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BADGES

Curiosity Untamed, Frontier Girls and Quest Clubs all use the same badges.  We offer thousands of badges in nine different Areas of Discovery.  Whether your passion is for the outdoors, the arts, or just exploring the world, we have a badge for you!  

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Click on an Area of Discovery to be taken to that page.

Click Here for the Complete Alphabetical Badge List

Keep in mind that some badges qualify for two or more Areas of Discovery depending on your focus. For example, if you earn the Biographies badge for Albert Einstein, it would fall under Science and Technology, while earning it for Vincent van Gogh would fall under Art. Many badges are written with general requirements that can be customized to earn very specific badges, such as our Animals or Book badge. All badges are custom made to order. The possibilities are endless!

Badge requirements get progressively more difficult as children age. We believe that anything can be educational and we will write a badge for virtually anything a child wishes to learn about as long as it is not a controversial subject that we feel is better addressed by parents or religious leaders. While we provide a list of requirements for each badge, these are purely optional. Feel free to create your own requirements to suit your family, class, or group.

How to Earn Badges

Shows a sample archaeology badge with yellow level 1 ring

Instructions:

  • Preschool (ages 3-5): Complete requirements #1 and #2 and choose one more. (Three total)
  • Level 1 (grades K-2): Complete requirements #1-3 and choose two more. (Five total)
  • Level 2 (grades 3-5): Complete requirements #1-4 and choose three more. (Seven total)
  • Level 3 (grades 6-8): Complete requirements #1-5 and choose four more. (Nine total)
  • Level 4 (grades 9-12): Complete requirements #1-6 and choose five more. (Eleven total)
  • Level 5 (adults 18+): Complete requirements #1-7 and choose seven more. (Fourteen total)

Each badge has a set number of mandatory requirements for each age level and then a number of optional requirements to choose from to complete the badge. The number of requirements needed is dictated by the age of the person earning the badge.  The first seven requirements slowly build in difficulty.  This is to ensure that a child builds their knowledge from the ground up and does not miss out on any important information even if starting a badge at an older level. While some of the early requirements may be overly simplified due to the fact that they were written with younger children in mind, the knowledge or skill is just as important for the older members and is usually quite simple to complete.

Keep in mind that the same requirement done by both a Preschool level and a Level 4 should look vastly different in execution. The knowledge and skill expected out of a Preschooler is much less than what is expected out of a Level 4. For example, a Preschooler mandatory requirement in the Electricity badge states, “Help an adult make an electric potato clock or similar science project involving electricity.”  As a Preschooler, the adult will end up doing most of the work on a project like this with the Preschooler simply helping out.  If earning the badge at Level 4, this requirement is still mandatory, but the Level 4 should either be able to build a simple device like a Potato clock on their own, or a more advanced device with the help of an adult.

In addition to the mandatory requirements, participants have to complete a certain number of optional requirements as well. These requirements simply add more information or skills about the subject at hand and allow kids to focus on the aspects of the badge subject that interest them the most.  Additional optional requirements may also be written if they have an opportunity to learn something about the subject that may not yet be listed. 

 

Re-Earning Badges At a New Level

If a member has earned a badge at a younger level and is re-earning it at a higher level, they still have to go back and repeat the lower level mandatory requirements. If the requirement is knowledge based, to complete it they must either show that they still have the knowledge they learned at a lower level, or re-learn it. If it is skill based, they should show improvement since demonstrating the same skill at a younger level.

Members are encouraged to choose new optional requirements when re-earning a badge, but they are welcome to repeat previously completed optional requirements as well. It is expected that if optional requirements used at a lower level are used again when re-earning a badge at a higher level, that the quality of work or understanding has improved. For example, if a boy or girl goes on a field trip to a dairy farm as a Level 4, they should retain a lot more information then when they went as a Level 1.

The more often a member re-earns the same badge, the more their knowledge and skills will be retained which is why we have them spiral back and redo lower level mandatory requirements. The idea is to repeat and reinforce the information at each level while adding new information and skills as they grow.

What Do Badges Look Like?

Curiosity Untamed badges are 1 1/4″  steel spring-back pins or magnets (not patches). The colored ring around the outer edge represents the age level the participant was at when they earned the badge.

Unlike most badge programs, our badges are button style pins instead of patches. This allows participants to display them immediately and keeps them from getting lost. Parents like them too as they do not need to spend hours sewing on patches. The pin style badges can be displayed on a club uniform, on backpacks or tote-bags, in a shadow box, or on a bulletin board. The magnet option can be displayed on a refrigerator, magnetic board, or other metal surface.

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