Home

Requirements February 1979 until September 1987

1. Make a solar energy box. Use it to show how solar energy can be collected, and how loss of heat can be controlled. Keep records of your investigations. Show these records in explaining how the box collects solar energy and how heat loss is controlled.

2. In your own words, without notes, explain:  energy, kinetic energy, potential energy, power, engine, useful work, exhaust, engine efficiency, pollution.

3. Draw a diagram showing how a gasoline, diesel, or other type engine converts energy in a fuel into mechanical energy. Label your diagram to show the energy conversions that take place.

4. Find out about and write down in a notebook 10 different examples of energy waste going on in your home or town. Suggest in each case possible ways to reduce this waste. Find and write down in your notebook about five examples you observed of pollution from energy use. Suggest in each case how this pollution might be reduced.

5. Show two articles from a current newspaper or magazine about the use or conservation of energy. Tell about each.

6. Draw a color chart chow the earth's known and estimated quantities of nonrenewable obtainable energy materials. Show how long each of these is expected to last. (Based on the best estimate available.) Tell where you got your information.

7. *Do the following:

(a) Tell how our lives in the United States might be affected if energy supplies became less than enough to meet our present demands.

(b) Tell what is being done to make any three of the following produce larger amounts of useful energy economically (Include possible pollution and safety problems): nuclear-fission generators, nuclear-fusion generators, the wind, the sun, the oceans, heat from inside the earth.

8. Give a talk titles "Energy, Why We Need To Conserve It." Use all materials from requirements 1 through 6. Choose as your audience your counselor, a den of Cub Scouts, or a group approved by your counselor.

*Notes may be used.

Requirements September 1987 until January 2006

1. Demonstrate the flow of heat energy. Use your demonstration to explain in your own words the ideas of heat, temperature, kinetic energy, calorie, and the laws of thermodynamics.

2. Give an example of each of the following forms of energy: heat, light, mechanical, electrical, chemical, atomic. Prepare a table showing devices for each form of energy that will convert it into another form of energy. Describe the idea of tradeoffs in energy use.

3. Make a color chart showing the world's known and estimated energy resources. Explain how long each is expected to last based on today's best estimates. Tell where you got your information.

4. Do the following:

(a) Prepare charts showing:

• What energy sources supply the United States with its energy
• What portion of our energy is used by homes, business, industry, and transportation
• What fuels are used to generate America's electricity

(b) Tell what is being done to make any three of the following produce more energy. Include cost, pollution, and safety problems in your explanation.

• Nuclear fission generators
• Nuclear fusion generators
• Cogeneration
• The sun
• The wind
• Geothermal
• The oceans

(c) Tell how our lives in the United States might be affected if energy supplies could not meet our present demands.

5. Show and explain to your counselor two articles from a current newspaper or magazine about the use or conservation of energy. Tell why these articles are important to the United States and why they are important to you.

6. Conduct an energy audit of your home. Prepare a written report in two parts:

(a) Describe ways that your family can use energy more wisely.

(b) Keep a record of what you have done to save energy for a 2-week period.

7. Find out about and describe in a notebook 10 different examples of energy waste going on in your town. Suggest in each case possible ways to reduce this waste. Find out and write in your notebook five examples you have observed of pollution from energy use. Suggest in each case how this pollution might be reduced.

8. Give a talk titled "Energy: Why We Need It and How We Can Use It Better". Use all of the materials you have prepared in requirements 1 through 7. Choose as your audience your counselor, a den of Cub Scouts, or another group approved by your counselor.