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Requirements June 1972 until December 1977

1. Tell what high school preparation is needed to get in an accredited engineering college.  Read Faith of the Engineer.  Point out in what ways this is like the Scout Oath.

2. Describe the kind of work done by an engineer.  Tell how each branch of engineering helps our society.

3. Make an inspection trip to a manufacturing or processing plant or an engineering job in your town.  Talk about what is happening with an engineer.  Prepare a report telling about the trip.  Emphasize things that use engineering.

4. Make a slide rule.  Show its use in solving problems.  Explain the mathematical basis for the rule.

5.  Do THREE of the following:

(a) Design a cam, linkage, gear train, or other mechanical device for transforming motion.  Prepare a working model from wood, plastic, or metal.

(b) Build a simple electrical or electronic device (kits may be used).

(c) Show by a drawing how the forces are distributed in a king post truss bridge carrying a 200-pound person at the center, if the two members are inclined 30 degrees above the horizontal.

(d) Explain with the aid of a drawing, and figure how much it would cost to pump 100,000 gallons of water from sea level into a reservoir whose surface is at 550 feet above sea level.  Assume electric power costs 6 cents per kwhr, and the combined pump and motor efficiency is 80 percent and 5 percent of the water is lost in leaks.

(e) Write a report explaining how energy in a fuel is changed into useful work in a machine.  Use drawings to show what happens.

(f) Pick a busy street or highway in your town.  Study the traffic flow when heavy and light.  Get from the city the predicted increase in automobiles and population over the next 5 years.  Report on what you found.  Include your plan of how the traffic situation in 5 years might be helped at the place studied.

(g) Set up a distilling apparatus with and without a fractionating column.  Draw a graph of product purity versus percent distilled.  Explain why you get better results with a fractionating column.

(h) Show how to use one device for getting engineering measurements.

(i) Set up a device for measuring heat transfer.  Draw a graph showing heat transfer versus rate of flow.  Explain why you get better heat transfer with a high rate of flow.

(j) In place of one activity under this requirement, the counselor may choose a similar project that will make use of engineering activities in your town.

Requirements December 1977 until September 1993.

1. Visit a construction site or manufacturing or processing plant.  Discuss engineering design and construction with the engineer in charge.  Ask to see engineering drawings and have them explained.  Tell what you learned about engineering and the day-to-day work of an engineer from this visit.

2. Visit another engineer (other than your counselor or the person in requirement 1) in his office.  Tell how the work done there relates to the work done in the field.

3. Explain the work of six of the following types of engineers:  civil, mechanical, chemical, electrical, industrial, agricultural, aeronautical, mining, astronautical, metallurgical, nuclear, biomedical, ceramic, petroleum.

4. With your counselor's advice, select a subject for research in engineering.  Do research in publications and interview experts.  Tell what you learned and how you got the facts. (Notes may be used.)

5. Tell why measurements and calculations are important in an engineer's work.  Explain the difference between accurate and precise measurements and calculations.  Explain the values of the metric system.

6. Using an engineering college or university catalog, learn what high school courses you should take to be admitted to an accredited engineering college.  Report to your counselor.  Tell what an "accredited" college means.

7. Do ONE of the following:

(a) Show how the "engineering approach" to problems works by laying out plans, step by step, for your next camp-out.  List alternative ideas on such items as costs, campsites, and transportation.  Tell why you decided as you did.

(b) Make an original design for a piece of patrol equipment.  Draw plans for it.  Show the plans to your counselor.

8. Do TWO of the following:

(a) Transforming Motion. Show how a bicycle transforms motion, or tell how a car or truck transmission transforms motion.

(b) Harnessing Electricity. Make a model of an electrical device.  A kit may be used.  Or, make a list of all electrical appliances in your home and find out approximately how much electricity each uses in 1 month.  Tell five ways to conserve electricity.

(c) Materials Science. Do experiments to show the differences in strength and heat conductivity among wood, plastic, and metal.  Discuss with your counselor what you have learned.

(d) Energy Conservation. Tell how a car or flashlight battery converts chemical energy into electrical energy.  Do an experiment to show the value and potential of solar energy.  Explain your results.  Tell about one way to convert mechanical to electrical energy. 

(e) Traffic Study. With the advice of your counselor, select a busy street or highway intersection in your community.  Make a study of the traffic flow there in both heavy and light traffic periods.  Find out your community's predicted population 5 years from now.  Using all the data, tell your counselor what could be done to improve traffic flow 5 years hence.

(f) Build an engineering project for entry into a science-engineering fair.  Show it to your counselor.

9. Study "Faith of the Engineer".  Tell how this is like the Scout Oath.