Discover New Worlds through NOVA and STEM
BSA's New NOVA Awards Program is Growing Minds
through STEM Achievements!
Discover the coolest new ways to expand your mind and build critical real-world skills!
BSA's NOVA Awards program introduces fun and rewarding opportunities for Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, and Venturers to explore various STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) topics.
Featuring:
- Support from a partnership with ExxonMobil®
- Honorary Chairman and National Spokesperson, Dr. Bernard Harris, former Boy Scout and NASA space shuttle astronaut
- Distinctive NOVA pocket patch with separate pin-on device, medals, and more
- Related merit badge activities and specialized programs to come!
For more information and program details, please visit here.
Messengers of Peace
Scouts in dozens of countries are working for peace by solving conflicts in their schools, building links between divided communities, teaching their peers about health and wellness, and repairing environmental damage.
To recognize their efforts—and to inspire more young men and women to help Scouting create a better world—the World Scout Committee has launched the Messengers of Peace initiative. The Boy Scouts of America is proud to join this effort in 2012.
Scouts who complete MOP projects will be eligible for a special recognition: a ring patch that goes around the World Crest. That patch will symbolize their participation in an ever-widening circle of Scouts who are not just visualizing world peace, but are helping to make it a reality.
The Scouts of the world have always been a powerful force for good. This initiative lets us celebrate what our Scouts have already accomplished and inspire them to accomplish even more. Please join us as we work together to create a better world.
For more information about Messengers of Peace, visit the BSA’s Messengers of Peace website at www.scouting.org/messengersofpeace.
Cyber Chip
Today’s youth are spending more time than ever using digital media for education, research, socializing, and fun. To help families and volunteers keep youth safe while online, the Boy Scouts of America introduces the Cyber Chip. In developing this exciting new tool, the BSA teamed up with content expert NetSmartz®, part of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children® and training expert for many law enforcement agencies.
Netsmartz® has created a Scouting portal showcasing Cyber Chip resources, including grade-specific videos, for each level. Topics include cyberbullying, cell phone use, texting, blogging, gaming, and identity theft.
The Cyber Chip joins the Totin’ Chip and Whittling Chip as important safety tools your Scouts should earn and carry with them. Find out how you can earn the Cyber Chip emblem by visiting the BSA Cyber Chip website.
Are You Tougher Than a Boy Scout?
Here is a sneak preview to a new reality show on the National Geographic Channel premiering this Fall. What do you think?
BSA 2011 Report to Nation
The Boy Scouts of America released its 2011 Report to the Nation today. In this report, there is YOU! Watch the video and see some highlights of the accomplishments that you were part of. Find out more about the report here.
BSA Innovation Challenge
Do you have an inventor, a builder, a creator, or a dreamer at home? Young minds have wild imaginations so they can usually think of some pretty wild and out-there inventions! While not all are possible, some can be taken to the next level and actually become a real-life product. Obviously, young people don't understand patents or the development process so they need help from people like InventHelp to get the whole thing patented. If you know someone in the Scouts who has a mind full of ideas, check this out!
The BSA has teamed with Edison Nation®, an idea-to-shelf product developer, to create the Boy Scouts of America Innovation Challenge, where today's kids can develop tomorrow's products. Whether the invention solves a problem around the house, the yard, or at school; helps you take better care of your pet; or creates a new way to learn or play, the goal of the BSA and Edison Nation is to inspire young minds to submit their creative, new product ideas.
Edison Nation will invest up to $1 million to develop the selected ideas and help bring them to market. Selected inventors will receive a cash advance, royalties for life from the sale of their products, be named the "inventor" on any issued patents, and have an opportunity to appear on the award-winning Everyday Edisons television series. The challenge is open to all boys and girls ages 7 to 21, and does not require that the young person be associated with the BSA to submit ideas or be selected as an "inventor."
For more information, read the complete BSA news release and head over to Edison Nation's website to submit your idea. Hurry. The program ends May 7th 2012!
Boys’ Life 2011 Reading Contest – Last Chance!
From Boys' Life website:
Write a one-page report titled “The Best Book I Read This Year” and enter it in the Boys’ Life 2011 “Say Yes to Reading!” contest.
The book can be fiction or nonfiction. But the report has to be in your own words — 500 words tops. Enter in one of these three age categories:
8 years old and younger
9 and 10 years old
11 years old and older
First-place winners in each age category will receive a $100 gift certificate good for any product in the Boy Scouts official retail catalog. Second-place winners will receive a $75 gift certificate, and third-place winners a $50 certificate.
Everyone who enters will get a free patch like the one on this page. (And, yes, the patch is a temporary insignia, so it can be worn on the Boy Scout uniform shirt, on the right pocket. Proudly display it there or anywhere!) In coming years, you’ll have the opportunity to earn different patches.
The contest is open to all Boys’ Life readers. Be sure to include your name, address, age and grade in school on the entry.
Send your report, along with a business-size, self-addressed, stamped envelope, to:
Boys’ Life Reading Contest
S306
P.O. Box 152079
Irving, TX 75015-2079
Entries must be postmarked by Dec. 31, 2011 and must include entry information and a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
Click here to read the winning essays in the 2010 contest.
SCOUTStrong PALA Challenge
Today, BSA launches the new SCOUTStrong Program to get youth more active and fit. SCOUTStrong was kicked off by announcing a collaboration with the President’s Challenge, the premier program of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition (PCFSN), resulting in a Scout-specific Presidential Active Lifestyle Award (PALA) challenge.
This challenge is open to everyone associated with BSA, including Scouts, parents, volunteers, and alumni. To earn the SCOUTStrong PALA Challenge Award, you are required to meet a daily activity goal of 30 minutes a day for adults and 60 minutes a day for kids under 18 for at least five days a week, for six out of eight weeks. Stick with the program and you’ll earn an award in less than two months!
After successfully completing the challenge, send a request to the Awards Chairs for the joint BSA/PALA SCOUTStrong PALA Challenge award patch. Find out more and sign up for the challenge here.
The New NOVA Award from BSA
Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics...Known as "STEM", the BSA is developing an exciting new program around these areas with new awards called NOVA and SUPERNOVA. Stay tuned for more information on this new program in the coming months!
