Mid-Summer Update

Some of these were during travel and some were during grief. Unfortunately, one of Juliette’s grandmothers passed away. Luckily kids are resilient. I’ve been using Girl Scouts as a distraction and way to move forward so Juliette earned several new things before the loss and we continued to work on more after it.

STEM Career Exploration

After attending so many STEM Sister “Meet the Professionals” sessions and completing so many STEM Sister activities, I had a feeling this badge would be easy.

Discover STEM
Explore your future
Learn about a STEM career

We used the badge booklet (free in the volunteer toolkit) for this badge. Step one had a few pages called “STEM All Around Us” – Juliette did an activity in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math as noted on the pages. It’s been a few grief-filled weeks, so I don’t remember exactly what Juliette did for step two. She may have acted out STEM careers or I might’ve skipped doing anything additional since she’s been learning and practicing STEM tasks for different fields throughout STEM Sisters… Step three was definitely covered by STEM Sisters. Juliette has attended or watched recordings from 6 panels of STEM professionals, plus she attended a Women in STEM virtual event.

STEM Sisters Q3 Challenge – Energy

As usual, Juliette completed the quarterly STEM Sisters challenge by attending a virtual meeting and doing three other activities. The next activity included learning about renewable and non-renewable energy and listing things she uses everyday to determine what types of energy they use (her tablet uses electrical energy but we have solar panels so it’s renewable). Then she did a home energy audit. The challenge booklet had questions about energy use in our home and if it’s efficient or inefficient. Our house was built as an energy efficient home so I helped her understand what that means.

Lastly, we built a solar oven. We used a pizza box, the directions in the challenge booklet, and this video from Home Depot, to create our own oven to melt marshmallows. Both Juliette and Cub enjoyed taping down the paper and aluminum foil and trying to figure out how to get the box to stay open for the son rays to hit the foil (we used a boba tea straw). Unfortunately it was a little overcast the day we made the oven so the marshmallows barely softened as the kids played outside for an hour… but we put the box out the next day and they got gooey!

Think Like an Engineer Badge

This one was a fun badge. Juliette’s favorite staff member at the hotel was able to play and do this with the kids.

Find out how engineers use design thinking to solve problems.
Do 3 hands-on design challenges: design and build a fairy house, a car powered by air, and a way to get across a canyon.
Plan a Take Action project that helps others

Although the pandemic has passed, there are plenty of videos and resources online that were created during that time. Juliette watched this series of videos by Girl Scouts Lakes & Pines to learn about engineering for step one and to get ideas for step 2. Since we were at a hotel, Juliette and Cub each grabbed as many disposable things as they could to build the fairy house (paper and plastic cups and plates, napkins, wooden stirrers, empty half and half tubs, and more). We sat at a table in the hotel entry and the staff member helped and contributed tape, scissors, and a stapler. Both kids were wildly creative, and the staff member even helped and contributed a pillow and blanket for the fairy. The kids used similar materials to build the car powered by air another day in the hotel room. This one gave them a chance to look and change things to make it more effective.

Getting across the canyon was a different kind of challenge. We were staying with family and didn’t have many supplies available, but we did have Cub’s birthday present. He received magnetic tiles and tubes (not sure what the plastic pieces you stick into the magnetic squares are called??). Both kids tried multiple ways to use the magnets as the bridge, but the tiles were too heavy to stand alone. They had to change the angle (one layer of vertical tiles) for more success, or also use the tubes.although Juliette previously wanted to earn every badge, she did not want to do a take action project so this was a badge, not a journey.

GSH Aloha Patch

I thought this patch would be a great addition to our December 2024 cruise to Hawaii, but we didn’t have time to complete it. It’s actually a pretty cool fun patch that the Girl Scouts of Hawaii put together for girls who aren’t in Hawaii to earn by learning about their culture. There pages with information and activities for each of the main islands. As a Daisy, I decided that Juliette only needed to do four activities like in STEM Sisters. We practiced saying Hawaiian words, learned about water conservation, made a flower lei, and made a cardboard volcano. I was happy to finally sew this patch onto both of our uniforms!

Coding for Good

Juliette’s earned most of the progressive sets of badges, so we decided to go for the coding badges next. They’re surprisingly much easier than expected. We used the badge requirement printout from the volunteer toolkit as guidance and I tried to have her do a little extra. It was weird because this packet didn’t have many activities listed. Instead, it was mainly information.

Coding Basics

Create algorithms for a computer that follow a sequence
Learn about women in computer science
Explore sorting algorithms

For step one, I asked Juliette to explain how to do something step-by-step. I wanted to keep her active and engaged, so she tried several simple things (like only two steps), then I asked her to figure out the steps for doing a forward roll. She was laughing and giggling the entire time and Cub joined in to talk about how to step sideways (he included some jumps in there which may have contributed to the giggling). For step two, the booklet spoke about Ada Lovelace who created the first computer program. I also reminded her about watching Hidden Figures and the women who were called computers at NASA. The packet also explained sorting algorithms for step three and I just tried to expand on it a bit.

Digital Game Design

Explore tools used to develop digital games
Plan a maze game
Build, test and improve your maze game

The booklet had a maze (well, something that looked like a maze until you looked more closely at it) for step one. Even though it didn’t make sense as a maze, I modeled going through it and Juliette shared how she would get through. Step two has graphing paper and Juliette enjoyed creating her maze. She then shared that someone would use a die to determine which way to go. I acted as a die and told her directions to go, purposefully having her go into walls and things. She told me what to say to get through the maze. Step three gave her a chance to look back and she realized that someone should decide their own way through, no dice were needed.

App Development

Decompose your problem into smaller steps
Design an app that solves the problem
Share and improve your app

As mentioned earlier, the booklet mainly has examples of the information, not actually guides or activities to earn the badges. For step one, the booklet had the example of building a sand castle. I asked Juliette the steps, then we read the steps the booklet shared and discussed the steps she hadn’t mentioned and why they were included. Step two had a small space for a storyboard for an app. Although Juliette had several ideas (my favorite was the app that translated what babies were saying/ what they wanted or needed), she decided the app would be a Peppa Pig game with arrows telling you were to move the characters and 2000 levels. For step three, she removed the arrows so people could decide where to mov the characters and she decided an algorithm should be added to determine when someone won a level so she didn’t have to stay up all the time to watch everyone playing and decide.

STEM Sisters Q4 Challenge – Entrepreneurship

This quarter had fewer challenge options, so Daisies were only required to do three activities. Juliette started by making a duct tape wallet. I ordered hot pink Duck tape (yes, Duck brand) for her and blue for Cub (surprisingly, he chose blue over red!). When the tape came in, we immediately got to work following the instructions in the challenge booklet. Juliette did not like how hers came out, but I think she just didn’t like the pattern. If we do it again, we’ll find a YouTube video and we can make a pattern she chooses together. She wants to be independent, but sometimes needs more help than she realizes.

For the second activity, women in entrepreneurship, I found websites and kids videos about Coxo Chanel. Juliette thinks of herself as a fashionista, so when I saw her name after a quick search of women entrepreneurs who made and impact, it was a no-brainer. Not only did she create an iconic perfume that has stood the test of time and is still sold over 100 years later (Chanel Number 5), additionally she moved women from corsets to comfy clothes using jersey material, created the little black dress movement, and made so many other impacts to the fashion industry, large and small.

I counted attending and building at the Home Depot kids workshop as an activity since I confirmed it counted toward the STEM Sister Super Star qualifications. Both the quarterly challenge and the super star requirements include attending a live STEM program at GSWPA or locally. I checked and the Home Depot and Lowe’s workshops count – they also might do a quarterly building challenge next year after hearing about it.

An Update on Progress

I think Juliette has 10 badges, journeys, and awards left:

We’ve started the 5 Flowers, 4 Stories, 3 Cheers for Animals! Journey and need to work on it while home to have access to the supplies needed.
After completing the NASCAR program, Juliette just has the Board Game Design Challenge to finish up the mechanical engineering set.
We’re also planning to go camping and can hopefully complete the outdoor badges/journey
She got a Year of the Horse fun patch so we need to do that too.

Badge Numbers 45, 46, 47, 48, & 49

Promise Center (and Home School patch)
Democracy for Daisies (and 2024 Election patch)
Make the World a Better Place
Honest and Fair
Space Science Explorer (and Mars patch)
Friendly and Helpful
Animal Observer (and fun patches: Girl Scouts of Hawai’i, Queen Liliʻuokalani, WWII Remembrance, I Love to Travel, Cruise Ship, Hawaiian Luau, STEM Sisters, Space Science)
Considerate and Caring
Courageous and Strong (and My Promise, My Faith Pin Year 1)
Responsible for What I Say and Do (and Daisy Global Action Award Year 1)
Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey
Respect Myself and Others
Robotics 1: What Robots Do (Robotics fun patch and Total Eclipse)
My First Cookie Business (GS Council CEO, GS Council, and Cookie Rally fun patches, and Cookie Entrepreneur Family Pin Year 1)
Respect Authority (Safety Award Pin and World Thinking Day Award 2025)
Use Resources Wisely (Techie, Booth Sales, Gift of Caring, 200+ bar, Embrace Possibilities, 2025 Year bar, Charm patch with Embrace Possibilities charm, My First Cookie Sale 2025, STEM box)
Be a Sister to Every Girl Scout
Good Neighbor
Automotive 1: Design
Automotive 2: Engineering
Automotive 3: Manufacturing
Craft and Tinker
Cybersecurity 1: Basics
Cybersecurity 2: Safeguards
Cybersecurity 3: Investigator
Eco Learner (Chemistry, Weird Science, and Meet-the-Pro Chemistry, Robotics, Space Science)
Between Earth and Sky Journey
Robotics 2: How Robots Move
Robotics 3: Design a Robot (Stall Catchers fun patch)
Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden Journey (Daisy Journey Summit Pin)
Money Explorer (2025 Lunar New Year – Year of the Snake, Big Sister, Police Department Visit)
Daisy Snow or Climbing Adventure (Outdoor)
Digital Leadership (Summer Reading, Read Across America, Outdoor meeting, STEM Sister Superstar)
Art and Design (STEM Sisters, STEM Sister Early Bird, STEM Sisters 2025/2026, Brought My Bestie)
Create and Innovate (Cybersecurity)
Model Car Design Challenge
Roller Coaster Design Challenge
Fun with Movement
Toy Business Designer (STEM Sisters – Attended Meeting 1, Women in STEM GSTFL, Gingerbread)
Cookie Goal Setter (Cookie Rally, I met the CEO, Cookie Entrepreneur Family Pin Year 2)
My Money Choices
Shapes in Nature (STEM Sisters – Attended Meeting 2, Attended Meeting 3, Attended Cybersecurity Panel, God is Love, Mass, Global Action Award Year 2)
Numbers in Nature
Design with Nature
STEM Career Exploration (Energy)
Think Like an Engineer Badge – not Journey (Aloha)
Coding Basics
Digital Game Design
App Development (Entrepreneurship)