Tonight Troop 60 Scouts met at the Fine Arts Digital Media classroom at NSU and learned about different kinds of art made with 3-D printers with Professor Hyams.

Then they moved into the classroom and began designing logos they drew last week on the computers using TinkerCad software so they can be 3-D printed.

Thus the Scouts transformed their logos from penciled drafts into 3-dimensional graphic designs!

First United Methodist Church’s Methodist Men’s group welcomed members of Troop 60 and representatives from Norwela Council to their Scout Sunday breakfast this morning and contributed to Friends of Scouting fundraising efforts. Troop 60’s charter with First United Methodist Church Natchitoches is one of the oldest in north Louisiana. Thank you for your continued support of Troop 60 and Scouting!

Also pictured are Norwela Council’s Assistant Scout Executive Steve Williams and Netami District Executive Neal Stapleton.

Last night Troop 60 Scouts began the Art merit badge requirements, breaking into patrols to discuss art history and various forms of art, how art is emotive, the elements of art, and principles of design (requirements 1-3). They then began brainstorming and drafting their personal logos and did pencil drawings in preparation for next week, when we will be meeting in NSU’s Fine Arts building with Professor Hymes to design using ink and computer software for 3-D printing of the logos.

Gentle reminder:

At their Thursday night meeting February 7th, Troop 60 Scouts were excited to welcome Cub Scouts from Pack 20, who participated in finishing up the Programming Merit Badge and learned more about the outings, adventures, and accomplishments achieved by Scouts in Troop 60.

After breaking into patrols to discuss the history and possible careers in various programming-related fields, Scouts shared what they learned with each other and wrapped up the last requirement of the Programming merit badge.

Then, the Scoutmaster recognized recent earned achievements and distributed cloth badges: please join us in congratulating Alex for Scout rank and having earned his Cyber Chip and Stephen for completing his Eagle-required Cooking and Camping merit badges. The Scouts who competed in the 2019 Iditarod campout and race were recognized and received their Iditarod patches, and they shared details of their experiences and awards with the rest of the Troop and Pack 20 attendees.

Finally, Troop 60 Scouts described their experiences in scouting with Pack 20 visitors and answered their questions about the differences between Cub Scouts and BSA Scouts.

Thank you Pack 20 visitors for sharing a fun meeting with us!

Tonight Troop 60 Scouts met in Russell Hall, and Dr Perez gave them a hardware lesson: after showing them what a Raspberry Pi is, how to connect it, and how it takes the place of a CPU, the Scouts connected their RPs to the monitor, mouse, and keyboard in order to use them as a CPU.

The luddite Scoutmaster found all of this very complicated, but the Scouts had no problems disengaging wires, engaging wires, pushing buttons, finding inputs, and otherwise transforming traditional desktop computers into Raspberry Pi computers.

Then the Scouts were challenged to find the software menu and they discovered all of the various programs that come with the Raspbian operating system.

Then they began programming in Python.

Programming languages are very particular, so every character, space, and line has to be precise. Scouts also learned the importance of frequent saving, so nothing gets lost accidentally. Once they clicked to “run module,” they practiced debugging to find the errors.

Once Scouts got their programs to work, they changed one of the conditions to get a different outcome and then helped each other until everyone was successful in running their scripts.

Next week, we are back at the Wesley Center and will welcome Arrow of Light Webelos from Pack 20 to our meeting, so come looking sharp!