Survey Results: Daisy Math in Nature Badges

This post is the result of a survey I did of members of a bunch of Girl Scout leader Facebook groups.  I wanted to look at two things: 

1. The Math in Nature badges--did people like them, and how did they do them
2. Related to that, what did people think was required to earn them.

I think (at least hope) that all of us would agree that looking outside for round things and then counting them is not enough to earn these badges.  I doubt there are many, if any, people who would say that you have to read the VTK scripts to the girls and do activities exactly as planned there.  However there is a wide gap between these two, and I wondered what most people thought was actually required to earn a badge.  

You can read the survey from which this post was derived here, but obviously there is no point in responding at this time.  

Shapes in Nature

According to Badge Explorer, girls will "Identify shapes and patterns in natural objects, like rainbows, flowers, and leaves.

1. Search for shapes in nature

2. Find and make patterns

3. Create art inspired by nature

When you've earned this badge, you will know how to identify shapes and patterns in nature. You’ll also know how to create your own."

In my opinion, based on reading the plans in VTK, particularly the talking points, the point of "Search for Shapes in Nature" is to learn observation skills, to learn to recognize shapes and to learn to record data via tally marks.  "Find and Make Patterns" is about sorting and about recognizing and making patterns. "Create Art Inspired by Nature" reinforces those concepts.  Those are all math skills and this is a math badge. 

Only 18% of those who responded, believed that making tally marks was necessary to earn the badge. Regarding "Find and Make Patterns" 13% said you had to do the VTK activities and discuss patterns and sorting. 67% said you had to talk about patterns and sorting but could do other activities. 10% said any pattern activity was fine and 9% said they don't worry about individual steps, they just did activities around shapes in nature. 

Of the 34 who had done this badge, 4 said the given plans were great, 28 said their plans worked well, and there were 2 people whose plans did not succeed, one of whom used GSUSAs plan and one, her own. 

Activities people did that did not come from GSUSA materials were:

• Went to a nature center and measured leaves sticks etc.
• I gave them a bag of leaves, sticks, rocks, etc. and asked them to sort them (by color, size, texture, however they wanted. We talked about how they sorted, which pile had more, less, etc. Then they took sidewalk chalk and made patterns with nature shapes, and girls filled in each others patterns 
• We did some of the suggested activities while on a short hike, at the end of the hike we also did outdoor art badge… so I connected them all
• We talked about all the things listed during a nature walk, searching for shapes and patterns and talking about them, also showed the pictures on the booklet. And during the walk, observing and talking, we collected items on the ground which we created a mandala at the end, we made art and left the art there at the park for others to enjoy
• We went to various nature areas over the summer and did hikes. Each girl had a note book I glued relevant information in and they could record or draw what they needed to in the notebook
• We did an outdoor day and collected, an observed shapes. Was a part of our nature scavenger hunt find something in the shape of...
• 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 did this on a hike
• We just tweaked, didn't totally revamp into "new"- for example, we made our tally marks using footprints or stick lines in snow, which they enjoyed a lot,  We went on a nature walk and used clipboards and a tally sheet of nature items from an online pdf. I got big books of nature from the library and we talked about those patterns. The girls were in kinder so we kept it short and to the point
• As with all things girl led we described what we were trying to accomplish gave ideas and let them flow from there. One example “I spy a “line” in nature… they answered a tree looks like a line”
• We made patterns from things they would find in nature. Each girl had a paper with 7 boxes and they drew whatever they wanted. Some drew butterflies, stars, or leaves.
• We used different colored and shaped shells. Girls sorted them, some did by color some by size etc. Then they made patterns and had to say what the pattern was...big big small big big small ...white black black white black black etc. 
• We went to the zoo and counted shapes and patterns we saw there.

24 people could have done this badge with Daisies but did not.  3 said their schedule was already full when the badge came out. 6 looked at the plans and did not want to do it. 1 talked to her girls who did not want to do it and 14 just chose to do other things. 

Daisy Design With Nature

Here is what Badge Explorer says about this badge:

Observe and use what you know about the outdoors to make and do things in nature.

1. Count with birds
2. Identify parts of nature
3. Make a map

When you've earned this badge, you will know how to use math to identify and sort things in nature. You'll also know how to create a map.

All three activities in VTK for "Count With Birds" involve recording data via tally marks. All the activities in "Identify Natural Objects" have to do with putting things in categories and the "Make A Map" activities all involve making maps and using words like "symbol", "key" and "legend".   

Regarding whether birdwatching was an appropriate activity for Daisies, 4.7% said "no". 26.6% said they couldn't imagine any birds getting close to Daisies, 57.8 thought it was ok for a short time and 10.9 said "yes".   

Since I had asked about Tally marks with respect to Shapes in Nature, I did not ask again.  

For "Make a Map" 21.3% did not believe making a map was necessary to earn the badge. That's 13 of the 61 who responded.  I'll admit, I don't know what else you would do with this step. 

22 people responded to the question about whether the girls enjoyed Design with Nature.  14 said yes, they came up with a great plan and 3 said the GSUSA plans were great.  3 also said that GSUSAs plans did  not work well and 2 were less than successful with their own plans.  

I missed asking the question about what other activities people used to earn this badge.  

My Comments

I think if you count it all up, I've spent 8 years as a Daisy leader, which is more than most people.  In my opinion, based on my experience, these badges, as written by GSUSA, are appropriate for Daisies, with the possible exception of counting birds--I'm one who can't imagine birds getting that close to Daisies.  I wouldn't want to bet anything valuable on the accuracy of the data collected on either tally mark activity, but gathering data via tally marks, for a short time, is a valuable skill and they have to start somewhere. 

I was surprised how many people did not think marking tally marks was important when all the VTK activities included them, and I was even more surprised at how many people did not think it was necessary to draw a map to fulfill the step "Make a Map" when making a map is referenced not only in the VTK activities but in the name of the step.  

What do you think?  Do you think I am mis-interpreting GSUSA intentions?  Do you think some leaders are "adapting" too far?  Is there a point at which "adapting" badges makes them meaningless?  Does it matter?  Does doing badges in a manner far different than envisioned by GSUSA, and buying them, give the powers that be a GSUSA a mistaken view of what troops are doing?