[HN Gopher] "Computers", BSA Merit Badge Series (1973)
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"Computers", BSA Merit Badge Series (1973)
Author : dalke
Score : 21 points
Date : 2022-05-12 08:20 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (archive.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (archive.org)
| WalterBright wrote:
| It's in my 1969 BSA merit badge book, too.
|
| I don't know why I never got it, though my first access to a
| computer was in 1975. At one point I decided to get every merit
| badge, but lost interest before finishing.
|
| In the early 1970s, the BSA underwent a major dumbing down, which
| contributed to my losing interest. For example, the WeBeLoS rank
| in Cub Scouts stood for "Wolf Bear Lion Scout". To a boy, that
| was pretty cool! But by the time I achieved Bear, they changed it
| to mean "We Will Be Loyal Scouts". Ugh. That just let all the air
| out of the balloon. What boy wants that rank?
|
| The uniforms were changed from cotton that worked great outdoors,
| to cheap, itchy polyester. Perhaps coincidentally, the scouts
| stopped wearing the uniforms.
|
| They revamped the Boy Scout manual, too, in a miserable way. I
| kept my old one. I had the 1969 Merit badge book because, you
| guessed it, they messed up the merit badges, too, to be more like
| Sesame Street.
|
| It just wasn't for me anymore. Grumble, grumble.
| bg4 wrote:
| I'm an Eagle Scout who grew up in the 80s. 'We'll be loyal
| scouts' was my jam baby.
| WalterBright wrote:
| I'm sure there were still plenty of boys for whom it worked.
| The BSA that I liked, however, had passed into history, much
| like how chemistry sets were emasculated at about the same
| time.
| WalterBright wrote:
| One think I thank the BSA for is when I moved to Arizona, I
| thought it was one ugly lifeless brown desert. One of the
| merit badges required me to identify many types of flora
| and fauna to a leader while hiking in the desert.
|
| It really opened my eyes to the beauty of the Arizona
| desert, which I grew to love very much.
|
| The swimming and lifesaving merit badges also made me
| confident in the water, which I thank the BSA for giving me
| the impetus to do.
|
| And, of course, the knots have served me well, and I can
| make fire with one match. I wish the Scouts had taught a
| lot more woodcraft. They didn't even teach building an
| emergency shelter.
| bg4 wrote:
| You're not wrong sadly - I've commented very much the same
| thing for the experience I had in the 80s compared to
| today.
| Shared404 wrote:
| I had a similar experience over the course of the 2000s -
| 2010s.
|
| Though my issue was as much with the increasing top
| heaviness of the funding as anything else.
| ben_w wrote:
| I find it surprising and fascinating that OCR was already a thing
| by this point.
|
| What is/was easy and what is/was hard isn't at all obvious, not
| even in retrospect.
| convolvatron wrote:
| it was pretty marginally useful for the longest time, night and
| day with todays
| cowmix wrote:
| I was in a computers themed "Explorer Scout" program in the
| mid-80s (it had some affiliation to the BSA but I'm not sure how)
| when I was going to high school. One of the benefits of that
| program was getting your own account on Honeywell's Multics
| timeshare system.
| mayoff wrote:
| I was in an Explorer Post that met at Convex Computer
| Corporation in Dallas, TX in 1986. It was my first exposure to
| Unix and C programming. A few of us got dial-up access to a
| Convex C-1 "minisupercomputer". Then I got in trouble for
| dialing in just to play Hack. (This was before it became
| Nethack.)
| version_five wrote:
| I was in cub scouts (this was in Canada, it's for ages 7-10 or
| so, I don't know how it maps to BSA scouts, it's part of the same
| Baden Powell originated organization).
|
| I did a similar badge in this org which I think was a little more
| basic, in the 80s. I haven't really thought about it since then,
| but we had to do some definitions, I think write instructions for
| some task as in this one, and what strikes me most now is we had
| some (simple) boolean logic exercises, or had to make examples, I
| think explained as switches, explaining AND, OR (I dont remember
| if others were there) as series and parallel and determining
| whether a light was on.
|
| Sounds basic, but having taught intro to programming and intro to
| circuits many years later, still confusing for many
| Alupis wrote:
| Cub Scouts is the under-12 youth organization that "feeds" into
| Boy Scouts.
|
| Many, but not all, Boy Scouts started off as Cub Scouts, rising
| up through the ranks to earn their Webelos before "graduating"
| into Boy Scouts around age 12.
|
| Cub Scouts organize into "Packs" (analogous to a Troop in Boy
| Scouts), and break off into "Dens" (analogous to Patrols in Boy
| Scouts).
|
| Scouting is an amazing youth experience, both in Cub Scouts and
| Boy Scouts. Unfortunately not all Packs and Troops are created
| equal, although some "specialize" in certain activities (such
| as canoeing/kayaking, backpacking, etc). Finding a good Pack or
| Troop that fits your interests is key.
| WalterBright wrote:
| I joined the Boy Scouts at 10 mainly because the Cub Scouts
| abandoned Wolf Bear Lion Scout as WeBeLoS.
| Alupis wrote:
| That's a real shame. In my day, earning your Webelos was
| quite a life achievement and meant a great deal, for being
| so young. It was not quite the same magnitude of importance
| as earning your Eagle, or being inducted into the Order of
| the Arrow, but it was significant.
| jdeibele wrote:
| My son is in Scouts. He was a Wolf, then Bear, then
| Webelos. He achieved the Arrow of Light as a Cub Scout.
| https://www.boyscouttrail.com/webelos/arrow-of-light.php
| Is that the same as what the Webelos used to be?
|
| BSA brought back Lions a few years ago for 1st Graders.
| I'm not sure what the uptake has been.
| WalterBright wrote:
| The ranks were Wolf, Bear, Lion, then WeBeLos, and then
| Arrow of Light.
| willswire wrote:
| As an Eagle Scout, one of the things I'm most grateful for is the
| merit badge program. You really get a wide exposure to tons of
| different areas - most of which come with a pamphlet similar to
| this one.
|
| The real value proposition of the BSA is to better serve your
| community and those around you by becoming well-rounded, and
| having contextual experience of teamwork dynamics.
| dalke wrote:
| Following up on yesterday's "Master's at Arms" badge
| (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31344293 ), I thought
| people might be interested in what the requirements were for the
| "Computers" badge for the Boy Scouts of America, nearly 50 years
| ago.
|
| Here are the requirements, from
| https://archive.org/details/BoyScoutsComputers/page/n5/mode/... :
|
| 1. Do the following:
|
| a. Give a short history of computers. Describe the major parts of
| a computer system. Give four different uses of computers.
|
| b. Describe the differences between analog and digital computers.
| Tell the use of each.
|
| c. Explain some differences between special- and general-purpose
| machines.
|
| 2. Do the following:
|
| a. Tell what a program is and how it is developed.
|
| b. Explain the difference between an assembler and a compiler.
| Tell where each might he used. Describe a source and an object
| program.
|
| c. Use a flowchart diagram to show the steps needed to set up a
| camp.
|
| 3. Do one of the following:
|
| a. Prepare flowcharts to find out the average attendance and dues
| paid at the last five troop meetings.
|
| b. Prepare flowcharts to work out a simple arithmetic problem.
| Explain to your counselor how this program could be stored in a
| computer. Tell how it could be used again.
|
| 4. Do the following:
|
| a. Name four input/ output devices for computers. Explain the use
| of two of them in a system.
|
| b. Explain the Hollerith code. Show how your name and address
| would be punched on a card.
|
| 5. Tell the meaning of six of the following: a. memory b. bits c.
| on-line d. bytes e. microsecond f. address g. channel h.
| interrupt i. register j. console k. central processing unit
|
| 6. Tell the meaning and use of 12 of the following: a. business
| data processing b. information retrieval c. simulation d.
| scientific processing e. floating point f. truncation g. fixed
| point h. accuracy i. input j. record k. output l. file m.
| software n. instruction o. hardware p. indexing q. loop r.
| subroutine s. real time t. time sharing u. cybernetics
|
| 7. Visit a computer installation. Study how it works.
|
| 8. Do the following:
|
| a. Explain what each of the following does: design engineer,
| analyst, customer engineer, operator, programmer, salesman
|
| b. Read two pieces of information about computers. Describe what
| you read.
|
| c. Describe jobs in the computer field.
| dylan604 wrote:
| I think this would give one a much more rounded knowledge base
| than your typical coding boot camp graduate receives.
| Shared404 wrote:
| Old Scouting manuals are a gold mine for basics on a very
| wide variety of knowledge. Much of it is outdated, but I
| still quite enjoy reading through a replica copy of the
| original BSA handbook.
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