Brownie Adventure Badges

This year GSUSA released two new "High Adventure" badges for Brownies.  Girls can choose either "Trail Adventure" or "Snow or Climbing Adventure".  I don't know why they chose to make two badges rather than three because the requirements for both are so similar.

While I have not seen the badge inserts for these badges, I've been told that the activities in them are the same as the activities in VTK, which makes sense.  The majority of the current badges were developed about ten years ago, before VTK, and I would hope GSUSA listened to feedback on those badges from members in developing the VTK plans, which, as I've noted in other posts, do not always follow the badge inserts.  Since these badges were developed after VTK, it makes little sense to develop one set of activities for the badge insert and yet another for VTK.

So, how do you earn these badges?  Both have the same five steps, and both offer similar choices per step.  Let's look at them:

Try Your Outdoor Activity

The first step is to learn about the chosen activity.  Girls can read articles or books or watch a video or they can create a "mood board" (collage) about it, or they can play a game that involves acting out their adventure.  

Plan and Prepare

The three choices for this step are to "know the language", to "practice team communication" or "talk to an expert".  The plans for Meeting 1 reference a "words to know" sheet, but the sheet is attached to the plan for Meeting 2.   To practice team communications, the girls practice communicating via gestures.  Talking to an expert can mean a field trip or a guest speaker.  

Besides the chosen activity, VTK also tells you how to go about planning the adventure with the girls, guiding them through the things that need to be decided.  You also review what they will need and the budget. At the end of Meeting 1, VTK has the girls selecting the activities for Meeting 2.

Gather Your Gear

Girls (or leaders) can choose to visit a store to learn about gear that is for sale (the badges were underwritten by The North Face); talk to an expert in their chosen activity or they can bring in gear that they own (including hats and sunscreen) and share when and why they use it with the group.

Set a Goal and Train for Your Activity

This requirement actually had one different choice.  The Snow or Climbing Adventure badge offered some Yoga poses as an alternative, whereas Trail Adventure offered a trial run or hike. Alternatives offered on both badges were to talk to an expert about training for your adventure or visualizing your adventure--imagining what it would be like as the leader read some tips about it.  

Go on Your Adventure

The third meeting dedicated to this badge is actually doing the activity.  While they are doing it, the girls are asked to either shoot a video, play an adventure game or keep a journal (either written or voice recorded).  

My Comments

While the plans on VTK include talking points and discussion questions, they don't seem as long as the plans for some of the badges. I like the way it is clear what requirements you are meeting with which activities.  

I think working with the words to know about your activity is a good idea.  However, the plans supply the words only, not the definitions. As someone who knows nothing about rock climbing or cross country skiing, I could look up the words but I don't know if I have a really good definition, or how to put it in context.  I wish VTK had more background information for leaders or links to videos.  I'm sure I could find something on You Tube but since I don't know anything about rock climbing I don't know if the video is doing the equivalent of putting a long-haired girl in front of the fire without a pony tail or hat.  

For the Trail Adventure badge, girls can pick either hiking or running.  Considering that Brownies already have a Hiker badge this seems a little redundant.  

For the Trail Adventure badge I like the way they get the girls involved in learning about the sport before doing the activity.  As simple as walking/running is, I feel competent to teach it.  I also like the way the VTK plans give you a script for getting the girls involved in planning the trip, even though, in reality, the leader has probably already picked the where and when (or at least narrowed the universe quite a bit).

On the other hand, I'm not the slightest bit qualified to teach either cross-country skiing (how common is it for people to know how to do it if they live where there is snow?) or rock climbing.  Since I live in Louisiana I don't have to worry about Brownies and snow skiing.  I can think of two places to go rock climbing, off the top of my head (there may be more, I've never looked).  One is at a local health club that often partners with Girl Scouts; the other is at one of our camps.  I think if we arranged a trip to either place, most of the steps dealing with learning about the sport would be handled by the facilitator.  Therefore, I could see us doing "Try Your Activity" and training for it at a meeting, followed by planning which activity we are going to do to record it,  and then, when at the rock wall with the facilitator, going over the vocabulary, talking about the gear and how to use it, and actually climbing. 

UPDATE:  Girl Scouts Farthest North has the badge insert available online.. While VTK only mentions one hike, reading the badge insert makes it sound like you should do three.