Energy With Scouts!

Energy organizations love bringing in Boy and Girl Scouts and showing them about the cool things they can do with energy. I have to admit, I loved this kind of stuff as a kid too. The Ann Arbor Michigan Hands-On Museum was probably one of my favorite places growing up, if only because they made science and technology so interesting.

So, I don't fault power companies, large energy corporations (like Westinghouse), environmental groups, or federal agencies for doing Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) outreach. Even if you could care less about technology, it is still useful to understand how the things people hand you and tell you that you need (like a smartphone) work.

It's just sometimes, please, PLEASE outreach groups, think about what you have kids do.

Case in Point: last weekend, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) hosted a day of events about energy action for a group of Scouts from the D.C. area. The major topics scouts could learn about were electricity, energy, or nuclear science, each of which would go towards a specific merit badge/patch.

The top two are merit badges Boy Scouts could earn in either Nuclear Science (top) or Energy (middle). The Girl Scout below is holding the Nuclear Science patch (which is a lot sweeter than the Boy Scout's one) she earned at the event.

The Good: The event had a number of interesting ways to get kids to think about energy from the universally-fun static electricity balloon example (something I have seen adults engage in well into later life) and a sweet example of how a nuclear chain reaction works using ping pong balls and mousetraps:

I wish they would have shown me that when I was starting nuclear engineering...would've explained things so much better.

The Not-So-Good: I understand from working with nuclear scientists and engineers, as well as being a Vice President of a student chapter of their primary society, the American Nuclear Society, that explaining radiation is one of the most difficult things to do. Its odorless, tasteless, around you all the time, and was/is a favorite in T.V. for explaining random health issues (at least until House came about, then it was Lupus). But seriously folks, this?

The caption reads: "A Boy Scout uses a radiation survey meter".

Talking about energy and energy technologies does not always mean talking about it, sometimes it can come across in more visual representations. For reference, that is a Geiger counter. Yes, you use a Geiger counter for a number of things, not all of them out of B-movie stories of radiation creating mutant creatures that terrorize the world (think Them!). Problem is, Geiger counters and other radiation detection gear hold a certain sway on the human imagination. 

When people think radiation, then tend to think this:

So, when you plan STEM projects, please first think about what the parents will think, and then focus on what you actually want to teach the kids. Context is everything, and as the old adage goes "a picture is worth a thousand words".