Scouts earn new merit badge buildihng robots at YSU

YOUNGSTOWN

Being a Boy Scout has come a long way from the days of learning to pitch tents, tie knots and build campfires.

These days, Scouts are learning to design and build robots.

Introduced in April, robotics is one of several new merit badges Boy Scouts can earn. Some two dozen scouts were at Youngstown State University’s Moser Hall on Saturday to earn their badges during a six-hour workshop.

“They’re trying to update things...,” said Kurt Hildebrand, program chairman for the Boy Scouts of America’s Whispering Pines District. The robotics merit badge is part of BSA’s new curriculum emphasis on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Hildebrand said it took only one day for enrollment in the robotics class to be filled when it was posted some three weeks ago. Most classes take two weeks or more to fill, he said.

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