Boy Scout achievement and assessment

The typical high school or college class runs like this:

The teacher talks or conducts other activities for about 7 or 8 weeks.  Students listen, take notes and participate in the class activities, which might involve meeting in small groups to talk together, build or create something and such.  At the end of that time, there is a test of some sort.  Typically, the test involves reading questions or multiple choice items and writing out answers or choosing the correct choice. In a day or so, students are given information about their performance on the test.  The test results information might consist of a single grade or number, such as the well-know "A" for the highest level of achievement.  Students who don't earn a grade they (or their parents) like are urged to "study harder" for the next test on the next segment of instruction.

If this type of procedure is carried out enough times in a sufficiently calm and accepting atmosphere, it can seem as though it is the only way to conduct schooling.  But for the sake of comparison, look at this set of requirements for a Boy Scout to earn the American Business merit badge:

Requirements

1. Do the following:
1. Explain four features of the free enterprise system in the United States. Tell its benefits and responsibilities. Describe the difference between freedom and license. Tell how the Scout Oath and Law apply to business and free enterprise.
2. Describe the Industrial Revolution. Tell about the major developments that marked the start of the modern industrial era in the United States. Tell about five people who had a great influence on business or industry in the United States. Tell what each did.
2. Do the following:
1. Visit a bank. Talk with one of the officers or staff. Chart the organization of the bank. Show its relationship with other banks, business, and industry.
2. Explain how changes in interest rates, taxes, and government spending affect the flow of money into or out of business and industry.
3. Explain how a proprietorship or partnership gets its capital. Discuss and explain four ways a corporation gets its capital.
4. Explain the place of profit in business.
5. Name five kinds of insurance useful to business. Describe their purposes.
3. Do the following:
1. Pick two or more stocks from the financial pages of a newspaper. Request the annual report or prospectus from one of the companies by writing, or visit its website (with your parent's permission) to view the annual report online. Explain how a company's annual report and prospectus can be used to help you manage your investments.
2. Pretend you have bought $1,000 worth of the stocks from the company you wrote to in requirement 3a. Explain how you "bought" the stocks. Tell why you decided to "buy" stock in this company. Keep a weekly record for three months of the market value of your stocks. Show any dividends declared.
4. Do ONE of the following:
1. Draw an organizational chart of a typical central labor council.
2. Describe automation, union shop, open shop, collective-bargaining agreements, shop steward, business agent, and union counselor.
3. Explain the part played by four federal or state agencies in labor relations.
5. Run a small business involving a product or service for at least three months. First find out the need for it. For example: a newspaper route, lawn mowing, sales of things you have made or grown. Keep records showing the costs, income, and profit or loss.
6. Report:
1. How service, friendliness, hard work, and salesmanship helped build your business.
2. The benefits you and others received because you were in business. Comparable 4-H, FFA, or Junior Achievement projects may be used for requirement 5.
7. Do ONE of the following:
1. Make an oral presentation to your Scout troop about an e-commerce company. Tell about the benefits and pitfalls of doing business online, and explain the differences between a retailer and an e-commerce company. In your presentation, explain the similarities a retailer and an e-commerce company might share.
2. Choose three products from your local grocery store or mall and tell your merit badge counselor how the packaging could be improved upon so that it has less impact on the environment.
3. Gather information from news sources and books about a current business leader. Write a two-page biography about this person or make a short presentation to your counselor. Focus on how this person became a successful business leader.

There are 6 numbered sections but if you count separately what is required, there are 13 requirements.  Some sections have multiple parts while two only require one subpart of several to be completed. You might want to note that while the majority of requirements involve explaining or other language activities that can show mental grasp, there is a requirement to pay a visit and there is one to create and run a business "for at least three months", after investigating the need for it.  It is also required that records be kept.

The 13 requirements mean that the adult counselor (teacher, tester) checks off 13 adequately-done items.  Note that if the Scout does not convince the counselor of adequate performance, the Scout would immediately know exactly what must be improved. Note, too, that the counselor can evaluate a different Scout while the first one tries to improve his performance or assembles better EVIDENCE of it. Finally, note that Scouts who had done a good job passing the requirements could be given the task of assessing others, who would have a right of appeal if they felt they were not given a fair evaluation.

--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety