I’ll be honest, when my son expressed an interest in scouting one day early in first grade I had trepidations. Scouting held a mix of memories, especially my last two years as a Cub Scout. However, we went and checked out the local Cub Scout Pack, and over the last several years it’s been a good way for both of us to build some good memories together. I’m going to highlight some ways that we’ve used LEGO on our Scouting journey as well as a few other Scout and LEGO intersections that I know of.

These ideas are not limited to use in BSA (Boy Scouts of America) Cub Scouting activities, Girl Scouts/Guides, Heritage Scouts, or other youth programs—you could learn something new and maybe knock out some requirements in a fun way!

Tigers and Braille

We started our Cub Scout adventure in the first grade as Tigers! I had managed not to be pulled in as a Den Leader (yet) and, as a parent who was required to attend with the Scout, I was happy to show up and be the parent who “helped out or caused chaos” as required. I offered to run a night or two for the Den Leaders and picked the “Curiosity, Intrigue and Magical Mysteries” and “Floats and Boats” adventures.

While I wasn’t able to work LEGO into Floats and Boats I was able to work it into the Magical Mysteries one! I had dabbled in magic as a child and still had a few resources to pull from, but where I struggled with this adventure was one of the Scout’s requirements: spell your name in Sign Language and Braille. I wanted to make Braille very tactile, not just fill in the circles on a 2x3 grid. After some thought the idea came to me: let’s build it out of LEGO!

CUB SCOUTS in Braille built out of LEGO!

A quick run to the LEGO store resulted in a Pick-A-Brick cup of black 4x6 plates, yellow 1x6 plates, and pink 1x1 round plates. “Well,” I thought, “the boys will love the pink!” but it’s all the store had. After some experimenting, I settled on stacks of two 1x1’s for the bumps in the letters. The stacking process would buy some time at the Braille station and it made things more “feelable” to our sighted Scouts! I printed out the pattern for each scout’s name and bagged it up with the needed parts for the build. Needless to say, magic tricks and free LEGO went over pretty well that night. We had nine Scouts at the time if I remember correctly, and a PAB cup was more than sufficient so this can be a pretty cheap activity if your group is on a budget.

Wolves and Rubber Bands

Moving on to second grade and Wolves, I don’t recall any epic LEGO events for that year. There are however a couple of adventures that LEGO easily lends itself to. “Collections and Hobbies” is almost self-explanatory. I think a couple of Scouts may have brought in minifigures or bricks as their collection examples. We had great fun with the “Air of the Wolf” and “Motor Away” adventures. We built rubber band racers, paper airplanes, paper airplane launchers, and balloon-powered boats.

We sadly did not build any of these out of LEGO, but there is potential here. A paper plane launcher could be made of some spinning wheels to ensure the planes are all launched the same for the related experiment. Devising a rubber band-powered car or using one of LEGO’s various pull-back motors would make for a great car that moves under its own power. Here is an official example utilizing the principle—set 2129 Blast-Off Dragster (which I will still zip across the floor on occasion!)—and these simple instructions to build a rubber band-powered car.

Bears and Robots

I became Den Leader for our third year and it was Bear-y busy. (Sorry bear puns are required for the Bear year. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard and said “The Bears have been Un-BEAR-ably busy!”) We had a lot of LEGO fun as Bears. The two activities I’m most proud of, I actually had very little to do with. For the “Robotics” adventure, one of the requirements is to build a robot hand. The example in the handbook is made of cardboard straws and string. I know many a Scout and parent who have been frustrated with this example—it’s one of those that looks good on paper, but often doesn’t work quite right. My son built his out of LEGO. I gave a little engineering guidance here and there, but he made quite the impressive robot hand!

He also built a small marble maze for the “Marble Madness Adventure.” While it’s no JK Brickworks IDEAS Maze set 21305, he had quite a lot of fun with it.

Finally before COVID set in here in the US, we did the “Make It Move” adventure. When I got home from work I asked my son, “What do we want to do tonight at the Den meeting?” and he asked if we could do this adventure. “Hmm,” I thought, “Craft stick explosions—can’t do that with LEGO but doesn’t look hard, demonstrate pulleys, levers and build a Rube Goldberg Machine—yeah we can do that!” I asked him to help me gather my Technic boxes.

Unfortunately, I did not get pictures. Using two different wheels (part 4494222 and part 4264960), some string, and various Technic pieces as supports, we built a number of block and tackle set-ups to demonstrate how using multiple pulleys reduces the force needed to lift an object—but using more pulleys mean you need more rope! (There is always a tradeoff.)

Levers are simple to construct out of some Technic beams, and we built some impressively long ones. A few weighted bricks helped in the demonstration as well. We varied the location of the fulcrum and load to demonstrate the three classes of levers. Finally, we took our knowledge of pulleys, levers, and LEGO to build a six-step Rube Goldberg machine. Sadly, I did not get any pictures that evening because we were having so much fun. (Ahem, I mean learning!)

Webelos and Self-Portraits

With the pandemic in full swing with various lockdown and restrictions on activities, the first year of the year-and-a-half of the Webelos program was conducted largely online over Zoom. (Webelos stands for “WE'll BE LOyal Scouts.”) Webelos adventures have many great opportunities for using LEGO. The “Adventures in Science,” “Engineering,” “Game Designer,” and “Movie Making” adventures all have LEGO potential. One of the kids made a LEGO stop motion movie. But being over Zoom, getting the bricks out and building together was a challenge. One use of LEGO that might not be as expected came in the “Art Explosion” adventure.

One of the requirements is to create two self-portraits in different styles. My son really wanted to complete this adventure, but it was a difficult one for him. I suggested we try doing a Brick Sketch-style portrait. The needed planning by overlaying a grid on a photo and then figuring out what pieces to use was a challenge for him. Also, we did not have enough tan pieces for flesh tones! That was easy to fix: we switched to greyscale! While it isn’t a striking resemblance, he was quite happy with the result.

Pinewood Derby and Plastic

LEGO Pine Wood Derby Car. Is this Meta in some way?

The highlight of many a Cub Scouts’ year is the Pinewood Derby in the late winter/early spring. In many cars I’ve seen, LEGO is often used as a decorative element with minifigures glued onto cars as drivers and such. (Tip: if you go this route, be sure to use hot glue or other easily removable glues!) Here is a gallery of interesting LEGO cars from the Scout Life magazine.

For those who might want to flip things around, build LEGO out of wood! Using the wood car blank provided by the pack as the base and some 1/2 inch (13mm) dowels as the studs, I built a LEGO-shaped car for the parents’ race.

My LEGO Pine Wood Derby Car Plans. Free to use and enjoy!

While I’ve yet to explore the potential for using LEGO in BSA’s programs for older Scouts, there is at least one Scout I know of who used LEGO as part of earning his Eagle Scout Rank by building historic hotels to preserve them. (Eagle is the highest rank in Scouts BSA and is not an easy accomplishment).

Other Scouts

As I said above, my experience in scouting is limited to BSA’s Cub Scout program. With the help of my fellow BrickNerds, I found the following other types of programs that combine Scouting and LEGO.

Girl Scouts of America seems to have tied into LEGO’s Build the Change Initiative. It was a one-day event earlier this summer but could be fairly easily replicated on a smaller scale. Girl Scouts does have an official partnership with LEGO to increase STEM learning, but the info on their national website is scarce.
Girl Guides of Australia had a Friendship Challenge this last summer, but the challenges and guidance are still available online to replicate. (Thanks Sue Ann!)
The Norwegian Guide and Scout Association hosts a few LEGO activities and created custom sets to sell as a fundraiser (though now unavailable for purchase). (Thanks Are!)

According to the Scout Law, a Scout is helpful (among other things). I hope in sharing some of my son’s Scouting journey that we’ve helped you build your own adventures—or at least brought a smile to your day!

Have you used or seen LEGO used in fun and/or creative ways to achieve a goal in Scouts/Guides activities or other organizations? If you have please share in the comments.

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