This past weekend, I had the opportunity to work with members of the Boy Scouts in cooperation with local HAM Radio operators.
The HAM operators had a number of antenna bays, generators and piles of equipment they were more than willing to share with our Scouts.
In addition to equipment examples, Scouts were also provided very interesting instructor-led lessons and excellent reference materials detailing terminology, technology and careers related to radio use.
Scouts spent time outside of large classes studying in small groups together with an instructor and at least one more adult (two-deep leadership in action) in the shade of a nearby tree.
The Radio Merit Badge’s content is a moderately-long course and with temperatures in the low 100′s, the boys stayed hydrated in the shade throughout the entire program.
Scouts did not spend the entire day simply studying and learning, but also had the oportunity to develop skills with radio communication protocols talking with other Scouts over the air, courtesy of the amateur radio enthusiasts that turned out to give the boys a hand.
It is amazing the level of interest members of the public have towards aiding young learners in almost any topic, but STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects seem to bring out more equipment than in most other subjects – go cool toys!
It was a wonderful time spent working on the Radio Merit Badge with enthusiastic Boy Scouts in the Texas summer heat!