, frostbite, heat reactions, dehydration, altitude sickness, insect stings, tick bites, snakebite, blisters, and hyperventilation.
2.Learn the Leave No Trace principles and the Outdoor Code and explain what they mean. Write a personal plan for implementing these principles on your next outing.
3.Make a written plan for an overnight trek and show how to get to your camping spot using a topographical map and compass OR a topographical map and a GPS receiver.
4.Do the following:
a. Make a duty roster showing how your patrol is organized for an actual overnight campout. List assignments for each member.
b. Help a Scout patrol or a Webelos Scout unit in your area prepare for an actual campout, including creating the duty roster, menu planning, equipment needs, general planning, and setting up camp.
5.Do the following:
a. Prepare a list of clothing you would need for overnight campouts in both warm and cold weather. Explain the term "layering."
b. Discuss footwear for different kinds of weather and how the right footwear is important for protecting your feet.
c. Explain the proper care and storage of camping equipment (clothing, footwear, bedding).
d. List the outdoor essentials necessary for any campout, and explain why each item is needed.
e. Present yourself to your Scoutmaster with your pack for inspection. Be correctly clothed and equipped for an overnight campout.
6.Do the following:
a. Describe the features of four types of tents, when and where they could be used, and how to care for tents. Working with another Scout, pitch a tent.
b. Discuss the importance of camp sanitation and tell why water treatment is essential. Then demonstrate two ways to treat water.
c. Describe the factors to be considered in deciding where to pitch your tent. d. Tell the difference between internal- and external-frame packs. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each.
e. Discuss the types of sleeping bags and what kind would be suitable for different conditions. Explain the proper care of your sleeping bag and how to keep it dry. Make a comfortable ground bed.
7.Prepare for an overnight campout with your patrol by doing the following: a. Make a checklist of personal and patrol gear that will be needed.
b. Pack your own gear and your share of the patrol equipment and food for proper carrying. Show that your pack is right for quickly getting what is needed first, and that it has been assembled properly for comfort, weight, balance, size, and neatness.
8.Do the following:
a. Explain the safety procedures for:
1. Using a propane or butane/propane stove
2. Using a liquid fuel stove
3. Proper storage of extra fuel
b. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different types of lightweight cooking stoves.
c. Prepare a camp menu. Explain how the menu would differ from a menu for a backpacking or float trip. Give recipes and make a food list for your patrol. Plan two breakfasts, three lunches, and two suppers. Discuss how to protect your food against bad weather, animals, and contamination.
d. Cook at least one breakfast, one lunch, and one dinner for your patrol from the meals you have planned for requirement 8c. At least one of those meals must be a trail meal requiring the use of a lightweight stove.
9.Show experience in camping by doing the following:
a. Camp a total of at least 20 days and 20 nights. Sleep each night under the sky or in a tent you have pitched. The 20 days and 20 nights must be at a designated Scouting activity or event. You may use a week of long-term camp toward this requirement. If the camp provides a tent that has already been pitched, you need not pitch your own tent.
b. On any of these camping experiences, you must do TWO of the following, only with proper preparation and under qualified supervision:
1. Hike up a mountain, gaining at least 1,000 vertical feet.
2. Backpack, snowshoe, or cross-country ski for at least 4 miles.
3. Take a bike trip of at least 15 miles or at least four hours.
4. Take a nonmotorized trip on the water of at least four hours or 5 miles.
5. Plan and carry out an overnight snow camping experience.
6. Rappel down a rappel route of 30 feet or more.
c. Perform a conservation project approved by the landowner or land managing agency. 10.Discuss how the things you did to earn this badge have taught you about personal health and safety, survival, public health, conservation, and good citizenship. In your discussion, tell how Scout spirit and the Scout Oath and Law apply to camping and outdoor ethics.

Life Scout

I went and had my board of reveiw today for my life scout. Now I get to work on getting my eagle scout.

Sign off

I went to Brother Nine's house today to get my 6 months signed off for my life scout.

Geology Merit Badge

I finished the Geology Merit Badge today. Here are the requirements:
1.Define geology. Discuss how geologists learn about rock formations. In geology, explain why the study of the present is important to understanding the past.
2.Pick three resources that can be extracted or mined from Earth for commercial use. Discuss with your counselor how each product is discovered and processed.
3.Review a geologic map of your area or an area selected by your counselor, and discuss the different rock types and estimated ages of rocks represented. Determine whether the rocks are horizontal, folded, or faulted, and explain how you arrived at your conclusion.
4.Do ONE of the following:
a. With your parent's and counselor's approval, visit with a geologist, land use planner, or civil engineer. Discuss this professional's work and the tools required in this line of work. Learn about a project that this person is now working on, and ask to see reports and maps created for this project. Discuss with your counselor what you have learned.
b. Find out about three career opportunities available in geology. Pick one and find out the education, training, and experience required for the profession. Discuss this with your counselor, and explain why this profession might interest you.
5.Complete ONE of the options listed below A, B, C, or D.
a. Surface and Sedimentary Processes Option
1. Conduct an experiment approved by your counselor that demonstrates how sediments settle from suspension in water. Explain to your counselor what the exercise shows and why it is important.
2. Using topographical maps provided by your counselor, plot the stream gradients (different elevations divided by distance) for four different stream types (straight, meandering, dendritic, trellis). Explain which ones flow fastest and why, and which ones will carry larger grains of sediment and why.
3. On a stream diagram, show areas where you will ,find the following features: cut bank, fill bank, point bar, medial channel bars, lake delta. Describe the relative sediment grain size found in each feature.
4. Conduct an experiment approved by your counselor that shows how some sedimentary material carried by water may be too small for you to see without a magnifier.
5. Visit a nearby stream. Find clues that show the direction of water flow, even if the water is missing. Record your observations in a notebook, and sketch those clues you observe. Discuss your observations with your counselor.
b. Energy Resources Option
1. List the top five Earth resources used to generate electricity in the United States.
2. Discuss source rock, trap, and reservoir rock - the three components necessary for the occurrence of oil and gas underground.
3. Explain how each of the following items is used in subsurface exploration to locate oil or gas: reflection seismic, electric well logs, stratigraphic correlation, offshore platform, geologic map, subsurface structure map, subsurface isopach map, and core samples and cutting samples.
4. Using at least 20 data points provided by your counselor, create a subsurface structure map and use it to explain how subsurface geology maps are used to find oil, gas, or coal resources.
5. Do ONE of the following activities:
a. Make a display or presentation showing how oil and gas or coal is found, extracted, and processed. You may use maps, books, articles from periodicals, and research found on the Internet (with your parent's permission). Share the display with your counselor or a small group (such as your class at school) in a five minute presentation.
b. With your parent's and counselor's permission and assistance, arrange for a visit to an operating drilling rig. While there, talk with a geologist and ask to see what the geologist does onsite. Ask to see cutting samples taken at the site.
c. Mineral Resources Option
1. Define rock. Discuss the three classes of rocks including their origin and characteristics.
2. Define mineral. Discuss the origin of minerals and their chemical composition and identification properties, including hardness, specific gravity, color, streak, cleavage, luster, and crystal form.
3. Do ONE of the following:
a. Collect 10 different rocks or minerals. Record in a notebook where you obtained (found, bought, traded) each one. Label each specimen, identify its class and origin, determine its chemical composition, and list its physical properties. Share your collection with your counselor.
b. With your counselor's assistance, identify 15 different rocks and minerals. List the name of each specimen, tell whether it is a rock or mineral, and give the name of its class (if it is a rock) or list its identifying physical properties (if it is a mineral).
4. List three of the most common road building materials used in your area. Explain how each material is produced and how each is used in road building.
5. Do ONE of the following activities:
a. With your parent's and counselor's approval, visit an active mining site, quarry, or sand and gravel pit. Tell your counselor what you learned about the resources extracted from this location and how these resources are used by society.
b. With your counselor, choose two examples of rocks and two examples of minerals. Discuss the mining of these materials and describe how each is used by society.
c. With your parent's and counselor's approval, visit the office of a civil engineer and learn how geology is used in construction. Discuss what you learned with your counselor.
d. Earth History Option
1. Create a chart showing suggested geological eras and periods. Determine which period the rocks in your region might have been formed.
2. Explain to your counselor the processes of burial and fossilization, and discuss the concept of extinction.
3. Explain to your counselor how fossils provide information about ancient life, environment, climate, and geography. Discuss the following terms and explain how animals from each habitat obtain food: benthonic, pelagic, littoral, lacustrine, open marine, brackish, fluvial, eolian, protected reef.
4. 4.Collect 10 different fossil plants or animals OR (with your counselor's assistance) identify 15 different fossil plants or animals. Record in a notebook where you obtained (found, bought, traded) each one. Classify each specimen to the best of your ability, and explain how each one might have survived and obtained food. Tell what else you can learn from these fossils.
5. Do ONE of the following:
a. Visit a science museum or the geology department of a local university that has fossils on display. With your parent's and counselor's approval, before you go, make an appointment with a curator or guide who can show you how the fossils are preserved and prepared for display.
b. Visit a structure in your area that was built using fossiliferous rocks. Determine what kind of rock was used and tell your counselor the kinds of fossil evidence you found there.
c. Visit a rock outcrop that contains fossils. Determine what kind of rock contains the fossils, and tell your counselor the kinds of fossil evidence you found at the outcrop.
d. Prepare a display or presentation on your state fossil. Include an image of the fossil, the age of the fossil, and its classification. You may use maps, books, articles from periodicals, and research found on the Internet (with your parent's permission). Share the display with your counselor or a small group (such as your class at school). If your state does not have a state fossil, you may select a state fossil from a neighboring state.
I did 1,2, 3, 4a, and 5a.

Geologist

Today I went to see a geologist for the Geology Merit Badge requirerment 4. On the way back I finished requirement 1 also.