This week has been pretty busy in Girl Scouts but also not busy at all because most of what we did was also schoolwork. Juliette completed her first Take Action project which means she finished her first journey!!! She also earned a petal and, since she kept asking to do STEM Sisters, she did the quarterly challenge to earn a fun patch which included earning another badge.
Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey
As I think I mentioned previously, Juliette began working on her Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey because of the STEM Sisters program. They had shared information on how to join their citizen scientist project in SciStarter so we signed up. Here are the steps for this journey:
- Find out how scientists use the scientific method to investigate the world and make discoveries.
- Do hands-on activities to learn how to make observations and collect data.
- Plan a Take Action project that helps others.
We explored the scientific method, then used SciStarter and chose to help a NASA scientist by observing clouds (using the GLOBE Observer app to describe and take pictures). For her Take Action project, Juliette chose to “educate and inspire” others. I helped her create a flyer and brochure in Canva about why people should be citizen scientists. She’s still too young to do it alone, so I asked her questions to determine what information she wanted to share and helped her personalize it (she told me some things to say and she chose the pictures and where she wanted them). We asked to share these at the library and will bring the flyer to hang at the grocery store, but I also shared it on my Facebook account with my 900 friends so that she gets the message out.
Respect Myself and Others
Juliette’s next petal came with great timing. She attends speech therapy at a school that has police officers there everyday. When we first started going, one of the officers stopped by his vehicle as we were walking back to the van and then followed us over in a very friendly way. He gifted both of my kids a DARE stuffed animal lion. They were thrilled and I was so grateful for his kindness. I started to teach them about respecting the police at that point. Last week, we arrived early for her speech session. Just as she was going to leave the front office with her speech therapist, the officer stopped by and handed her a paper airplane without a word. She played with it during her session, and then brought it home and surprised her brother. It was another act of kindness from a humble servant of the law that didn’t go unnoticed.
Here are the steps for this petal:
- Show respect for yourself
- Learn how to respect others
- Respect your community
For step one, I helped Juliette make a list of things that she likes about herself (starting with that she likes that she has the same favorite fruits as her aunt and also including her creativity). One of the activity ideas for step two included writing thank you notes. I told Juliette my idea about writing a thank you card for the police officer who has been so nice to her and she was excited to make it for him. Step three included learning about signs of respect around the world – they were listed in her Handbook so we role-played most of them and discussed whether it made sense to follow them locally or in the United States. I also reminded her about other signs of respect that she has witnessed or been taught to follow at home and in our community..
What Robots Do
As I mentioned, Juliette keeps asking to do STEM Sisters. We have a STEM Sampler Box that we ordered through the GS council that has the program, and it’s also the second quarter of the GS year so STEM Sisters has its next quarterly challenge: Robotics. We looked through the box and did one activity so far (there are no specific guidelines for earning the fun patch that came with the box, so I plan to have her do 1 or 2 more activities to consider the patch “earned”).
For the Robotics quarterly challenge fun patch, Juliette was required to complete 4 of the 11 activity choices since she’s a Daisy. She did a Citizen Science project, as well as completing the journey, so that was activity one. Then we watched a video about a robot dog and I asked her questions about it. The third activity was finding robots in everyday life – so we looked up robots and found pictures of ones at the grocery store, at the hospital, and even expensive ones that people could purchase as personal assistants to use at home. For the fourth activity, Juliette chose to earn a Robot badge. Once that badge was earned, so was the Robotics fun patch!
Here are the steps for the What Robots Do badge:
- Learn about robots
- Find out what robots can do
- Team up to design your own robots
For step one, we looked up pictures of real and fictional robots, and watched videos of them in action. Her favorite is “The Wild Robot” so we’ve been reading the book and recently watched the movie again. Step two included drawing a robot (it looked like one of those round vacuum cleaners, but apparently could clean floors, walls, and ceilings, among other things). For step three, we brainstormed things that robots could do to make life easier, then she drew a robot to specifically do some of those things (“it can clean up the toys and clean the floor and it has an arm to give you a cup of juice!”). We’re looking forward to the other Robot badges and will likely work on them after cookie season starts.
She also earned a Total Eclipse fun patch from the STEM Sisters. We weren’t in the direct line of the total eclipse last year, but we were near to it. Juliette watched a video to learn about the total eclipse to learn more and earn the patch.
An Update on Progress
These are the badges, journeys, and awards that we’re working on or have planned. Since Julitte wants to earn absolutely everything, it means that we need to have a basic plan in place so she doesn’t miss out. It’s rare that I ask her to do Girl Scouts first – usually she’s the one who is asking, so I have no problem helping her earn all of the badges that she can.
- Between Earth and Sky Journey – earned the Bucket and the Firefly
- Safety Award Pin – still needs to memorize my phone number
- Cookie Entrepreneur Family Pin Year 1 – signed up to attend a webinar by one of the Girl Scouts in Troop 11302
- My First Cookie Business Badge – signed up to attend a Cookie Rally hosted by our local council to either earn the badge then or use it as a launching point for that badge
- Money Explorer Badge/ Good Neighbor Badge – we haven’t started yet, but they seem to go well with all of the cookie badges
- How Robots Move/ Design a Robot – 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
Badge Numbers 11-13
- 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)