Junior Math In Nature Survey Results

 This is the last in a series of posts looking at the Math in Nature badges as well as what people believe is necessary to earn them.  I surveyed members of some Facebook groups for Girl Scout leaders to acquire the data presented and I make no representations about the data other than stating how I got it.  I have three other posts in this series:

• General information and conclusions
• Daisy Math in Nature badges
• Brownie Math in Nature badges

Junior Shapes in Nature 

Symmetry is the main topic for Juniors.  "Identify Symmetry in Nature" deals with lines of symmetry. "Explore Bilateral Symmetry in Nature" is about Bilateral Symmetry. "Create Nature Inspired Art with Circular Symmetry" is, yes, about circular symmetry.  "Find Fractals in Nature" is about defining and identifying fractals, and "Search for the Fibonacci Sequence" is about recognizing it in nature.  

Identify Symmetry In Nature

VTK says that 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.  

97% of those who responded said that you had to use the word "symmetry" when talking to the girls about this step.  

Explore Bilateral Symmetry 

For this step, all three recommendations are crafts that have some sort of bilateral symmetry.  I asked whether you had to use the words bilateral symmetry in working on the badge, or can you just have the girls do the craft? 59% said you had to use the word purposefully trying to make them remember it.  41% said to do the craft, point out the symmetry, using the word once and calling it good.  No one said you just had to do the craft. 

Create Nature-Inspired Art with Circular Symmetry

VTK offers three different art projects.  14% said the art project was all that was necessary.  86% said you had to include a discussion of circular symmetry. 

Find Fractals in Nature

All three choices in VTK have the girls looking for fractals in nature and then either drawing them or photographing them. Then VTK offers three fractal crafts. 75% of those who responded said that you did not have to a craft on top of finding and drawing or photographing fractals.  

Search for the Fibonacci Sequence

The VTK plans help leaders explain it to the girls and then the girls create a Golden rectangle.  After they do that they look for the Fibonacci sequence in either fruit, flowers or animals.  I asked if having the girls search on their phones for photos of things showing the Fibonacci sequence and sharing photos with each other be enough for this step.  79% of people said it was.  The rest agreed with the statement that the VTK plans were much more extensive than that, and the girls' work should be too.  

In General

Three people said their girls enjoyed the VTK plans.  12 said their girls enjoyed plans they created.  1 said that the VTK plans did not go well, and three admitted that their plans did not.  

Of troops that did not choose to do this badge, 7 had leaders who read the plans and chose not to do them, 5 had girls who did not want to do it, and 16 just chose to do other things.  

53% believed that the badge, as I described it, was appropriate for Juniors.  41% said it might be appropriate for some and 3 picked "not really".  

Unfortunately I forgot to include the question about what other activities did you use to earn this badge.  I'll love to hear about it in the comments though.  

Junior Design With Nature

"Find Your Hiking Pace" is all about taking the amount of time to go a short distance and converting it into the pace for a longer distance via math.  "Choose a Hiking Trail" is about using a measuring device and a map scale to determine the distance between two points on a map.  "Find Changes in Elevation on a Map" has girls reading a topographical map and computing changes in elevation. "Decide How Much Food to Bring" includes a multi-step calculation of how many ounces and pounds of water you need for a three hour hike and the task of scaling a recipe for the number of girls.  "Pack for Your Adventure" involves computing the volume of an area, the volume of what needs to go in the area and a math problem to see if it fits.  

54% of those who responded said using a fitness app to compute pace was acceptable, as opposed to doing the math problems. 

80% believed you had to do something to compute the distance between points on a map. However, 66% said it was ok to meet this requirement by looking at a map of your local state park and picking one of the trails.  

All the VTK choices for "Find Changes in Elevation on a Map" involved using a topographical map and 96% of those who answered believed you had to use a topographical map for this step. VTK includes a worksheet that leads the girls to compute the changes in elevation and 65% of people said it was necessary to do the worksheet. 

For "Decide How Much Food to Bring", there are two steps.  One involves converting one cup of water per hour into the number of ounces and pounds of water you need for your hike. The other involves converting one of three recipes into the amount you need for your troop.  I asked if the water exercise was necessary, since all three options on VTK took you through it, and 65% of people thought it was. 50% of people thought that converting the recipe was necessary, 6% said it was not and 44 said it was necessary if you did not do the water exercise. 

 Under "Pack for Your Adventure" 33% did not believe computing the volume of the named objects was necessary.  

Interestingly, when I asked about earning the badge in a way that only involved math with the step on the topographical map, but which had an activity that matched the name of each step--using a fitness app to compute pace, picking a trail on a map, planning a menu and making a packing list--57% said this was not an appropriate way to earn the badge.  34% of those who responded said it was fine and 9% wanted a different option.  

57% believed this badge was appropriate for Juniors, which I'll admit I thought was high.  12 people said they led the badge. One successfully used the VTK plans. 7 used their own plans successfully and 1 used her own plan but the girls did not enjoy it. 

65% of people were not familiar with this badge before beginning the survey. 87% of them said this was not what they would have expected by reading the name of the badge.  

Other activities people did to earn the badge were:

• We went to a volunteer run workshop for all of the Junior Math in Nature badges. Design with Nature was one of the best ones, since we used a topographic map of the camp itself, used math in a recipe to make trail mix and figure out how much we needed of each ingredient, figured out hiking paces with a stopwatch and walking a tenth of a mile and back, and actually took a hike around the camp.
• We also took the day hike we planned for with a midday stop for lunch and hit drink.
• I can't remember as we did this in 2021 when the badges were released; I was very excited about the badges but they were tough. Unbelievably difficult and hard to understand the concepts as laid out in VTK
• We combined this with one of our 3 mile hikes for Trail Adventure. Before setting out, I had the girls identify the trail on the map, Figure the elevation change, note the distance (was listed on the map), do the water calculations. Each girl arrived with a packed backpack with rain gear, snack and water. We discussed how they would need different things for different types of trips and different conditions.
• 3rd party kits, nature center led, our own thing. This badge series is horrible! Nature center was too boring, printed material was either geared too young or too old based on school curriculum. Girls felt it was too much like school to get into. When we did it our own way they had fun but it was nothing like that printed requirements.

My Comments:

I'll bet you never could have guessed that I think the Design With Nature badge is  inappropriate as written.  If you follow the VTK instructions, you spend two complete meetings planning a hike, or shall we say doing math problems centered around hiking.  

In my opinion there is a real disconnect between what leaders want in a badge program and what GSUSA is providing.  GSUSA is about teaching problem solving and other STEM skills.  What I as a leader would like to see is a progressive outline for teaching a topic/skill.  For hiking I'd like to see badges starting with Daisies going through Ambassadors with each badge calling for longer hikes, different equipment and introducing new skills, so that I, as someone  who is not a hiker,  who has never used a topographical map, would know they exist and that using one is appropriate for Juniors. 

There was a discussion recently on the Greenblood Gab Facebook group about how today's badges compare with those in the past.  The overwhelming consensus is that today's badges do not ask as much of the girls as the badges we did as kids.  However, another difference, whether planned or not, was that today's badges are, for the most part, meeting plans.  While the badges in the blue Junior book had a lot of requirements that you pretty much had to do at home and/or over a long period of time, today's badges are, according to VTK, designed to be done in two 1.5 hour meetings.  This leads to computer badges earned without computers, robotics badges without robots and badges about planning a hike, that do not include a hike.  

Back when I was an education major, we had to learn to write behavioral objectives.  We had to be able to state what we wanted the students to be able to do at the end of the lesson.  If I look at the VTK plans and try to write the behavioral objectives for Design in Nature based on the talking points, I come up with:

•  Given the length of time it takes to walk 1/4 mile, girls will be able to compute their pace in miles per hour and will be able to compute how long it will take to walk a given distance.
• Given a map and a measuring device, girls will determine the distance between two points on the map.
• Given a topographical map, girls will be able to read the map to determine the elevation of given points and will be able to calculate the difference in elevation between two points, and state whether a given trail is ascending or descending.  
• Given the information that you need to drink 1 cup of water per hour, girls will be able to use proportions to determine the weight of the amount of water they need for a given hike and will be able to state whether they could carry enough water with them for the hike.  Girls will also use proportions to convert a recipe to make the appropriate number of portions for the girls in their troop. 
• Using the formula for volume, girls will calculate the volume of a container and the volume of multiple things to place in the container and will determine if the container is large enough to hold the contents.

While I think this is one of the harder badges to earn, I believe these requirements are as challenging as any we had. However, if you follow the VTK  plans exactly and guide the girls through the process given, I seriously doubt that a week after the meetings for this badge that most of the girls would be able to do these skills.  I think that's the difference between today's badge program and the one we had back in the Stone Ages.  We were supposed to be able to do the requirements when we finished the badge.  I never finished that stupid embroidery project and I didn't get the badge.  I wasn't given the badge and sent home to finish it, if I wanted to.  On the other hand, I had learned enough about embroidery that if I wanted to do another project, I had the skills to do it.  

Today's leaders talk about "the spirit of the badge" and want to adapt the GSUSA materials/steps to meet their girls' needs, and one third of the people who responded to this survey were fine with focusing on the hiking aspect of this badge and doing in such a way that only the section on topographical maps required any math.  While I don't think the requirements as written are appropriate, I also do not believe in such massive adaptation because I think it misses the spirit of the badge which is to use math skills.  

Did these survey results surprise you?    Do you agree or disagree with my conclusions?