Requirements June 1972 until February 1979

1. Explain the meaning of the following: ecology, biosphere, ecosystem, plant succession, limiting factor. Give an example of the last two.

2. With the help of your counselor, pick an area of 10 acres* for study.

3. Visit the area four times for 2 hours each time. On each visit do the following:

(a) Record the temperature, rain, and wind.
(b) List the animals you saw. Tell what they were doing.
(c) List the plants you saw. Name the kinds of rocks and soil.

4. Write about your study in 500 words or more showing:

(a) How the climate, topography, and geology have influenced the number and kinds of plants and animals.

(b) How the living and nonliving elements are interrelated.

(c) Why it is important that people understand this.

5. With your counselor, plan and carry out a project on ONE of the following:

(a) The effect of water-holding capacity of soil on plant life. The relation of plant cover to runoff. How both are related to the water and oxygen cycles.

(b) The influence of land plant life on temperature, light intensity, wind velocity, and humidity. The influence of water plant life on the water environment. How both land and water plants affect animal life.

6. Make a report, in the form of a short talk to a Scout group, on what you did in No. 5.

7. Show you understand the following:

(a) The causes of water pollution. Tell what it does to rivers and lakes.
(b) The causes of land pollution. Tell what it does to the environment.
(c) The causes of air pollution. Tell what it does to the environment.
(d) How some chemicals get into the tissues of animals miles from where they were used.

8. Describe what you and others can do to help solve a local problem of air pollution, water pollution, or litter.

9. Describe the duties of three positions in environmental science.

*City Scouts may pick an area in a large park, if a better place is not available.