Badges at Home: Scouts Astronautics Activity Badge

Scout leaders up and down the country are trying to make Scouting as normal as possible throughout these testing times. That includes encouraging youngsters to work towards badges from their own home, to help keep them engaged.

Each fortnight, we’ll put the spotlight on one badge that either your Beavers, Cubs or Scouts can work towards with the help of leaders, parents and other members, but can achieve individually whilst remaining in lockdown.

This week, we’re looking at: Scouts Astronautics Activity Badge.

Space exploration has very much been in the headlines over the past couple of weeks, so why not take advantage of the interest this has piqued to make the Scouts Astronautics Activity Badge activity both relevant and fun to complete!

The steps which The Scout Association have outlined as needing to be completed in order to obtain the Scouts Astronautics Activity Badge are as follows:

• Find out how craters are made, and what we can learn about the universe from meteorites.
• Compare satellite images of the Earth, the Moon and Mars.
  Discuss similarities and differences between each of their landscapes.
• Build your own satellite dish.
• Have a conversation with your fellow Scouts, leaders and/or parents, about what life potentially looks like elsewhere in the universe.
• Research the International Space Station (ISS).
  Now is a great time to find out how astronauts live on the ISS. You can take a look at the new arrivals and find out how they’ve adjusted!
• Research a current space mission, such as a mission to Mars.
  Create your own model of a spacecraft with everything it needs to complete it’s own mission.
• Build, launch and recover a model rocket.
  Read more about what’s needed to complete this final step here.

For more ideas on what your young people can do to keep themselves entertained during lockdown, take a look at The Scouts’ The Great Indoors resources.