Click a merit badge name below for the current requirements. Right click on a workbook name to save or print the optional workbooks. Workbooks can help Scouts organize notes, listen actively, and document their work. These workbooks can help you but you still need to read the merit badge pamphlet. The work space provided for each requirement should be used by the Scout to make notes for discussing the item with his counselor, not for providing the full and complete answers. Each Scout must do each requirement.
Notes:
- Each workbook contains an attachment with important excerpts from the ‘Guide To Advancement’, No. 33088, which should be reviewed by the Scout, his parents, and the Merit Badge Counselor. Some of them also include notes directed to the Counselor, and/or worksheets and sample forms which may be used to complete various requirements.
- A Scout is expected to meet the requirements exactly as stated – no more and no less.
- Scouts STARTING a merit badge must use the CURRENT Boy Scout Requirements
- Once a Scout has started a merit badge, he can continue to work on those requirements even if new requirements are published. The Scout must choose whether to complete the full set of new requirements or the full set of old requirements. A Scout cannot pick and choose from both sets. If he chooses to use the new requirements, he can, of course, use the work he has done on any of the old requirements, if the requirement is unchanged, or only had editorial changes which don't actually change the actual requirement. For those Scouts who are using the older requirements because they've already started in the badge, the older requirements are accessible by links on the current pages
- If a merit badge pamphlet is updated during the year, a Scout can choose to use either full set of old requirements or new requirements in the pamphlet. Those will show an effective date of the following year (i.e. a pamphlet issued in June of 2008 will say "2009 requirements"). Once the Boy Scout Requirements are updated, all Scouts starting the merit badge must use the new requirements.
- If a BLANK appears in the lists below, it indicates that revisions to the workbook are pending, due to revised requirements.
- You can also download ZIP files containing all of the current worksheets as either word processing and/or PDF formats Keep in mind these are BIG files.
- The new word processor versions of the workbooks have been
prepared using the Microsoft Office 365 Suite (Word 2013) and are in the
DOCX file format, which was introduced in 2007. Consequently, in
most cases they
are NOT compatible with earlier versions on Microsoft Office or other word
processors which do not support that file format.
Users of the Microsoft Office XP, 2000 and 2003 that have installed all High-Priority updates from Microsoft Update can download a Compatibility Pack, by clicking here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=3. By installing the Compatibility Pack you will be able to use Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003 to open, edit, and save files using the file formats in newer versions of Word (DOCX), Excel (XLSX), and PowerPoint (PPTX) . - The newest versions of the workbooks in the PDF format have
been designed with form fields. Scouts may download these files and
then type their notes into the form fields, and save their work locally.
They have been tested successfully with the Adobe Acrobat Reader, the Foxit PDF Reader, and the Nuance PDF Reader. Each of those programs are available as free downloads7 - As of May 18, 2013, we've completed converting 119 of the worksheets to the new format - all merit badges in alphabetical order from American Business through Swimming. We'll continue converting the others and loading them onto this site as time permits. We hope to have them all converted by the end of May, 2013.
The workbooks prepared prior to 2010 were developed by Craig Lincoln. Since then, all new workbooks and the revisions to all of the others have been prepared by Paul Wolf, with some input from RW Smith, a volunteer affiliated with meritbadge.org. To our knowledge, they now reflect the current requirements in all cases.
Please submit errors, omissions, comments or suggestions about
the format of any of the WORKBOOKS to:
Workbooks@USScouts.Org
Comments or suggestions for changes to the wording of the requirements
for any MERIT BADGE should be sent to the BSA merit badge team
at: Merit.Badge@Scouting.Org
Copies of all of these workbooks (in PDF format only) are also available on the Meritbadge.org website, and a few are also available through the BSA's Scouting.org site. However, if you find copies on any other site, they have been placed there without our permission, and we would be grateful to be notified of those cases.. Please write us at Workbooks@USScouts.Org with the website address.
The workbooks are all © Copyright 2013 - U.S. Scouting Service Project, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.
The requirements are all © Copyright 2013 - Boy Scouts of America – and are used with permission.
The name American Heritage is a trademark owned by American Heritage Publishing Company, Inc. and is used by permission.
U.S. Scouting Service Project's Home Page/usscouts.org
Page updated on: May 18, 2013
