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Using Stardust for Scouts

Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 5:59 pm
by Nikita
I want to use this as a possible belt loop for my scout. Has anyone else thought of this? Any ideas for how to make it work? I have a general handbook for Webelos, but it does not give details for how to accomplish this.

Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 6:52 pm
by DustTrailFinder
It's been a lot of years since I was involved with this same thing, but I do seem to remember that certain basic requirements need to be made. Perhaps you should discuss this with the local council, but I think that you need to come up with a method and a viable measure for the recognition, in addition to a justification for it. It might be that it can be measured by the number of movies reviewed and/or the efficiency score of the reviewer scout. I think that this might require a screen printout of those figures by the scout to prove this or a registration with an independent and trusted "judge" who has access to the nickname and password of the scout to view his/her score. I'm not sure, but I think it can be done. I hope so, because I think there is nothing more important than involving our children in endeavors that they can see have such meaning to all of us. Good luck and I hope, if you are able to accomplish this, that it will be made available to other scouts who would like to participate!

Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 8:51 am
by Chronocide
One of my fondest memories of Boy Scout summer camps with the troop was a special neckerchief slide the scoutmaster would carve for anybody who could build a fire to burn through a piece of twine suspended 18" above the ground. We could only try once and could only use one match. The slide looked like a big wooden match, painted like one of those big red strike-anywhere ones. They were great and it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.

If you set a minimum number of stardust movies and a minimum performance goal a neckerchief slide might be as good as a belt loop for motivation. It shouldn't be too hard to make something that looks like the aerogel "tennis racquet"; a bit of wood, some blue and silver paint and you would be good to go. Stardust at home may be over before you can push a belt loop through the Boy Scout bureaucracy.

I think custom neckerchief slides are pretty much a scouting tradition. Here's a link to a website that might have some ideas to help you if you decide to go that route.

http://perdita.lcs.psu.edu/BSA/woggle.htm

Anyway, good luck and have fun!

Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 7:04 pm
by Aquila Hawk
A though came to mind, you could probably tie it into the Astronomey Merit Badge. You could have a "Stardust" party instead of a plain star party.

http://www.meritbadge.com/mb/022.htm

Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 9:34 pm
by Nikita
Thank you for the ideas! I will be talking to the scout master about it. They are a very positive and encouraging group, so I hope we can come up with something! If anyone wants to do the same and wants to know how we are doing, please e-mail me! This has so much educational value to it and there are so many ways to go with it, I am sure we can do something! If nothing else, just mapping where all the volunteers are coming from is part Geography! :)

Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 12:39 am
by peterleroux
If you hunt around you can also track down a Jamboree Patch featuring Stardust: the 2001 San Gabriel Valley Council Jamboree Patch (read NASA's article http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news87.html). There are some on eBay and probably some you can find by trading as well.

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 8:04 am
by Nikita
Hey thanks for the info! At least I know I'm on track about it beging a good scouting project! Those patches are cool! To tell you how little I know, I didn't even know there could be custom patches!