Think Like a Citizen Scientist for Cadettes, Seniors and Ambassadors

Think Like a Citizen Scientist is one of the newer STEM Journies GSUSA put out in the last few years. This post is an attempt to summarize the lengthy VTK plans into an easy-to-read quick resource. Once you have decided to lead the Journey at a particular level, I highly recommend reviewing the VTK plans and their talking points. I also recommend going to the GSUSA store and downloading the (at this writing) free packet for this Journey.  It does the best job of explaining the TAP process of anything I've seen GSUSA publish

The way these Journeys are designed, it is clear that the TAP is an integral part.  The purpose of the Journey is learn scientific skills and then to apply those skills to conceiving, planning and carrying out a TAP.  If you as a leader are trying to come up with TAP ideas before the Journey ever starts, you are doing it wrong.  

As the girls are brainstorming for their TAP the girls are reminded that the same process is used in developing projects for the Silver and Gold Awards and that they can use projects the group decides not to do, or they can expand on a group idea or design other projects to solve the same problems.

Painting!

My current troop is the third group of girls I've lead through Brownies with the current program.  I can say, without a doubt, at as far as badges earned at meetings, the two favorites with all the troops have been Snacks and Painting.  Our last two meetings have been devoted to the painting badge, and we will need one more more meeting to finish it.

Requirements

According to Badge Explorer, the requirements for the Painting badge are:

Get inspired
Paint the real world
Paint a mood
Paint without brushes
Paint a mural

Get Inspired

I went to the library and grabbed a big stack of books showcasing artwork.  I thumbed through them first to make sure that nude paintings were not a major part of what was shown.  When I did my pre-meeting Facebook message to parents I told them that I had thumbed through the books I would be showing the girls, but that I had not checked every page.  I told them the girls would be looking through the books for paintings they liked, and that if one found and made a big deal over a naked male, my response was going to be "yes, boys and men look different than girls and women.  Is that your favorite painting in the book?"

I told the parents that if they had a problem with this activity, that the books would be picked up by 7:15, they should just be late. As it turned out, no one found, or at least mentioned finding such a picture.   We showed off the pictures the girls found and each got to say why she liked the picture she found.

This is the same activity I used the last time I did this badge. The time before, I sent it home for homework.  I sent out a link to a website with paintings, and asked the parents to email me with the name of the painting their daughter liked.

Paint Without Brushes

I passed out Q-tips and gave each girl white, blue and black paint and told them to paint whatever they wanted, using the Q-tips to make dots.  I let each girl do two paintings, and thought they were really creative in what they decided to do.

In the past, I've done finger painting and stamping.  This was easy and not too much mess.

Paint a Mural

As a leader, I see real value to group projects that make the girls plan and execute something together.  It is a real-world skill that will pay off in school and in work.  That being said, my problem with most group projects that end up making something is deciding who gets custody once we are done.

VTK and the badge inserts present painting the mural as a group project, so when deciding when to do this badge, I look for something to do with the mural.  This year our murals (I had five groups of three girls) will be used to decorate cookie booths.  I had each group sketch their mural on regular paper and then paint it on roll paper.  They are the right size to tape to the front of a table.  Our theme was things we like about Girl Scouts.

In the past I've used the murals for cookie booths and to decorate our booth for the church fair.

Next Meeting

At our next meeting we will paint the real world and paint a mood.  I'll let you know what we do once we've done it.  Thanks for reading.  

Image by bodobe from Pixabay

Philanthropist, Money Counts, Respect Authority and Thinking on My Feet

For this meeting, my plan was to walk across the parking lot and visit the parish food bank.  I had made arrangement with the lady who runs it for a short tour; however, she never showed up. 

We were working on the Philanthropy Badge for Brownies, pretty much following the guide of Girl Scouts River Valleys. I made a chart for "Can I Be a Philanthropist" but none of the girls would respond until I told them what a philanthropist was.  We talked about ways we were philanthropists, and some of the girls talked about school projects. We had done needs/wants posters at the prior meeting.

Since my food bank lady did not show, I talked about the food we had brought in, and how it would help people in the neighborhood.  We also talked about how we could take our old clothes to Goodwill.  Finally we talked about big disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes.  I pointed out that money was the best way to help those people.  All in all it was more talk than I like at a meeting but I was kind of winging it. 

My Daisies were finishing their Making Choices leaf and the discussion tied into that., learning how to help others with what they want and need.  We took pictures with the food we brought for the food bank, and left it in the room for them to get in the morning. 

From there, we moved on to the "Respect Authority" petal.  We talked about what it means to be in authority and how we should treat those who are.  We named some people who were in authority.  Then I had the girls make cards for people who were in authority, while I readMortimer byRobert Munsch. 

I ended the meeting with a short Court of Awards, passing out the badges we'd earned in the last few meetings.  All in all, not the best meeting we ever had, but not awful either.