Update: One thing I recommend is that you go to the GSUSA store and download their free (as of this writing) packet on this Journey. Of all the things I've seen from GSUSA, this does the best job of explaining and leading you to a TAP.
Leader Preparation
Vocabulary
- Citizen Science – Citizen science connects regular people with scientists to help them conduct research. With the help of thousands of citizens around the world, scientists can do research more quickly, share information more readily, and greatly add to the store of human knowledge. Our part is to make observations where we are and to send the data to real scientists.
- Observation – watching and noticing something using all of your senses, especially sight, to get information and better understand a situation or environment
- Scientific Method – the process, or series of steps, that scientists take when conducting scientific research.
- Data is information that scientists receive, collect, or observe
- Analysis is reviewing data or information to create conclusions
Procedure
- Teach Observation Skills
- Daisies
- Play I-spy
- Discuss five senses
- Act like animals to observe from various perspectives--in the air like a bird, from the ground like an ant etc
- Create a field notebook (staple some pages together and let them decorate the outside)
- Practice observation skills with printed butterflies. Use some technique (tally marks, drawing or writing) to record how many and how many different kinds, what is the same, what is different. Discuss.
- Brownies
- Play Quick Changes. Look at another Scout for 15-30 seconds. Then turn your backs and each change something about your appearance like removing a clothing item or accessory. When you turn around again try to notice what has changed.
- Talk about observation skills and play Kim’s Game (google it).Remove an item or two from the collection and see if the girls can remember which one--point out that making a list (recording data) makes it easier to remember
- Create a field notebook (see Daisy above)
- Observe paper snails (see Daisy butterfly activity)
- Juniors
- Have 10-15 items from nature for the girls to observe/handle. Pair them up and have them look at, feel, smell the items and describe them to each other
- Kim’s Game--same as Brownies
- Talk about observation and description. Have items from nature within view. Have each girl pick one item to describe in writing. Once she has done so, exchange with another girl and see if they can guess which item the other was describing.
- Discuss scientific observation--facts, measurable, the same to everyone vs opinions. Red is a fact; pretty is an opinion. Have girls write down observations about things in the room. Next discuss and point out any that are opinions rather than scientific observations.
- Make a field notebook--see Daisy above
- Animal tracks activities: Freehand observations of animal track pictures. Discuss them and discuss dating observations
- Learn to graph observations, both one time and over time (see meeting 2 plan pages 9-15)
- Learn to analyze data
- Do the Citizen Science Project Your Troop Selected
- Pick, Design and Do a Take Action Project. It can be another Citizen Science project or it can be something to educate others about Citizen Science or it can be something that grows out of your Citizen Science Project--maybe you want to do something to improve ant habitat for example.
- Celebrate Your Take Action Project and Distribute Awards
- Daisies
- Play I-spy
- Discuss five senses
- Act like animals to observe from various perspectives--in the air like a bird, from the ground like an ant etc
- Create a field notebook (staple some pages together and let them decorate the outside)
- Practice observation skills with printed butterflies. Use some technique (tally marks, drawing or writing) to record how many and how many different kinds, what is the same, what is different. Discuss.
- Play I-spy
- Discuss five senses
- Act like animals to observe from various perspectives--in the air like a bird, from the ground like an ant etc
- Create a field notebook (staple some pages together and let them decorate the outside)
- Practice observation skills with printed butterflies. Use some technique (tally marks, drawing or writing) to record how many and how many different kinds, what is the same, what is different. Discuss.
- Brownies
- Play Quick Changes. Look at another Scout for 15-30 seconds. Then turn your backs and each change something about your appearance like removing a clothing item or accessory. When you turn around again try to notice what has changed.
- Talk about observation skills and play Kim’s Game (google it).Remove an item or two from the collection and see if the girls can remember which one--point out that making a list (recording data) makes it easier to remember
- Create a field notebook (see Daisy above)
- Observe paper snails (see Daisy butterfly activity)
- Juniors
- Have 10-15 items from nature for the girls to observe/handle. Pair them up and have them look at, feel, smell the items and describe them to each other
- Kim’s Game--same as Brownies
- Talk about observation and description. Have items from nature within view. Have each girl pick one item to describe in writing. Once she has done so, exchange with another girl and see if they can guess which item the other was describing.
- Discuss scientific observation--facts, measurable, the same to everyone vs opinions. Red is a fact; pretty is an opinion. Have girls write down observations about things in the room. Next discuss and point out any that are opinions rather than scientific observations.
- Make a field notebook--see Daisy above
- Animal tracks activities: Freehand observations of animal track pictures. Discuss them and discuss dating observations
- Learn to graph observations, both one time and over time (see meeting 2 plan pages 9-15)
- Learn to analyze data
My Experience
I started this Journey with my Daisy troop last year. After viewing the videos the girls wanted to do them all. I chose Stream Selfie since we were going to camp, where there is a river. It was easy enough--I took a picture of the girls in the river and uploaded it. However, after spending all that time teaching observation skills, the only observation of the girls that was entered was the amount of trash in the area (none). It just seemed anti-climatic.
We were going to do Ant Picnic as our TAP but it just never happened. I have read posts from several leaders who said they didn't get any ants.
Hi - we just finished the main part of the journey with our Brownie. We did the ant picnic and did not get any ants but turned it into a teaching moment about not every experiment working. The girls identified various factors for why we didn’t get ants and made a plan to do it again in the spring when it’s warmer. The girls decided to make a video for their TAP and are writing mini-plays or enactments to show how Citizen scientists observe, record and analyze data to show that anyone can do it. Good luck if you continue with your TAP.
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