BELT LOOP REQUIREMENTS

The Cub Scout Academics and Sports program complements the scouting program by providing opportunities for scouts to improve scholarship, develop sportsmanship, and explore new games while collecting Cub Scout belt loops and pins. The emphasis of the program is to try new things and to put forth a best effort, not of achieving proficiency or winning. This program is one method of addressing the third aim of Scouting: the development of physical, mental and emotional fitness. Fitness includes the body (well-tuned and healthy), the mind (able to think and solve problems), and the emotions (self-control, courage, and self-respect).

Cub Scouts of all ages from Tiger Cubs to Webelos can participate in the Cub Scout Academics and Sports program and earn a belt loop or pin for each activity. Activities can be done individually, in the Den, or as a Pack. ( Archery and BB-Gun Shooting can only be earned through a certified instructor, not at a den or pack level. ) A scout participating on school teams or other organized teams may use those activities to fulfill requirements of this scouting program.

Activities are divided into two categories: Academics and Sports. Each category has many skills and activities from which Scouts may choose. The Cub Scout belt loop and pin program encourages a boy to do his best while learning skills and promoting good sportsmanship. There are currently 28 sports & 25 academic belt loops.

Effective September 1, 2010 belt loop purchases will be the responsibility of the scout parent or guardian unless earned as part of a Pack or Den activity.  Please purchase the belt loops at either the Scout House or Kamper City.  Turn them into either Sean Oster, Advancement Chairmen, or Cub Master Ron one week prior to a Pack meeting so that we may still recognize your scouts achievements. 

SPORT BELT LOOPS

Requirements for the Archery Sports Belt Loop

• Cub Scouts and Webelos Scouts can earn the archery belt loop by participating in the archery safety program at Cub Scout camp. Complete these three requirements only at a council camp with a certified Cub Scout Archery shooting director present:
• Explain the rules for safe archery that you have learned in the district/council camp or activity you are attending with your leader or adult partner.
• Demonstrate to your leader or adult partner good archery shooting techniques,including the stance and how to nock the arrow, establish the bow, draw, aim, release, follow-through and retrieve arrows.
• Practice shooting at your district or council camp for the time allowed.

• Explain the rules of safe BB gun shooting you have learned to your leader or adult partner.
• Demonstrate to your leader or adult partner good BB gun shooting techniques, including eye dominance, shooting shoulder, breathing, sight alignment, trigger squeeze, follow through.
• Practice shooting at your district or your council camp in the time allowed.

• Explain the rules of badminton to your leader or adult partner.
• Spend at least 30 minutes practicing badminton skills.
• Participate in a badminton game.

• Explain the rules of baseball to your leader or adult partner.
• Spend at least 30 minutes practicing baseball skills.
• Participate in a baseball game.

• Explain the rules of basketball to your leader or adult partner.
• Spend at least 30 minutes practicing basketball skills.
• Participate in a basketball game.

Requirements for the Bicycling Belt Loop

• Explain the rules of safe bicycling to your den leader or adult partner.
• Demonstrate how to wear the proper safety equipment for bicycling.
• Show how to ride a bike safely. Ride for at least half an hour with an adult partner, family, or den.

• Explain to your leader or adult partner the rules of courtesy and safety for bowling.
• Show how to pick out a ball of proper weight and with finger holes that fit your hand.
• Play a complete game with your family or den.

• Review your local fishing regulations with your leader or adult partner. Explain why they are important, and commit to following them.
• Demonstrate how to properly bait a hook.
• Try to catch a fish.

• Explain or discuss the simple rules of flag football with your den.
• Practice running, passing, and catching skills for at least 30 minutes.
• Play a game of flag football.

• Give a short report to your den or family on the dangers of drugs and alcohol.
• Practice finding your pulse and counting your heartbeats per minute. Determine your target heart rate.
• Practice five physical fitness skills regularly. Improve performance in each skill over a month. Skills could include pull-ups, curl-ups, the standing long jump, the 50-yard dash, and the softball throw.

• Explain the rules of golf to your leader or adult partner. Explain the need for caution concerning golf clubs and golf balls.
• Spend at least 30 minutes practicing golfing skills.
• Participate in a round of golf (nine holes).

Requirements for the Gymnastics Belt Loop

• Explain the six events of men's gymnastics: floor exercise, pommel horse, still rings, vaulting/side horse, parallel bars, and horizontal bar.
• Participate in three of the six events using the proper equipment.
• Explain the safety rules you should follow to learn gymnastics.

• Explain the hiking safety rules to your den leader or adult partner. Practice these rules while on a hike.
• Demonstrate proper hiking attire and equipment.
• Hike at least 30 minutes with your adult partner, family, or den.

• Explain ways to protect yourself while skating. Demonstrate how to put on all necessary safety equipment. Explain why proper safety equipment is important.
• Spend 30 minutes practicing the skills of hockey: skating, stick handling, passing, shooting, and checking. This may be over two different practice periods.
• Play a game of hockey while on roller skates or hockey skates.

• Explain five safety precautions for when you are near a horse.
• With help from an experienced horse handler, demonstrate how to safely mount and ride a horse and then how to safely dismount the horse.
• Go on a supervised horseback ride for at least 20 minutes. Wear an approved helmet (such as one approved for horseback riding by the ASTM, or American Society for Testing and Materials).

• Explain ways to protect yourself while ice skating, and the need for proper safety equipment.
• Spend at least 30 minutes practicing the skills of skating.
• Go ice skating with a family member or den for at least three hours. Chart your time.

• Explain the rules of kickball to your leader or adult partner.
• Spend 30 minutes practicing the skills of kickball (pitching, kicking, base running, catching, throwing). This may be over two different practice periods.
• Play a game of kickball.

Requirements for the Marbles Belt Loop

• Explain the rules of Ringer or another marble game to your leader or adult partner.
• Spend at least 30 minutes practicing skills to play the game of Ringer or another marble game.
• Participate in a game of marbles.

• Demonstrate to an adult the general rules for safe skateboarding by showing that you know how to wear the proper safety gear.
• Carefully demonstrate how to fall to help minimize injuries.
• Practice skateboarding for 30 minutes. This practice may be done in several periods.

• Explain ways to protect yourself while roller skating or inline skating, and the need for proper safety equipment.
• Spend at least 30 minutes practicing the skills of roller skating or inline skating.
• Go skating with a family member or den for at least three hours. Chart your time.

• Explain conditioning, clothing, equipment, and planning needed for snow skiing or boarding.
• Be able to explain safety and courtesy codes for a downhill or cross-country trip.
• Go skiing or snow boarding. Demonstrate how to stop and turn.

• Explain the rules of soccer to your leader or adult partner.
• Spend at least 30 minutes practicing soccer skills.
• Play a game of soccer.

• Explain the rules of softball to your leader or adult partner.
• Spend at least 30 minutes practicing softball skills.
• Participate in a softball game.

• Explain the rules of Safe Swim Defense. Emphasize the buddy system.
• Play a recreational game in the water with your den, pack, or family.
• While holding a kick board, propel yourself 25 feet using a flutter kick across the shallow end of the swimming area.

Requirements for the Table Tennis Belt Loop

• Explain the rules of table tennis to your leader or adult partner.
• Spend at least 30 minutes practicing table tennis skills.
• Participate in a table tennis game.

• Explain the rules of tennis to your leader or adult partner.
• Spend at least 30 minutes practicing tennis skills.
• Participate in a tennis game.

• Explain the rules of ultimate to your leader or adult partner.
• Spend at least 30 minutes practicing ultimate skills.
• Participate in an ultimate game.

• Explain the rules of volleyball to your leader or adult partner.
• Spend at least 30 minutes practicing skills to play the sport of volleyball.
• Participate in a volleyball game.

ACADEMIC BELT LOOPS

Requirements for the Art Academics Belt Loop

• Make a list of common materials used to create visual art compositions.
• Demonstrate how six of the following elements of design are used in a drawing: lines, circles, dots, shapes, colors, patterns, textures, space, balance, or perspective.
• Identify the three primary colors and the three secondary colors that can be made by mixing them. Show how this is done using paints or markers. Use the primary and secondary colors to create a painting.

• Set up and demonstrate how to focus a simple telescope or binoculars.
• Draw a diagram of our solar system:identify the planets and other objects.
• Explain the following terms: planet, star, solar system, galaxy, the Milky Way, black hole, red giant, white dwarf, comet, meteor, moon, asteroid, and universe.

• Identify the chess pieces and set up a chess board for play.
• Demonstrate the moves of each chess piece to your den leader or adult partner.
• Play a game of chess.

• Develop a list of jobs you can do around the home. Chart your progress for one week.
• Make a poster showing things that you can do to be a good citizen.
• Participate in a family, den, or school service project.

• Begin a collection of at least 10 items that all have something in common. Label the items and title your collection.
• Display your collection at a pack or den meeting.
• Visit a show or museum that displays different collections.

• Tell a story or relate an incident to a group of people, such as your family, den, or members of your class.
• Write a letter to a friend or relative.
• Make a poster about something that interests you. Explain the poster to your den.

Requirements for the Computers Belt Loop

• Explain the parts of a personal computer: central processing unit (CPU), monitor, keyboard, mouse, modem, and printer.
• Demonstrate how to start up and shut down a personal computer properly.
• Use your computer to prepare and print a document.

• Visit with a friend, family member, classmate, or other person with disabilities. Find out what this person enjoys and what this person finds difficult.
• Attend a disabilities event such as an Easter Seals event, Special Olympics, a performance with sign language interpretation, an activity with Guiding Eyes dogs, or a wheelchair race. Tell your adult leader what you thought about the experience.
• Make a display about one or more disabilities. It can include physical, learning, or mental challenges. Share the display at a pack meeting.

• Make a list of things you would take on a threeday trip with your family, then pack these items in a bag or suitcase.
• With an adult’s help, figure out the cost and miles to complete a trip to a place of interest using the family car or public transportation.
• Research at least five places to visit during a trip to a place of interest. Explain what you learned to your family.

• Draw a map of your neighborhood. Show natural and manmade features. Include a key or legend of map symbols.
• Learn about the physical geography of your community. Identify the major landforms within 100 miles. Discuss with an adult what you learned.
• Use a world globe or map to locate the continents, the oceans, the equator, and the northern and southern hemispheres. Learn how longitude and latitude lines are used to locate a site.

• Define geology.
• Collect a sample of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks. Explain how each was formed.
• Explain the difference between a rock and a mineral.

Requirements for the Good Manners Belt Loop

• Make a poster that lists five good manners that you want to practice. Share your poster with your den or family.
• Introduce two people correctly and politely. Be sure that one of them is an adult.
• Write a thank-you note to someone who has given you something or done something nice for you.

• Talk with members of your family about your family heritage: its history, traditions, and culture.
• Make a poster that shows the origins of your ancestors. Share it with your den or other group.
• Draw a family tree showing members of your family for three generations.

• Talk with someone who grew up in a different country than you did. Find out what it was like and how it is different from your experience.
• Learn 10 words that are in a different language than your own.
• Play two games that originated in another country or culture.

• Show how to orient a map. Find three landmarks on the map.
• Explain how a compass works.
• Draw a map of your neighborhood. Label the streets and plot the route you take to get to a place that you often visit.

• Do five activities within your home or school that require the use of mathematics. Explain to your den how you used everyday math.
• Keep track of the money you earn and spend for three weeks.
• Measure five items using both metric and nonmetric measures. Find out about the history of the metric system of measurement.

• Explain why music is an important part of our culture.
• Pick a song with at least two verses and learn it by heart.
• Listen to four different types of music either recorded or live.

Requirements for the Nutrition Belt Loop

• Make a poster of foods that are good for you. Share the poster with your den.
• Explain the difference between a fruit and a vegetable. Eat one of each.
• Help prepare and eat a healthy meal of foods that are included in a food pyramid.
  (With your parent’s or partner’s permission, see http://www.mypyramid.gov.)

• Care for your pet for two weeks. Make a list of the tasks that you did to take care of your pet.
• Read a book, explore the Internet (with your parent’s or adult partner’s permission), or acquire a pamphlet about your pet. List three new interesting facts that you learned about your pet.
• Make a poster about your pet. Share your poster with your den, pack, or family.

• Point out the major features of a camera to your den or family and explain the function of each part. Parts could include film, lens, shutter, power on and off, zoom, battery, flash, display panel, case, settings, etc.
• Discuss with your den leader or adult partner, the benefits and contributions photography makes to modern life. Report what you learned to your den or family.
• Using a camera, take at least 10 pictures of your family, pet, or scenery; show these to your den.

• Visit a library and get your own library card. Check out and return a book.
• Write a letter or a short story. Read it to your den or family.
• Keep a diary of your activities for one week. Read it to your den or family.

• Explain the scientific method to your adult partner.
• Use the scientific method in a simple science project. Explain the results to an adult.
• Visit a museum, a laboratory, an observatory, a zoo, an aquarium, or other facility that employs scientists. Talk to a scientist about his or her work.

• Explain why it is important to have a rating system for video games. Check your video games to be sure they are right for your age.
• With an adult, create a schedule for you to do things that includes your chores, homework, and video gaming. Do your best to follow this schedule.
• Learn to play a new video game that is approved by your parent, guardian, or teacher.

Requirements for the Weather Belt Loop

• Make a poster that shows and explains the water cycle.
• Set up a simple weather station to record rainfall, temperature, air pressure, or evaporation for one week.
• Watch the weather forecast on a local television station.

• Explain what natural resources are and why it's important to protect and conserve them.
• Make a poster that shows and explains the food chain. Describe to your den what happens if the food chain becomes broken or damaged.
• Learn about an endangered species. Make a report to your den that includes a picture, how the species came to be endangered, and what is being done to save it.