Skill Ladder and Badges¶

Each badge has a check-off: a small, observable demonstration. The parent signs it off. Badges unlock tools and units.

Soldering¶

Badge	Check-off	Unlocks
🔥 Iron Safe	Explains the 8 rules. Shows stand, cleaning and handle-holding.	Using the iron with supervision
🟢 First Joint	Solders 10 joints on a practice board. Each one is shiny and volcano-shaped, with no bridges.	Unit 1
🔧 Fixer	Removes a part with wick or a sucker without lifting a pad.	Soldering alone (11 y.o.)
🧵 Wire Wrangler	Strips, tins and splices two wires, then covers the splice with heat-shrink.	Unit 3
🧩 Chip Wrangler	Solders an 8-pin DIP socket with no bridges, and inserts the chip the right way round.	Unit 4
🔬 Tiny Parts	Solders an 0805 resistor and a SOIC-8 chip (drag soldering).	Unit 11 SMD work

Badge	Check-off
📏 Meter Reader	Measures a battery's voltage and a resistor's resistance. Compares the result to the color code.
🔔 Continuity Detective	Uses beep mode to find a broken trace or a bridge that someone planted.
⚡ Current Catcher	Measures an LED's current with the meter in series. Explains why the meter goes in series.
📡 Signal Spotter	Uses a scope or tinySA to see a signal (a 555 square wave, or a radio carrier).

Badge	Check-off
🗺️ Schematic Reader	Traces a schematic with a finger and points to the matching part on the board.
➗ Ohm's Law	Calculates an LED's resistor from V = I·R and picks the nearest standard value.
🔁 Debugger	Finds and fixes a fault that someone else planted, by writing down a hypothesis before each test.
💻 Coder	Writes a program that reads a button and changes an output.
📻 Licensed	Passes the FCC Technician exam.