ENGINEERING
STEM-Based
BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA
MERIT BADGE SERIES
ENGINEERING
“Enhancing our youths’ competitive edge through merit badges”
Requirements
1. Select a manufactured item in your home (such as a toy
or an appliance) and, under adult supervision and with the
approval of your counselor, investigate how and why it
works as it does. Find out what sort of engineering activities
were needed to create it. Discuss with your counselor what
you learned and how you got the information.
2. Select an engineering achievement that has had a major
impact on society. Using resources such as the Internet
(with your parent’s permission), books, and magazines,
find out about the engineers who made this engineering
feat possible, the special obstacles they had to overcome,
and how this achievement has influenced the world today.
Tell your counselor what you learned.
3. Explain the work of six types of engineers. Pick two of the
six and explain how their work is related.
4. Visit with an engineer (who may be your counselor or
parent) and do the following:
a. Discuss the work this engineer does and the tools the
engineer uses.
b. Discuss with the engineer a current project and the
engineer’s particular role in it.
c. Find out how the engineer’s work is done and how
results are achieved.
d. Ask to see the reports that the engineer writes concerning
the project.
e. Discuss with your counselor what you learned about
engineering from this visit.
ENGINEERING 3
5. Do ONE of the following:
a. Use the systems engineering approach to make step-by-step
plans for your next campout. List alternative ideas for
such items as program schedule, campsites, transportation,
and costs. Tell why you made the choices you did and
what improvements were made.
b. Make an original design for a piece of patrol equipment.
Use the systems engineering approach to help you decide
how it should work and look. Draw plans for it. Show
the plans to your counselor, explain why you designed it
the way you did, and explain how you would make it.
6. Do TWO of the following:
a. Transforming motion. Using common materials or a con-
struction set, make a simple model that will demonstrate
motion. Explain how the model uses basic mechanical
elements like levers and inclined planes to demonstrate
motion. Describe an example where this mechanism is
used in a real product.
b. Using electricity. Make a list of 10 electrical appliances
in your home. Find out approximately how much elec-
tricity each uses in one month. Learn how to find out
the amount and cost of electricity used in your home
during periods of light and heavy use. List five ways
to conserve electricity.
c. Understanding electronics. Using an electronic device
such as a mobile telephone or portable digital media
player, find out how sound travels from one location
to another. Explain how the device was designed for
ease of use, function, and durability.
d. Using materials. Do experiments
to show the differences in
strength and heat conduc-
tivity in wood, metal, and
plastic. Discuss with your
counselor what you
have learned.
4 ENGINEERING
e. Converting energy. Do an experiment to show how
mechanical, heat, chemical, solar, and/or electrical
energy may be converted from one or more types of
energy to another. Explain your results. Describe to your
counselor what energy is and how energy is converted
and used in your surroundings.
f. Moving people. Find out the
different ways people in your
community get to work.
Make a study of traffic flow
(number of vehicles and
relative speed) in both heavy
and light traffic periods.
Discuss with your counselor
what might be improved to
make it easier for people in
your community to get where
they need to go.
g. Building an engineering
project. Enter a project in a
science or engineering fair or similar competition.
(This requirement may be met by participation on an
engineering competition project team.) Discuss with
your counselor what your project demonstrates, the
kinds of questions visitors to the fair asked, and how
well you were able to answer their questions.
7. Explain what it means to be a registered Professional
Engineer (P.E.). Name the types of engineering work for
which registration is most important.
8. Study the Engineer’s Code of Ethics. Explain how it is like
the Scout Oath and Scout Law.
9. Find out about three career opportunities in engineering.
Pick one and research the education, training, and
experience required for this profession. Discuss this with
your counselor, and explain why this profession might
interest you.
ENGINEERING 5
Engineering Resources.
Engineering Resources
Scouting Literature Garner, Geraldine O. Careers in
Architecture, Automotive Maintenance, Engineering, 2nd ed. McGraw-
Chemistry, Composite Materials, Digital Hill, 2002.
Technology, Drafting, Electricity, Electronics, Green, Constance McLaughlin.
Energy, Inventing, Model Design and Eli Whitney and the Birth of
Building, Nuclear Science, Programming, American Technology. Addison
Robotics, Space Exploration, Surveying, Wesley Longman, 1997.
and Welding merit badge pamphlets Hickam Jr., Homer H. Rocket Boys
For more information about or to (October Sky). Delacorte, 1998.
order Scouting-related resources, Kent, Steven. The Ultimate History
see [Link] of Video Games: From Pong to
(with your parent’s permission). Pokemon. Prima Lifestyles, 2001.
Kuprenas, John, and Matthew Frederick.
Books 101 Things I Learned in Engineering
Anderson, Margaret Jean. Isaac Newton: School. Grand Central Publishing, 2013.
The Greatest Scientist of All Time. Middleton, William. Landmarks on the
Enslow, 2001. Iron Road: Two Centuries of North
Baine, Celeste. Is There an Engineer American Railroad Engineering
Inside You? A Comprehensive (Railroads Past and Present). Indiana
Guide to Career Decisions in University Press, 1999.
Engineering, 3rd ed. Professional Molotch, Harvey. Where Stuff Comes
Publications, 2004. From: How Toasters, Toilets, Cars,
Berlow, Lawrence H. Reference Guide Computers, and Many Other
to Famous Engineering Landmarks Things Come to Be as They Are.
of the World: Bridges, Tunnels, Routledge, 2005
Dams, Roads, and Other Structures. Pletsch, William. Integrated Circuits:
Oryx, 1998. Making the Miracle Chip. Pletsch &
Brown, Henry T. 507 Mechanical Associates, 2000.
Movements: Mechanisms and Reid, T.R. The Chip. Random
Devices. Dover Publications, 2005. House, 2001.
Dupre, Judith. Bridges: A History of the Roberts, Dustyn. Making Things
World’s Most Famous and Important Move: DIY Mechanisms for
Spans. Black Dog & Leventhal, 1997. Inventors, Hobbyists, and Artists.
———. Skyscrapers: A History of the McGraw-Hill, 2010.
World’s Most Extraordinary
Buildings. Black Dog & Organizations and Websites
Leventhal, 2013. American Indian Science and
Freedman, Russell. The Wright Brothers: Engineering Society
How They Invented the Airplane. 2305 Renard SE, Suite 200
Holiday House, 1994. Albuquerque, NM 87106
Telephone: 505-765-1052
Website: [Link]
94 ENGINEERING
.Engineering Resources
American Institute of National Society of Black Engineers
Chemical Engineers 205 Daingerfield Road
120 Wall St., 23rd floor Alexandria, VA 22314
New York, NY 10005-4020 Telephone: 703-549-2207
Toll-free telephone: 800-242-4363 Website: [Link]
Website: [Link] National Society of Professional
American Society of Civil Engineers Engineers
1801 Alexander Bell Drive 1420 King St.
Reston, VA 20191-4400 Alexandria, VA 22314-2794
Toll-free telephone: 800-548-2723 Toll-free Telephone: 888-285-6773
Website: [Link] Website: [Link]
ASME International (American Smithsonian National Air and
Society of Mechanical Engineers) Space Museum
2 Park Ave. Sixth and Independence Avenue, SW
New York, NY 10016-5990 Washington, DC 20560
Toll-free telephone: 800-843-2763 Telephone: 202-633-2214
Website: [Link] Website: [Link]
Institute of Electrical and Society of Hispanic
Electronics Engineers Professional Engineers
3 Park Ave., 17th Floor Telephone: 323-725-3970
New York, NY 10016-5997 Website: [Link]
Telephone: 212-419-7900 Society of Manufacturing Engineers
Website: [Link] 1 SME Drive
Jet Propulsion Laboratory P.O. Box 930
4800 Oak Grove Drive Dearborn, MI 48128
Pasadena, CA 91109 Toll-free telephone: 800-733-4763
Telephone: 818-354-4321 Website: [Link]
Website: [Link] Society of Petroleum Engineers
Kennedy Space Center Toll-free telephone: 800-456-6863
Toll-free Telephone: 866-737-5235 Website: [Link]
Website: Technology Student Association
[Link] Toll-free telephone: 888-860-9010
National Action Council for Website: [Link]
Minorities in Engineering
440 Hamilton Ave., Suite 302 Acknowledgments
White Plains, NY 10601-1813 The Boy Scouts of America is grateful
Telephone: 914-539-4010 to Scott S. Stuckey for updating this
Website: [Link] edition of the Engineering merit badge
National Aeronautics and pamphlet. Mr. Stuckey is managing
Space Administration editor at National Geographic Traveler
NASA Headquarters magazine and is the former editor
Washington, DC 20546-0001 of Boys’ Life magazine.
Telephone: 202-358-0001 Thanks also to the Convergence
Website: [Link] Education Foundation, whose members
provided assistance with revising the
ENGINEERING 95
