Scout Badge

Note that the Scout badge is NOT considered a "Rank" by BSA. 
The Charter and Bylaws in Article X, Section 1, Clause 6, states

"Ranks. There shall be the following ranks in Boy Scouting: Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, Life, and Eagle. The requirements shall be those authorized by the Executive Board and set forth in official Scouting publications. Eagle Palms may also be awarded on the basis of requirements authorized by the Executive Board and set forth in official Scouting publications."

  1. Meet age requirements: Be a boy who is 11 years old, or one who has completed the fifth grade or earned the Arrow of Light Award and is at least 10 years old, but is not yet 18 years old.
  2. Complete a Boy Scout application and health history signed by your parent or guardian.
  3. Find a Scout troop near your home. =
  4. Repeat the Pledge of Allegiance.
  5. Demonstrate the Scout sign, salute, and handshake.
  6. Demonstrate tying the square knot (a joining knot).
  7. Understand and agree to live by the Scout Oath or Promise, Law, motto, and slogan, and the Outdoor Code.
  8. Describe the Scout badge.
  9. Complete the Pamphlet Exercises. With your parent or guardian, complete the exercises in the pamphlet "How to Protect Your Children from Child Abuse: A Parent's Guide".
  10. Participate in a Scoutmaster conference. Turn in your Boy Scout application and health history form signed by your parent or guardian, then participate in a Scoutmaster conference.

 

Tenderfoot Scout

NOTE: These requirements may be worked on simultaneously with those for Second Class and First Class; however these ranks must be earned in sequence.

  1. Present yourself to your leader, properly dressed, before going on an overnight camping trip. Show the camping gear you will use. Show the right way to pack and carry it.
  2. Spend at least one night on a patrol or troop campout. Sleep in a tent you have helped pitch.
  3. On the campout, assist in preparing and cooking one of your patrol's meals.  Tell why it is important for each patrol member to share in meal preparation and cleanup, and explain the importance of eating together.
  4.  
    1. Demonstrate how to whip and fuse the ends of a rope.
    2. Demonstrate you know how to tie the following knots and tell what their uses are: two half hitches and the taut-line hitch.
  5. Explain the rules of safe hiking, both on the highway and cross-country, during the day and at night. Explain what to do if you are lost.
  6. Demonstrate how to display, raise, lower, and fold the American flag.
  7. Repeat from memory and explain in your own words the Scout Oath, Law, motto, and slogan.
  8. Know your patrol name, give the patrol yell, and describe your patrol flag.
  9. Explain the importance of the buddy system as it relates to your personal safety on outings and in your neighborhood. Describe what a bully is and how you should respond to one.
  10.  
    1. Record your best in the following tests:
      • Push-ups
      • Pull-ups
      • Sit-ups
      • Standing long jump
      • 1/4 mile walk/run
    2. Show improvement in the activities listed in requirement 10a after practicing for 30 days.
  11. Identify local poisonous plants; tell how to treat for exposure to them.
  12.  
    1. Demonstrate how to care for someone who is choking.
    2. Show first aid for the following:
      • Simple cuts and scrapes
      • Blisters on the hand and foot
      • Minor (thermal/heat) burns or scalds (superficial, or first degree)
      • Bites and stings of insects and ticks
      • Venomous snakebite
      • Nosebleed
      • Frostbite and sunburn
  13. Demonstrate scout spirit by living the Scout Oath (Promise) and Scout Law in your everyday life.
  14. Participate in a Scoutmaster conference.
  15. Complete your board of review

 

2nd Class Scout

NOTE: These requirements may be worked on simultaneously with those for the Tenderfoot and First Class ranks; however these ranks must be earned in sequence.

  1.  
    1. Demonstrate how a compass works and how to orient a map. Explain what map symbols mean.
    2. Using a compass and a map together, take a 5-mile hike (or 10 miles by bike) approved by your adult leader and your parent or guardian.*
  2.  
    1. Since joining, have participated in five separate troop/patrol activities (other than troop/patrol meetings), two of which included camping overnight.
    2. On one of these campouts, select your patrol site and sleep in a tent that you pitched.
    3. On one campout, demonstrate proper care, sharpening, and use of the knife, saw, and ax, and describe when they should be used.
    4. Use the tools listed in requirement 2c to prepare tinder, kindling, and fuel for a cooking fire.
    5. Discuss when it is appropriate to use a cooking fire and a lightweight stove.  Discuss the safety procedures for using both..
    6. Demonstrate how to light a fire and a lightweight stove.
    7. On one campout, plan and cook over an open fire one hot breakfast or lunch for yourself, selecting foods from the food pyramid.  Explain the importance of good nutrition.  Tell how to transport, store, and prepare the foods you selected.
  3. Participate in a flag ceremony for your school, religious institution, chartered organization, community, or troop activity.
  4. Participate in an approved (minimum of one hour) service project.
  5. Identify or show evidence of at least ten kinds of wild animals (birds, mammals, reptiles, fish, mollusks) found in your community.
  6.  
    1. Show what to do for "hurry" cases of stopped breathing, serious bleeding, and ingested poisoning.
    2. Prepare a personal first aid kit to take with you on a hike.
    3. Demonstrate first aid for the following:
      • Object in the eye
      • Bite of a suspected rabid animal
      • Puncture wounds from a splinter, nail, and fishhook
      • Serious burns (partial thickness, or second degree)
      • Heat exhaustion
      • Shock
      • Heatstroke, dehydration, hypothermia, and hyperventilation
  7.  
    1. Tell what precautions must be taken for a safe swim.
    2. Demonstrate your ability to jump feetfirst into water over your head in depth, level off and swim 25 feet on the surface, stop, turn sharply, resume swimming, then return to your starting place.
    3. Demonstrate water rescue methods by reaching with your arm or leg, by reaching with a suitable object, and by throwing lines and objects. Explain why swimming rescues should not be attempted when a reaching or throwing rescue is possible, and explain why and how a rescue swimmer should avoid contact with the victim.
  8.  
    1. Participate in a school, community, or troop program on the dangers of using drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, and other practices that could be harmful to your health. Discuss your participation in the program with your family.
    2. Explain the three R's of personal safety and protection.
  9. Demonstrate scout spirit by living the Scout Oath (Promise) and Scout Law in your everyday life.
  10. Participate in a Scoutmaster conference.
  11. Complete your board of review.

* If you use a wheelchair or crutches, or if it is difficult for you to get around, you may substitute "trip" for "hike" in requirement 1b.

 

 

1st Class Scout

NOTE: These requirements, and those for Tenderfoot and Second Class may be worked on simultaneously; however these ranks must be earned in sequence.

  1. Demonstrate how to find directions during the day and at night without using a compass.
  2. Using a compass, complete an orienteering course that covers at least one mile and requires measuring the height and/or width of designated items (tree, tower, canyon, ditch, etc.)
  3. Since joining, have participated in ten separate troop/patrol activities (other than troop/patrol meetings), three of which included camping overnight.
  4.  
    1. Help plan a patrol menu for one campout that includes at least one breakfast, one lunch, and one dinner and that requires cooking at least two meals.  Tell how the menu includes the foods from the food pyramid and meets nutritional needs.
    2. Using the menu planned in requirement 4a, make a list showing the cost and food amounts needed to feed three or more boys and secure the ingredients.
    3. Tell which pans, utensils, and other gear will be needed to cook and serve these meals.
    4. Explain the procedures to follow in the safe handling and storage of fresh meats, dairy products, eggs, vegetables, and other perishable food products.  Tell how to properly dispose of camp garbage, cans, plastic containers, and other rubbish.
    5. On one campout, serve as your patrol's cook.  Supervise your assistant(s) in using a stove or building a cooking fire. Prepare the breakfast, lunch, and dinner planned in requirement 4a.  Lead your patrol in saying grace at the meals and supervise cleanup.
  1. Visit and discuss with a selected individual approved by your leader (elected official, judge, attorney, civil servant, principal, teacher) your constitutional rights and obligations as a U.S. citizen.
  2. Identify or show evidence of at least ten kinds of native plants found in your community.
  3.  
    1. Discuss when you should and should not use lashings
    2. Demonstrate tying the timber hitch and clove hitch and their use in square, shear, and diagonal lashings by joining two or more poles or staves together.
    3. Use lashing to make a useful camp gadget.
  4.  
    1. Demonstrate tying the bowline knot and describe several ways it can be used.
    2. Demonstrate bandages for a sprained ankle. and for injuries on the head, the upper arm, and the collarbone.
    3. Show how to transport by yourself, and with one other person, a person:
      • from a smoke-filled room
      • with a sprained ankle, for at least 25 yards.
    4. Tell the five most common signals of a heart attack. Explain the steps (procedures) in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
  5.  
    1. Tell what precautions must be taken for a safe trip afloat.
    2. Successfully complete the BSA swimmer test.
    3. With a helper and a practice victim, show a line rescue both as tender and rescuer.  (The practice victim should be approximately 30 feet from shore in deep water.)
  1. Demonstrate scout spirit by living the Scout Oath (Promise) and Scout Law in your everyday life.
  1. Tell someone who is eligible to join Boy Scouts, or an inactive Boy Scout, about your troop's activities.  Invite him to a troop outing, activity, service project or meeting.  Tell him how to join, or encourage the inactive Boy Scout to become active.
  2. Describe the three things you should avoid doing related to use of the Internet. Describe a cyberbully and how you should respond to one.
  3. Participate in a Scoutmaster conference.
  4. Complete your board of review.

 

Star Scout

  1. Be active in your troop and patrol for at least 4 months as a First Class Scout. 
  2. Demonstrate scout spirit by living the Scout Oath (Promise) and Scout Law in your everyday life. 
  3. Earn 6 merit badges, including 4 from the required list for Eagle.*
    ___________________________________(required for Eagle)*
    ___________________________________(required for Eagle)*
    ___________________________________(required for Eagle)*
    ___________________________________(required for Eagle)*
    ____________________________________________________
    ____________________________________________________
  4. While a First Class Scout, take part in service projects totaling at least 6 hours of work. These projects must be approved by your Scoutmaster. 
  5. While a First Class Scout, serve actively 4 months in one or more of the following positions of responsibility (or carry out a Scoutmaster-assigned leadership project to help the troop): 
  • Patrol Leader
  • Assistant Senior Patrol Leader
  • Senior Patrol Leader
  • Troop Guide
  • Order of the Arrow Troop representative
  • Den Chief
  • Scribe
  • Historian
  • Quartermaster
  • Bugler
  • Junior Assistant Scoutmaster
  • Chaplain Aide
  • Instructor
  1. Take part in a Scoutmaster conference 
  2. Complete your board of review.

* A Scout may choose any of the 15 required merit badges in the 12 categories to fulfill requirement 3

 

Life Scout

  1. Be active in your troop and patrol for at least 6 months as a Star Scout. 
  2. Demonstrate Scout spirit by living the Scout Oath (Promise) and Scout Law in your everyday life. 
  3. Earn 5 more merit badges (so that you have 11 in all), including any 3 more from the required list for Eagle.
    ___________________________________(required for Eagle)*
    ___________________________________(required for Eagle)*
    ___________________________________(required for Eagle)*
    ____________________________________________________
    ____________________________________________________
  4. While a Star Scout, take part in service projects totaling at least 6 hours of work. These projects must be approved by your Scoutmaster. 
  5. While a Star Scout, serve actively 6 months in one or more of the positions of responsibility listed in requirement 5 for Star Scout (or carry out a Scoutmaster-assigned leadership project to help the troop). 
  6. Take part in a Scoutmaster conference 
  7. Complete your board of review.

* A Scout may choose any of the 15 required merit badges in the 12 categories to fulfill requirement 3.

NOTE: The footnote to Requirement 3 means that, for example, a Scout can use both Lifesaving AND Emergency Preparedness and/or Swimming, Hiking, AND Cycling toward the requirement of 3 more (7 total) from the required list for Eagle when working toward Life Scout.) Also note that the asterisks are specifically placed on the lines marked "(required for Eagle)" signifying that the note applies to these badges.

If a Scout used Safety and/or Sports Merit Badge as one or two of the four merit badges from the required list for Eagle for advancement to Star Scout before April 1, 1999, he must earn additional merit badges from the current required list for Eagle, so that he has at least seven from the current list in order to advance to Life Scout.

 Eagle Medal

 

Eagle Scout

  1. Be active in your troop and patrol for at least 6 months as a Life Scout.
  2. Demonstrate Scout spirit by living the Scout Oath (Promise) and Scout Law in your everyday life. List the names of individuals who know you personally and would be willing to provide a recommendation on your behalf, including parents/guardians, religious, educational, and employer references.
  3. Earn a total of 21 merit badges (10 more than you already have), including the following:
    1. First Aid
    2. Citizenship in the Community
    3. Citizenship in the Nation
    4. Citizenship in the World
    5. Communications
    6. Personal Fitness
    7. Emergency Preparedness OR Lifesaving
    8. Environmental Science
    9. Personal Management
    10. Swimming OR Hiking OR Cycling
    11. Camping, and
    12. Family Life*
  4. While a Life Scout, serve actively for a period of 6 months in one or more of the positions of responsibility listed in requirement 5 for Star Scout.
  5. While a Life Scout, plan, develop, and give leadership to others in a service project helpful to any religious institution, school, or community. (The project should benefit an organization other than Boy Scouting.) The project idea must be approved by the organization benefiting from the effort, your Scoutmaster and troop committee and the council or district before you start. You must use the Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook, BSA publication No. 512-927, in meeting this requirement.
  6. Take part in a Scoutmaster conference.
  7. Successfully complete an Eagle Scout board of review.

* You must choose only one merit badge listed in items (g) and (j). If you have earned more than one of the badges listed in items (g) and (j), choose one and list the remaining badges to make your total of 21.

Note: All requirements must be completed before a candidate's 18th birthday, however the Eagle Scout board of review can be held after the candidate's 18th birthday.

GoldPalm.jpg (1177 bytes)

Eagle Palms

Note that Eagle Palms are NOT considered "Ranks" by BSA. 
The Charter and Bylaws in Article X, Section 1, Clause 6, states:

"Ranks. There shall be the following ranks in Boy Scouting: Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, Life, and Eagle. The requirements shall be those authorized by the Executive Board and set forth in official Scouting publications. Eagle Palms may also be awarded on the basis of requirements authorized by the Executive Board and set forth in official Scouting publications."

After becoming an Eagle Scout, you may earn Palms by completing the following requirements:

  1. Be active in your troop and patrol for at least 3 months after becoming an Eagle Scout or after the award of your last Palm.
  2. Demonstrate Scout spirit by living the Scout Oath (Promise) and Scout Law in your everyday life.
  3. Make a satisfactory effort to develop and demonstrate leadership ability.
  4. Earn five additional merit badges beyond those required for Eagle or last Palm.*.
  5. Take Part in a Scoutmaster conference.
  6. Complete your board of review.

You may wear only the proper combination of Palms for the number of merit badges you earned beyond the rank of Eagle. The Bronze Palm represents 5 merit badges, the Gold Palm - 10, and the Silver Palm - 15.

*Merit Badges earned any time since becoming a Boy Scout may be used to meet this requirement.