STEM Nova Award, BSA

Home
United States
Irving, TX
STEM Nova Award, BSA

Scouting America developed the STEM Nova Awards program to excite and expand a sense of wonder in our Scouts.

06/11/2026

Wild Wednesday - June 10 - Chocolate Tube Slime Mold

Stemonitis splendens is commonly known as Chocolate Tube Slime Mold because its fruiting bodies look like chocolate tubes. Slime molds are somewhat like amoebas in that they normally exist as single cell organisms. But when they need to reproduce, they gather together in often complex and colorful congregations.

The pictures show what this gathering looked like on Monday and two days later on Wednesday. Quite a change.

06/04/2026

Wild Wednesday - June 3 - Spittlebugs

It's not spit. The foam that the spittlebug larva produce to create a protective shelter comes out of the end of their body opposite their mouth. But it's not p**p. It's a specialized liquid that includes stabilizers to help the bubbles attach and last longer that combines with air. It's a shelter for the growing bug larva.

The chilly morning I took the photo, the bugs might have needed protection from low temperatures as well as from predators. I had never seen the drops of liquid on the foam as shown at left.

Have you seen this froth on plant stems?

https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/spittlebugs/

05/28/2026

Wild Wednesday - May 27 - Pre-hike the Trail

Our Cub Scout Pack is taking a hike tomorrow evening at an area we visited last September. It's someplace I visit often. But I hiked it this evening to check on any hazards and trail conditions. I also took some photos of things to look for.

Normally I wouldn't include a trail marker. But these were installed as an Eagle Scout project. And they were slightly melted during a prescribed burn a couple of years ago.

Get your scouts outside.

05/21/2026

Wild Wednesday - May 20 - The Turtle and the Bunny

Two turtle posts in a row?! When nature shows you turtles, you use them to share nature concepts.

If a turtle is crossing a road, move it in the direction it was traveling. Don't move it far.

I did pick up this one. It was a male with a concave bottom shell for balancing during mating. I probably wouldn't mention that with Cub Scouts. Gender isn't relevant in how we help the turtle.

Don't paint turtle shells. The shell is part of its body.

Share the "The Tortoise and the Hare" fable. How does the moral of the fable relate to Scouting? The Cub Scout motto is "Do Your Best".

We might make a turtle craft with three craft sticks. Picture in comments. Scouts isn't about making crafts, but sometimes making an item makes the concepts sticky and also helps build fine motor skills. Sometimes.

Finally, I was too close to the bunny. I extended my arm and held out my thumb. My thumb did not cover the bunny. To use this in a meeting, place stuffed or plastic animals around your meeting room and ask the scouts how close they can be to that animal. They should be able to cover the animal with their extended thumb. If they can't, they are too close. I picked up the turtle. That was definitely too close.

05/14/2026

Wild Wednesday - May 13 - Find the Box Turtle

When we go out with Scouts on a hike, we look for things. For Cub Scouts, I often do a pre-hike to check for hazards and note cool things to look for. I might create a handout noting things they might find: 2 types of yellow flowers, 2 butterflies, a bird, something manmade, a cool shadow. I wouldn’t include the turtle.

The box turtle is going to move. But she won’t go far. This is her home. We don’t pick her up. We don’t paint her shell. Her shell is part of her body.

If you see a turtle crossing a road, stop safely. Move it in the direction it was traveling.

In the picture, the box turtle is above the I in FIND and about halfway up the picture.

05/06/2026

Wild Wednesday - May 6 - Fuzzy Shadows

While out and about observing the world, I've noticed that some shadows are crisp and some have fuzzy edges.

This effect can be explored carefully during an eclipse because the spherical sun becomes a crescent. See video below.

But what I notice during the more frequent non-eclipse walks is that objects closer to the ground create shadows with crisper edges than those further away from the ground.

In the image, the very fuzzy shadows are from tree leaves several feet overhead. My hand's shadow a few feet above the ground has a bit of fuzziness. The dandelion's shadow is crisp. An image in the comments shows shadows of an overhead object, the phone, and an edge-on butterfly with its small crisp shadow.

Your Scouts can explore this phenomenon placing objects at varied distances to the ground. They might explore it inside with wider and more pinpoint light sources.

We explored how our waffle hands (search "waffle hands eclipse") make round sun images with hands away from the ground (or wall) but finger space shapes when closer to the shadows.

This video describes how the fuzziness is caused and can be observed during an eclipse:
https://youtu.be/h_vxRgpIJHE?si=Zwzuz8mdJPVWXt1V

04/29/2026

Wild Wednesday - April 29 - Look More
Carefully

The view on the left has grabbed our attention multiple times in recent weeks. When you are looking for perched bald eagles, is that one? We look more carefully and say, “No. It’s a branch.” Look at the right view.

Just glancing at something is often not enough. Study it more carefully. Note the details. Look at it from a different perspective.

04/22/2026

Wild Wednesday - April 22 - Bird Tale

Happy Earth Day!
Get outside and help the Earth.

We were nearing the end of our wildflower walk. We had heard plenty of birds especially titmice and woodpeckers. But the eagles hadn’t appeared near their nest or overhead even though we had carefully visited from another approach. No eagles on our eBird list today.

And then this C-130 plane roared by over the river at a few thousand feet altitude. It was LOUD. Really loud in a quiet wildflower preserve.

So the eagles flew out to investigate.

Do your Scouts know the “Birdie Song” with hand motions?

Well, the plane woke up the birdies. And they flew. I counted two adults and a juvenile. There were probably chicks in the nest that aren’t ready to fledge. The plane kept flying upriver. But the older bald eagles stretched their wings for a bit. And we had bald eagles on our eBird list for this walk.

Encourage your scouts to explore outside and notice the birdies. Maybe learn the song.

04/16/2026

Wild Wednesday - April 15 - Host Plant

Many people know that the host plant for Monarch butterflies is milkweed. But then they wonder why the Monarch butterfly is visiting their other flowering plants. The butterflies usually eat nectar from a variety of flowering plants.

The "host plant" is what the caterpillar of the butterfly eats. Some caterpillars eat a variety of food. Some are very picky eaters.

For example, the Zebra Swallowtail caterpillar eats only pawpaw leaves. I don't have any pictures of these caterpillars because the leaves are big, in forests, and often high. But I did watch one of the butterflies lay an egg (lower center photo). The butterflies are emerging now as the pawpaw trees are blooming and starting to get leaves. Their timing is connected.

Monarch caterpillars eat a variety of milkweed species. But they should be eating the native species in the area. Some people have spotted a few butterflies here, but our native milkweed is just beginning to sprout. But further south, the milkweed plants are strong and supporting Monarch caterpillars. Again, the timing of the plants having leaves is connected to when the caterpillars need to eat.

04/09/2026

Wild Wednesday - April 8 - Notice the Details

Sometimes we see the overall picture - bee on a dandelion.

Sometimes we look closer and see this is a native mining bee - Carlin’s mining bee - which is a useful native pollinator.

Sometimes we look even closer and notice the iridescence on the bee’s wings and the pollen on its legs and wings. And then we notice the pollen on the dandelion. We spot the delicate curls of the stigma that get the pollen.

With Scouts, encourage them to look with their eyes. Look closely. Maybe look with a magnifying glass.

All those dandelions once had those delicate curls.

What else can we examine more closely?

Address

1325 W Walnut Hill Ln
Irving, TX
75038

Telephone

+19725802000

Website

https://www.scouting.org/stem-nova-awards

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when STEM Nova Award, BSA posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Want your organization to be the top-listed Non Profit Organization in Irving?