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This week marks the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America and that has some significance for the medical technology field. It turns out that a scouting merit badge program provides one of the nation's earliest prep programs for engineering.

American educators have long bemoaned our shortage of students pursuing the so-called STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and math. The Boy Scouts are part of the solution with their merit badges for electricity and electronics.



IEEE Spurs the Effort

An IEEE program, www.emeritbadges.org, has developed hands-on electricity and electronics instructional material based on the Boy Scouts' merit badge requirements. (Instructional material for computer education is also being developed.) Any student, boy or girl, can use the program to enhance technical literacy and learn more about engineering and other technical career options.

IEEE is the title sponsor of the Electricity and Electronics merit badge booths at this summer's 2010 National Scout Jamboree.

"Our mission is a global, non-discriminatory pre-university technology education program for boys and girls," said Ralph W. Russell II, chair of the IEEE Scouting Program, and an account manager at Dominion Virginia Power. Russell is a former Boy Scout and also a volunteer at the Jamboree Merit Badge Midway, which holds training sessions in the field, conducted at the Jamboree.

"Biomedical companies and IEEE need talented people coming into this industry and we want to promote boys' and girls' participation in our program. It's not just a scouting project. We're promoting a vehicle through which we teach all students, boys and girls, about the field.... Engineers, technicians, designers and everyone has to understand technology. We are hoping to fill the pipeline and improve technical literacy around the world," Russell said.

With the need for biomedical expertise growing, the scouting and IEEE efforts are more important than ever. Find out about the programs at www.emeritbadges.org and www.GirlsGoEngineering.org.