The Badge Archive

Basic Meeting Plans are designed to have minimal supplies and still hit the GSUSA Requirements. Most meetings can be done in a 90 minute time frame.

Items needed:

• Enough for each scout or scout group:
  • Two straws to be the frame of the car (paper or plastic)
  • Four toothpicks (or wooden skewers)
  • Four plastic lids (from a milk container or prescription caps)
  • Rubber band (or Rainbow Loom Bands)
• Duck Tape (or hot glue gun if available). _{(Glue can be used, but it requires a second meeting to do the testing in order to allow glue time to dry)}
• (Optional) Drill (with small bits) to make holes for easier assembly – if none available, just use scissors or tape or hot glue when needed.
• Paper for each scout
• Pen/Pencil for each scout
• Make an Example Vehicle before the meeting to make sure the design works and you can instruct the scouts on how to make them successfully.

(Note, troops with a larger budget might want to follow the Egg Race or Crash Car instructions instead of the Paper Towel Roll vehicles in this basic plan.)

Simple and Complex Machines

Info Needed: “Simple machines make work easier by using less force in a different direction. Force is the strength or energy that creates movement, like a push or pull. A vehicle is made up of lots of parts that work together so the vehicle can move. For example, a gas cap is a screw and the door handle is a lever. When simple machines like these work together, that’s a compound machine.” – GSUSA Automotive Booklet

Only two types of simple machines need to work together to make a Compound Machine. The six types of simple machines are: wheel and axle, screw, inclined plane, lever, pulley, and wedge.

(Requirement 1 Earned)

Alternative Fuel in Vehicles

Info Needed: Most people think of electric cars when they hear alternative fuel. Alternative fuel simply means any fuel used to power a vehicle that is not gasoline or diesel. There are several possible fuels used in the modern day designs:

• Natural gas – Petroleum is common, but other fossil fuels are available
• Biodiesel – Diesel created from plant or animal oil
• Ethanol – is an additive to gasoline, but helps cut down on gasoline use
• Methanol or Ethanol – used for race cars
• Butanol vehicle – Mehanol or Ethanol like fuel but made from plants
• Hydrogen car – electricity that comes from a chemical reaction from fuel like hydrogen
• Compressed air – a new technology that is being worked on using air pressure
• Propane – a gas extracted from gasoline or petroleum

(Requirement 2 Earned)

Note to Leaders – You can learn more about alternative fuels with this information

Alternative Fuel Vehicle!

Action Needed: We’ll make a vehicle powered by physical force from a rubber band! Scouts must make and test a vehicle AND share the prototype and test results.

(Requirements 3, 4, & 5 Earned)

Meeting End

Scouts can keep testing their vehicles until it is time to go home.

General Notes

Note to Leaders – No Basic Plan compiled by The Badge Archive will earn multiple badges in one level. Part of being budget friendly is not costing more than the price of one official GSUSA badge per meeting.

Some badges will take two meetings to finish. This helps scouts enjoy activities and keeps the troop budget in mind by only needing one GSUSA badge for every two meetings. Troops may choose to get a fun patch for one of the meetings if scouts want a badge/patch for every meeting. Scouts can earn the fun patch if they only attend one meeting and get a fun patch and the official badge if they go to both.

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