One complaint I have about recent GSUSA programming is that it seems to be much of the same. The Think Like a Programmer Journey, Robotics progressive badges and Coding for Good progressive badges all focus on algorithmic thinking and simple programming concepts like looping. You could run a troop focused on programming and fill eighteen meetings following VTK plans. I realize few if any troops would do that, but especially as the activities repeat (move something through a maze) I have to wonder if that's what GSUSA thinks troops want.
One of the new badges this year for Brownies was Budding Entrepreneur. While I've never done the Inventor badge, I've looked at it a few times, and when I looked at Budding Entrepreneur I thought they looked similar, so I decided to do this post as a comparison.
Requirements for Budding Entrepreneur
According to Badge Explorer: Girls will come up with an idea that improves their world, learn how to share their idea, get feedback, and pitch their idea to others.
1. Come up with an idea that makes life better
2. Share your idea with others to get feedback
3. Improve your idea
4. Share how your idea works
5. Pitch your idea to an audience
When girls earn this badge, they will have come up with an idea for something that solves a problem, gotten feedback on it, and pitched it to others--all things that entrepreneurs do!
Requirements for Inventor
For the Inventor badge, girls will find out how inventors make stuff-and become inventors themselves!
- Warm up their inventors' minds
- Find lots of ways to solve the same problem
- Make a needs list
- Solve a problem
- Share their inventions
When they've earned this badge, they'll know how to think like an inventor.
Activities
Come Up With an Idea That Makes Life Better
VTK gives these activities for the first requirement of Budding Entrepreneur:
- Review a sheet that talks about female inspiring entrepreneurs and then come up with an idea to solve a problem at home, in your meeting place or outdoors, and, using craft supplies, develop a prototype.
Warm Up Their Inventors' Minds
VTK's choices for the first Inventor requirement are:
- Coming up with five new uses for a box. This is shown as a discussion for in-person meetings. Following the discussion (and as the whole activity for virtual meetings) the girls bring one idea to life using a box and provided materials
- Use a provided paper with circles on it to make the circles (with drawing implements) into whatever you want. Examples given are a smiley face and a fish.
- Brain Warm-Up Game. Girls gather in a circle. One girl enters the middle and strikes a pose. A second girl then enters the circle and first copies the first girl's pose, and then changes one thing about it. The first girl goes back to the circle and is replaced by another girl who copies the new pose, and then changes it in one way. The game continues until everyone has had a turn.
- Come up with five new ways to use or play with a tool or toy--this is a group brainstorming exercise. If possible the girls then pick one idea to try.
While these requirements are similar, Budding Entrepreneur focuses early on taking an idea and developing it, whereas Inventor seems to be more about considering a lot of possibilities.
Share Your Idea With Others to Get Feedback
VTK provides a feedback sheet with the materials for Budding Entrepreneur and asks to girls to present their idea to fellow Girl Scouts, to family, to friends or to people in the community and to get feedback on it.
Find Lots of Ways to Solve the Same Problem
For the Inventor badge, girls are asked to use things in the meeting space to make music, or carry a lunch or to water plants. They brainstorm ideas and then use materials on hand to develop one of the ideas.
Again, Budding Entrepreneur is focusing on one idea, whereas Inventor is looking for many.
The suggestions for the second meeting:
Improve Your Idea
At the end of meeting 1 for Budding Entrepreneur, the girls are supposed to select activities for meeting 2, but to me, they are all variations on a theme, and I would think that which one would be chosen should be up to the girl. VTK says to either make a change in your prototype to improve, based on the feedback, or to come up with two new prototypes on which to obtain feedback, or to come up with a completely new prototype, either to solve the same problem or a different problem.
Make a Needs List
The first choice for Inventors is to look at mornings. At the previous meeting girls were asked to observe a family member getting ready in the morning and to make notes about it. At the meeting the girls review a "Getting Ready for School Needs List" which lists some problems a hypothetical person has in the morning--like the alarm clock is too loud or the bus stop is too sunny and discuss it (leader talking points provided of course). The girls then turn their observations of a family member into a list of needs, and share them with the group.
The second choice is to do pretty much the same thing, using observations made in the school cafeteria at lunchtime.
The final choice is to turn ideas about how to make Brownie meetings better into a list of needs.
Clearly at this point in the plan, Budding Entrepreneurs are much further along in the process.
Share How Your Idea Works
After developing an idea, the next thing the Budding Entrepreneur does is share it with others. For this step, girls can either finalize their prototype, draw poster showing how their invention works or make a video to show how it works.
Solve a Problem
Now that Inventors have defined a problem, they go about developing a solution. The first suggested activity is a mindmap--one of those diagrams with a circle in the middle for the problem, and smaller circles attached to it for possible solutions. Girls are told to brainstorm ideas, no matter how silly they sound at first. Another option is to sketch five solutions to one problem. The final choice is to work with a buddy to brainstorm solutions to selected needs and two write them down.
This requirement for Inventor is pretty much the same and requirement 1 for Budding Entrepreneur.
Pitch Your Idea to an Audience
The final step for Budding Entrepreneur is to Pitch the idea to an audience. Girls go over a handout called 5 Steps to a Pitch and discuss it. They practice a pitch within the troop, which is one of the three choices. For the other two choices, after they practice within the troop, they go outside the troop to pitch to their classmates or to family members.
Share Your Invention
For this step, the leader points out that they've looked at needs and solutions and now they are going to proceed wit their inventions. She reviews a handout on women inventors and one that shows the parts of a pen. Then the girls either draw an invention, create a model of one or present a skit about one.
This again is about the same as requirement 1 for Budding Entrepreneur.
My Conclusion
I think there is a lot of overlap between these badges, but Inventor focuses on the early part of the process, and Budding Entrepreneur on the second. If I was looking for a several hour event, I could see starting with warming up the inventor's mind, finding multiple ways to solve a problem, making a needs list, solving a problem, creating an invention to solve a problem, getting feedback, changing the invention, and then pitching it to an audience. I could also see using this sequence over three or so meetings to earn the two badges.
Do you think today's Girl Scout programming is too much of the same?
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