Something that I absolutely love about the STEM Sisters program is that it has introduced us to many more opportunities for Juliette. Tonight she attended a virtual program put on by the NASCAR Hall of Fame in order to earn three badges in an hour: Engineering for Speed. It was super-fun and I definitely recommend it to every Girl Scout!
Automotive Badges
The program Juliette attended was for Daisies and Brownies (so for grade K-3), and they also will be hosting a program for Juniors called Full Throttle Engineering next week. Both programs earn the Automotive Design, Engineering, and Manufacturing Badges. Here are the requirements for Daisies, like Juliette.
Automotive 1: Design
- Choose special features for your vehicle
- Sketch your vehicle
- Sculpt and share your vehicle
Automotive 2: Engineering
- Create your automotive engineering plan
- Build a vehicle prototype
- Test your vehicle prototype
Automotive 3: Manufacturing
- Explore efficient manufacturing and assembly lines
- Create an assembly line to manufacture vehicles
- Examine and test your vehicles for quality
The program began with a short video that showed information about the NASCAR Hall of Fame and introduced the expertise of the speaker as a representative. She then gave the girls the chance to look at the differences between a street car and a race car and learn about the special features. She also spoke about how vehicles are designed and those designs may be changed and modified based on the track, state it’s in, and a number of other factors. The girls were given a worksheet with race cars on it to add special features and make it their own. Juliette determined that hers would be a mermaid car, so she added a mermaid tail and scales for the windows. Other girls added wings and their unique personalities showed through when they shared their drawings on screen or described the features in the chat. There wasn’t time to sculpt the vehicle, so I told Juliette we’d do that tomorrow. (Badge 1 earned.)
Although some families chose to spend a little extra on the program and have the supplies sent to them directly, we received the list of supplies to prepare ahead of time. This allowed the vehicle prototypes to be unique to each girl also. The host changed her camera angle and spoke about assembly lines. She shared a video from Wreck-It Ralph of their assembly line game to make Vanellope’s race car and then led the girls to set up their own assembly lines with the prepared supplies. She shared what to do, step by step, and made sure to call the supplies whatever they were being used for (the skewers were axels). She also mentioned fun tidbits, like “the wheels on the bus” don’t go round and round – the axels do. Then the girls got to show off their vehicles and try them out. Juliette’s was one of the more unique ones because we used a Girl Scout cookie box as the body of the vehicle. (Badges 2 and 3 earned.)
I may have forgotten something that was included to fulfill a requirement, but, regardless, it was a fun program and it mostly held Juliette’s attention. And she introduced Cub to the host when we finished up (and he excitedly showed her that he had made an engine,too, but he didn’t make his own vehicle because I hadn’t prepared supplies for him… and he’s 2 and a half and wouldn’t have been able to do it anyway lol).
An Update on Progress
Here’s my usual update on the badges, journeys, and awards that we’re working on or have planned.
- Between Earth and Sky Journey – earned the Bucket and the Firefly and finished reading the story. We have the Take Action Project planned to do in April.
- Money Explorer Badge – we haven’t started yet, but it seems to go well with cookie season
- How Robots Move Badge/ Design a Robot Badge – would make sense to follow up the first robotic badge with these
- Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden Journey – we haven’t started, but we have the books and this would be a great third journey that would also earn her Daisy Journey Summit Award Pin
- Daisy Craft and Tinker Badge – we plan to work on this badge at an upcoming Home Depot or Lowe’s kids workshop
- STEM Sisters Chemistry – it’s a fun patch, not a badge, but chemistry is the focus this quarter, so we’ll be doing that too
Badge Numbers 19, 20, & 21
- 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
- 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
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