Think Like an Engineer, Part 3

 My Brownies and Juniors recently finished their third design challenge for Think Like an Engineer.  I'm usually one to stick pretty close to the VTK plans, but in this case, none of the offered projects that we hadn't done really excited me.  I had planned to do the Daisy Roller Coaster badge when Covid shut us down in 2020, so I decided to go with that.

I divided the girls into groups of three and gave them each a pool noodle which I had cut in half the long way and taped into one long piece and a small plastic ball. We talked about how roller coasters worked, with the energy coming from the cars being dragged to the top of the hill, and that after release there is no added power.  

I had some chairs, boxes, and books a a available to add height and told the girls to design a track that would get the marble all the way to the end, and to try to make it interesting.  

This group worked for almost an hour.  

New Badge Review: Junior Cookie Badges

 As cookie season will be upon us soon, I thought I'd take a look at the new cookie badges and compare them to the ones being discontinued.   

Requirements

New Badge:  Cookie Collaborator

According to Badge Explorer  Juniors learn to collaborate with their troop, community, and network to grow their cookie business.

• Get to know the Girl Scout Cookie business
• Decide on your goals
• Collaborate on a troop budget
• Reach more customers
• Learn from your customers

When Juniors earn this badge, they will know how to work with their Girl Scout team to set goals and make decisions to run their cookie business, and how to collaborate with their friends and family to connect with more customers.

New Badge Review: Brownie Digital Leadership

This year GSUSA introduced Digital Leadership badges at all levels.  This post will take a look at the Brownie Version.  I have reviewed the plans on VTK and summarized them below.  I have not reviewed he badge pamphlet and do not know what additional information or activities it may have.  

New Badge Review: Brownie Design With Nature

 

The third badge in the Math in Nature series is Design With Nature. This post takes a look at the Brownie Version.  According to Badge Explorer, girl will use math to do things in the natural world, like find the age of natural objects, build a honeycomb, design a bird feeder, and go bird-watching.

The five short requirements are:

1. Calculate the age of a natural object

2. Explore the shape of beehives

3. Measure and build a bird feeder

4. Use ratios to make bird food

5. Graph data about birds

When you've earned this badge, you will know about natural objects.  You’ll know how to measure, use scale and ratio, and make a graph.

Camping Survey Results: Part 2 Girl Scout Camp Facilities

When most people think of Girl Scouts they think of camping and cookies.  As adult members of Girl Scouts we know that cookies support our camps--and those my age can remember selling cookies to buy a camp.  Unfortunately, today many councils are selling one or more of their camps, often with promises to use the money to improve the remaining camps.  

Survey Results: Ambassador Badges

Were you wondering if I was ever going to get to Ambassadors?  For those who are not following along, this is the fourth in a series of posts recounting the results of a survey about Girl Scouts' older girl program.  Here are the other posts:  

• General responses about the program
• Cadette Badges
• Senior Badges

This post will cover the responses about Ambassador badges.  I'll put my usual disclaimer in here:  I'm not a professional survey designer and the Facebook groups I poll are almost certainly not a random sampling of Girl Scouts or Girl Scout leaders.  I don't claim these results would hold up if a professional wrote a randomly delivered survey. I just noticed that the Think Like a Journeys were left off my award list, so I don't know how popular they are with this age group. Do you? 

New Badge Review: Junior Design With Nature

 

The third Math in Nature badge introduced this year is called "Design With Nature". Here is what Badge Explorer gives as the requirements:

Juniors use math to plan and organize an outdoor adventure. They'll decide where to go, how long they'll be gone for, and what to bring.

        Steps

            1. Find your hiking pace

            2. Choose a hiking trail

            3. Find changes in elevation on a map

            4. Decide how much food to bring

            5. Pack for your adventure

        Purpose

When Juniors have earned this badge, they'll know about different types of maps. They'll know how to calculate distance, pace, elevation changes, and area.

Camping Survey Results Part 1: Who Answered, The Importance of Camps and Have Camps Closed?

I recently ran a survey, which I publicized on several Facebook groups for Girl Scout leaders, about Girl Scout Camps and camping.  The reason this topic came to my mind is that the camp closing bug hit my council this year. One of our three camps was closed and sold.    

Besides selling the camp, our council is selling the office buildings that were headquarters for the two legacy councils and plans to get space in a high profile retail space, I'm guessing right off the interstate between the two major cities. They plan a capital campaign to improve the remaining camps and, I guess to create this new space.

Think Like An Engineer

 My Brownies and Juniors are working on Think Like an Engineer.  I'm not sure yet if we will finish it with a TAP or not, but the girls like to make stuff and I wanted something I could do with both groups.  I summarized the VTK plans in a prior post, but this is the first time I've led this Journey. 

I started with reading them a story about engineer Temple Grandin, which talked about engineers as  problem solvers.  The I  reviewed the design process with them.  I had decided to start with the Junior newspaper structure from meeting 1 because I thought the mess would be minimal and we were meeting at the library as our normal meeting area was out of commission due to Hurricane Ida.  

New Badge Review: Junior Numbers In Nature

This year GSUSA came out with a new set of progressive badges, Math in Nature for Daisies, Brownies and Juniors.  I've taken a look at Brownie Shapes in Nature, Brownie Numbers in Nature and Junior Shapes in Nature.  This post will review Junior Numbers in Nature.  

Survey Results: Senior Badges

 

This is the third post I've written to share the results of my survey on the older girl program in Girl Scouts.  You can read general impressions here, and opinions about Cadette badges here. 

I asked respondents to review the list of awards available to Seniors and to give them one of these ratings:

• Haven't done it and don't want to
• Did it, liked it
• Did it, meh
• Did it, didn't like it
• Haven't done it but want to
• Didn't know it existed.

I had 248 overall responses to the survey and each badge got about 90 votes, so evidently most people who responded had not led Seniors or been one under the current program.  

I went through the responses looking for outliers---those badges which got responses  that stood out from the others.  

Survey Results: Cadette Badges

 The numbers on this post came from a survey I conducted by posting a link on some Facebook pages for Girl Scout leaders.  For the record, I have had daughters in the older girl program, but I've never led Cadettes, Seniors or Amabassadors.  

Out of 235 responses, 4.3% said they hadn't been a Cadette in the current program, nor led them.  10.6% said their troop earned less than three Cadette badges per year.  32.3% said they earned 3-5 badges per year and 52.8% earned more than five per year.  

For each Cadette badge, I asked that it be rated as either 

• Haven't done it and don't want to
• Did it, loved it
• Did it, meh
• Did it, didn't like it
• Haven't done it but want to
• Didn't know it existed.

The Older Girl Program: Survey Results

 After publishing my posts regarding surveys I did about the Daisy and Brownie programs, some people asked "What about the older girls?" thinking that as often happens in Girl Scouts, the older girls were left out.  Well, it took a while but I finally did an older girl survey and here are the results.

Who Responded? 

Of the 240 responses I got, 13 were from current Girl Scouts.  207 were from current leaders of older girls. 60 were from adults who were Girl Scouts past Juniors.  114 were parents of current or former older Girl Scouts.  

About 68% of people picked one of my reasons why they or their girls are still in Girl Scouts.  The others 32% had a variety of answers.  The choices I gave were:

• Its what they do with that group of friends (13.9%)
• The outdoor activities (19%)
• To work on the Gold for college/career prep (8.7%)
• It's fun (32%)
• Travel (3.9%)

New Badge Review: Brownie Numbers in Nature

Not long ago I reviewed the new Shapes in Nature badges for Brownies and Juniors, and I was impressed.  The activities seemed fun and the badges touched on important concepts. Unfortunately I'm not as impressed with the rest of the series. Today I'm taking a look at the VTK plans for the Brownie Numbers in Nature badge.  

How Much is Girl Scouts Worth?

 

One of my favorite Bible verses is Matthew 6:21: "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.". I suggest that whether you are a Christian or not, there is wisdom in that verse.  Am I turning this into a religious blog?  No, but one thing I read over and over on Girl Scout leader Facebook groups is leaders saying that they don't want to ask parents for money and that they don't require much if any commitment from families, and then, that they feel taken advantage of and unappreciated.  If you believe that Bible verse to be true (no matter what you think of the Christian religion) then perhaps the answer is to demand more.

New Badge Review: Junior Shapes in Nature

 New badges this year (2021) include a series of Math in Nature badges sponsored by Johnson & Johnson.  This post is taking a look at the activities for the Junior version with the idea of giving leaders a quick resource they can review to decide whether to do the badge.  If you decide to do the badge I highly recommend that you review the VTK plans as the given talking points are what connect the activities and math.

Requirements

According to Badge Explorer:

Juniors explore patterns found in nature and use math to create their own.

    Steps

        1. Identify symmetry in nature

        2. Explore bilateral symmetry in nature

        3. Create nature-inspired art with circular symmetry

        4. Find fractals in nature

        5. Search for the Fibonacci sequence

Purpose

When Juniors have earned this badge, they'll know about symmetry, fractals, and the Fibonacci sequence. They'll have identified patterns and shapes in nature.

Activities

Identify symmetry in nature

After a discussion about symmetry and lines of symmetry, the girls either make a symmetrical paper snowflake with six lines of symmetry, find and draw or photograph symmetrical things in nature or team up and follow each other's actions in a symmetrical manner.  

Explore bilateral symmetry in nature 

The troop discusses the concept of bilateral symmetry and then does one of the following:

• Using roll paper, girls team up to trace halfway around each other's bodies. Each girl then finishes her body and fills it in.  Discuss what is and isn't symmetrical.
  
  
• Create a butterfly out of wire coat hangers and decorate 
  
  
• Take a leaf and fold it in half down the middle and either trace/rub half on paper or press half into clay. Then draw or sculpt the other half

Create nature-inspired art with circular symmetry

Using materials provided, the troop talks about circular symmetry and then does one of these projects:

• Using nut butter and birdseed, create a bird feeder with circular symmetry
  
  
• Using items found in nature create an outdoor design that has circular symmetry
  
  
• Using art supplies, create a work of art with circular symmetry

Make a tetrahedron

This is isn't a badge requirement, but is given as an opening activity.  The leader makes a tetrahedron with toothpicks and clay (photo given) and challenges the girls to make the pyramid bigger by adding more triangles.  They discuss how this is a never-ending pattern and how nature has never ending patterns. 

Find Fractals in nature

After discussing what fractals are and showing examples like leaves, rivers and lightning bolts, the girls go outside and look for fractals.  They then draw them or photograph them.  Another option is to talk about fractal flowers and then to make fractal flowers out of pipe cleaners and beads and then to put them together in a bouquet.  The final choice is to give each girl a piece of clay and a twig.  The clay is pressed flat and the twig pressed in the center of it, flat against the clay.  Girls then use a tool to create the tree branches as fractals.  

Search for the Fibonacci sequence

The troop discusses the Fibonacci sequence (talking points given, not hard to follow even if you have no clue what it is) and then girls create a Golden Rectangle (directions given). Then they look for the Fibonacci sequence/spiral in either fruit, flowers or animals.  

Resources

VTK provides several resources for leaders to use with this badge.  They include photos of symmetry in nature, photo of a snowflake, photos of butterflies, a page on designing with circular symmetry, photos of art with symmetry, photos of natural fractals, photos showing Fibonacci in nature and directions on how to make a golden rectangle (with illustrations).

My Comments

My girls wanted more art badges.  Well, I just found one, and it teaches some math concepts too.  Seriously, don't let the awful design of VTK scare you away.  Look at this post, pick out what you want to do.  Then go to VTK and, if you haven't done so, create a year plan and add the two meeting plans for this badge to the year plan.  Then click on the first meeting and scroll all the way to the bottom. Find the activity you selected and click on it and read the script.  You can teach this even if you had no idea that Fibonacci was a thing ten minutes ago.  

New Badge Review: Brownie Shapes in Nature

 

This  year GSUSA's new badges included a Shapes in Nature badge for Brownies.  This post will take a look at and summarize the VTK plans.  The goal is to give leaders an easy way to look at the activities and decide if the badge is right for their troop, without making them read pages upon pages of VTK scripts.  However, if you decide to do the badge I do highly recommend reviewing the plans on VTK as they give the terms and concepts you are trying to teach, whereas I'm focusing more on the activities.

Requirements

According to Badge Explorer, to earn the Shapes in Nature badge girls:

• Track natural objects
• Graph natural objects
• Make a spiderweb with symmetry
• Explore tessellations and 
• Collect data about birds

When you've earned this badge, you will know about counting, graphing, symmetry, and tessellations.

You’ll also know about spiders, birds, and other natural objects.

Track Natural Objects

The first activity for the badge teaches observation skills, categorization and recording data via tally marks.  The leader has the girls discuss different types of things they might find in nature and she makes a list and then leads the girls in categorizing these things---natural vs manmade, living vs non-living, type of animal, or even type of snail.  Girls make a "Foldable" (pattern given) on which to record data and then go looking for the objects on their Foldable either online, in a book or outside by their meeting place, and record data using tally marks.  

Graph Natural Objects

In the second step, Brownies use the data collected in Step One to create either a Bar Graph, a Pie Chart or a Word Cloud.

Make a Spiderweb With Symmetry

After a discussion about symmetry and how it gives spider webs strength, girls are assigned a number of radials to use in creating a spider web with glue.  First, they draw the assigned number of radials with a ruler and pencil, making sure to intersect them all in the middle.  Next they cover the radials with glue (and while it doesn't say to do so, I'll bet some Crafty Cathy will give the girls glitter) and then spiral from one to another.  The leader helps them observe that the more radials there are, the more like a circle the web appears and that the number of section is equal to the number of radials. 

Another option is to make a group web by throwing a ball of yarn around the circle of girls.  A script is given helping her to review words like radial and symmetry.  The yarn is cut to allow symmetrical radials and then the spirals are woven in.

The final option given is to make a spiderweb of yarn and sticks.  Again girls are given different numbers of sticks and there are discussions of terms like radial, orb, symmetry, and different types of polygons.  As I mentioned above, the VTK plans give the talking points that change this from a classic Girl Scout craft into a math lesson.  

Explore Tessellations

Leaders are given a sheet showing several tessellations in nature and share it with the girls and talk about the patterns.  There is also a photo of a quilt square.  The leaders discusses tessellations in nature and asks the girls if they can think of others.  Then the girls use a leaf to draw a tessellation pattern.  They put the leaf in the middle of the a paper, and then trace it.  They then move it over so that the edge fits with the prior outline, and then trace it again, and repeat. The leader reminds the girls that there are no gaps and no overlap.  The girls can color their pattern.  

Another option is for the leader to hide photos or other tessellations around the room and the girls hunt for them.  

The final choice is to make a quilt, either with paper or fabric.  

No matter which activity is chosen, the leader should talk about the definition of tessellations and about how they are strong, and part of nature.  

Collect Data About Birds

The final activity is to create a data table and then go birdwatching to fill it in with tally marks.  The birdwatching can be either live or online.  The leader should provide a field guide regarding birds they are likely to see.  Other options are to tie this activity in with Citizen Science or to include acting like a bird in the activity.  

My Comments

These activities sound like fun to me, and could be made a part of a weekend camping trip or day at the park (since Covid has camping on hold).  They also give you a chance to explore some topics not usually considered "STEM".  For example, I've been wanting to do a sewing activity, and making quilt pattern pillows could fit into this badge.  We could do a trip to the park and do the scavenger hunt activity and the bird watching on the trip and the spider web craft would be easy to work into a Halloween meeting.  I'm big on taking as long as I want on a badge and even working on more than one at a time--that trip to the park could include requirements for the hiker badge or EcoFriends or....

Journeys: The Other Side of the Story

I'm a criminal defense paralegal and one of the opening lines my boss uses in court is "Every piece of paper has two sides, and I want to make sure you look at both sides"  If you've read other posts of mine, you are probably aware that I'm not the biggest fan of Journeys and Take Action Projects.  In short, I think Journeys are two-headed monsters.  While I like the content of the "Think Like A...." and Outdoor Journeys, I think the original Journeys, from what I have seen (and I haven't looked at many of them), if done according to GSUSA's plans, do not do a good job with content, and I think they are all seriously lacking in directing the leaders on take action projects--and I'm not convinced Take Action Projects are appropriate for younger girls anyway.  

Girl Scout Leaders and Technology

 A few years ago I brought my laptop with me to my Daisy meeting for the first time.  I was teaching a song and well, let's just say that I hope I make up in enthusiasm what I lack in musical talent.  Since that time I've  shown more than a few videos and of course, in the last year have become Zoom-competent.  That and the discussions we have been having about VTK got me wondering about technology Girl Scout leaders use, and how GSUSA might be able to learn from us to produce a product that will actually be helpful, so I did a survey.  Here are my results.

Who Replied?

I got 335 responses.  4.8% said they were Daisy leaders, 16.4% Brownie leaders, 9.6% Junior leaders, 13.1% were multi-level with younger girls only, 14.3% were multi-level, older girls only, 17.6% were older girl leaders, and 15.5% were multi-level with all ages.  50.9% had been leaders for seven or more years and only 4.5% were in their first year.  Like most of my surveys, respondents seem to have more than the average amount of experience as Girl Scout leaders.

Besides asking about their Girl Scout experience, I asked about how they used computers outside of Girl Scouts.  Of course people who didn't like using computers probably never saw my survey, but 12.2% identified themselves as IT professionals or serious hobbyists.  53.9% said they were good at office software like Microsoft Office and the software common in their industry.  27.2% said they could use office software and the software common in their industry but that they may need help with things out of the ordinary.  6.3% said they could surf the web and send emails if they had to.  

Computer Access

Particularly with older girls, most of the badges have a research or "learn about" component and the VTK plans often mention internet research, so I wondered what type of internet access was common for troops.  5.4% of those who responded said that they could easily make arrangements to use devices and internet that is already there---like an after school troop using the school computer lab.  34.4% said that wi-fi was available and they had the password, but that they had to bring their own devices.  44.7% said they did not have access to wi-fi or devices other than those they brought themselves.  15.4% said all or most of their girls had phones with internet access.  

What About Zoom?

Because of the pandemic I went from never hearing about Zoom to being one of the office experts on it, thanks to reading about it on GS Facebook groups and learning to make it work for my girls.  I wondered what people thought about Zoom meetings, so I asked: "Assume the pandemic is over tomorrow.  Will you ever hold another Zoom meeting?".  17.7% of people said no.  42.1 said they don't plan to, but wouldn't rule it out.  28.7% plan to use it periodically for specific purposes.  1.2% said they were going to use it for planning badges, and then get together for activities.  4.5% planned to meet in person but keep regular Zoom meetings too.  

What Are People Using?

GSUSA would like you think that VTK is a dashboard from which you can manage  your troop.  I doubt many leaders would agree, given responses to a previous survey.  Since we aren't using VTK to run our troops, what are we using?  47.75 of us make use of Office-type programs.  Not surprisingly for a group that was recruited on Facebook, 69.7% use it for their troop.  26% use a communications app like Band.  13.1% have a troop webpage.  40.4% use payment apps like Paypal or Venmo.  31.2% use Dropbox, Sharefile, Google Files or similar and 23% use software designed for Scouts.  

My Comments:

As Girl Scout leaders we are people of our times and people of our times use computers for more functions that people ever considered thirty years ago.  I can remember when management at our law office debated whether employees should have internet access and the only reason they said "yes" to giving it to everyone was because it was so much trouble to turn in on for some and off for others.  Originally we had all sorts of blockers on it but those have all disappeared as people kept asking for needed exceptions.  Originally we were told our cell phones were only to be used in emergencies or for personal long distance calls.  Now if my boss wants me and he's out of the office (and even sometimes when he isn't) he calls my cell or texts me on it.  

It should be no surprise that Girl Scout leaders who use resources wisely have decided to use the resources of the internet and app store for their troops.  What is unfortunate is that GSUSA, while spending a fortune on computer systems, hasn't been able to come up with one that actually works well for leaders.  My troop debit card works fine anywhere I use it--except for the GSUSA website and my council's website.  Go figure.  

Improving VTK

 I am a firm believer that complaints in and of themselves aren't very useful.  Instead of saying what is wrong with something, please tell me what I can do to make it better.  Sometimes being made to think of things in that light helps you to realize they are the way they are for a good reason, and other times, the constructive criticism can be a roadmap to improvement.  Hopefully someone from GSUSA will see this post and use it to improve VTK.

Communicating With Your Troop/Parents: Some Options

Once upon a time, Girl Scouts was every Tuesday after school in the art room, or every Wednesday at 4:30 at the Girl Scout Hut or something similar.  Once upon a time leaders at those meetings handed out permission slips for special events, which girls gave to their parents, and if they did not, the girls missed out  Once upon a time leaders were not expected to remind everyone of everything.  Today is not "once upon a time".

Junior Paddleboat

 As the virus numbers climbed and the weather got cold, I moved to Zoom meetings and I decided to try mechanical engineering.  The Juniors made paddleboats.  

Requirements

According to Badge Explorer, the requirements were:

Explore how paddle boats work and engineer your own paddle boat.

• Explore how paddle boats work
• Design and build a rubber band-powered paddle boat 
• Test your rubber band-powered paddle boat 
• Analyze and share your results 
• Brainstorm ways to improve your design

When you've earned this badge, you'll know how to build and test a paddle boat and understand buoyancy, potential energy, and kinetic energy.

Sources

I used the plans in VTK, along with the plans from Girl Scouts of Southeast Florida. 

Our Meeting

I had asked girls to find some things they thought would float and some things they did not think would float.  I had also asked parents to have a buckect/pan/sink of water available.  We tested things and talked about why some floated and some didn't---and why some floated for a while but eventually sunk.  

The initial hypothesis was that light things floated and heavy things sunk.  I then asked if it was easy to pick up a coin and of course they said yes.  I asked if they had ever seen boats or ships on the river or lake, and they said yes.  I asked if they could pick up the boats/ships and of course they said no and then I talked about weight vs size and how that held stuff up--made it buoyant.  

Next we reviewed potential and kinetic energy and how we could store energy in various ways, like twisting a rubber band or lifting things up high.  

The parents had picked up packets with rubber bands and pencils and I showed the video on the plan from GSSF.  The girls then made the boats, tested them and adjusted them.  

We had trouble getting the boars to move.  I think the rubber band for the propeller should have been smaller.  We did find that moving the pencils down further on the container helped.  Still getting the wheel situated so that it spun and hit the water was hard--and the power source did not last long  

VTK As A Planner: What Do Leaders Think?

 This is the second post in my series about what Girl Scout leaders think of VTK, the online leader dashboard.  It is the result of a survey promulgated on Facebook groups for Girl Scout leaders.  As I said in the first post, I think the people who responded tend to me more experienced than the average Girl Scout leader and more likely to go beyond the obvious when planning meetings.

What Do Girl Scout Leaders Think of VTK? (Part One)

 

Several years ago, GSUSA introduced its online leader's platform Volunteer Toolkit.  VTK, which is accessed by clicking on the "My GS" tab on your council's website, logging in, clicking "my account" and then "Volunteer Toolkit" is supposed to be sort of an online dashboard for leaders.  If you utilize it fully, you select an award to work in at a meeting, set a date for the meeting, choose activities for a meeting, read a script for the meeting, send meeting reminders, record attendance and submit reports to council.   There are also training materials and resources available in VTK.  However, it has been my impression that many Girl Scout leaders do not love VTK.  This post is the result of a survey of members of various Girl Scout leader Facebook Groups. 

Junior Flowers Badge

 

Today my Juniors started the Flowers badge, and in developing the plans I looked at VTK as well as at the "at home" plans of several councils 

Is Girl Scouts for Big Girls or Little Girls--or Both?

 Most of us have read the statistic that a huge number of today's women leaders were Girl Scouts.  Of course GSUSA would like you to draw the conclusion that the Girl Scout experience was a major factor in making these women into leaders.  However, for those of us of a certain age, if you were looking at activities that "every" girl, particularly "every" middle class girl did, the big contenders were dancing lessons, piano lessons and Girl Scouts.  For those of us who grew up before Title IX, girls' sports were not a given.  Are these women leaders because of their Girl Scout experience or are they leaders because they grew up in middle and upper income households and Girl Scouts is one of the things those girls did that poorer girls who are less likely to achieve leadership positions, did not?  

Are Cookies Worth It?

 Its that time of year again--Cookie Season, and despite the pandemic, Girl Scouts are out selling cookies (but in a socially distant way).  As regularly as Cookie Season comes around, so do the complaints that the girls and troops don't get enough for selling them.  Are Girl Scout Cookies good for girls and troops, or just for the adults running the organization?

How the Cookie Crumbles

Many council websites have pages that tell "how the cookie crumbles" -- how the price of the cookies is allotted between the baker, the council, and the troops.

Brownie Fling Flyer Badge Via Zoom

One of the mechanical engineering badges for Brownies is "Fling Flyer" which is basically a rubber band propelled airplane.  We did it this week via Zoom and I'm sharing my plan and results.

Four Pillars?

 Currently, GSUSA says that the Girl Scout program is built on four pillars:  STEM, Outdoors, Life Skills and Entrepreneurship, but does the current programming reflect that?  GSUSA's Badge Explorer allows you to sort awards by program pillar, and this post is going to review them in that light.