Daisy Maker Badges: Survey Results

 I recently asked members of a variety of Facebook groups for Girl Scout leaders to respond to surveys about the Maker badges released in the summer of 2023.  This post is one in a series that review and comment on the results of those surveys.  In particular, this post will focus on the responses of Daisy leaders. 

Who Responded

Only 21 people responded to the survey, and of them, only 15 had done one of these badges.  Therefore I absolutely do not claim the survey is representative of the thoughts of most Daisy leaders today.  12 of those who responded led Daisies only, 9 had multi-level troops. 28% were first year leaders, 38% had been leading for 1-3 years and 33% had been leading for three or more years. 

Did Their Troop Earn the Badges?

As noted above, 15 of the respondents' troops earned one or more of these badges this year.  I asked those who did not earn them if they had reviewed the badges and rejected them or whether there was another reason.  All had other reasons.  

52% of those who responded plan to do at least one of these badges next year.  38% may do so but 9.5% said they were not interested.  

If you review the plans for these badges across different levels, it appears the plans were created in order to allow multi-level troops to work on the badges together.  53% of those who earned one of these badges on the Daisy level had Daisies only.  20% had a multi-level troop and had all the girls do the same thing before awarding them the badge for their level.  13% have a multi-level troop where each level works independently and 13% did some of the work as a whole group and split by levels for other things. 

Art and Design

Of the twenty people whose troops earned one of these badges, 10 earned Art and Design. Of those, 2 attended a program, two created plans based on the steps in Badge Explorer and 6 said they reviewed the plans in VTK or the badge insert but created their own plans for the badge.  No one said they followed VTK or the badge insert pretty closely.  

The plans in VTK call for it to take two meetings of about an hour to earn this badge.  Three people said it took their troop one meeting of an hour or less, three said it took one meeting over an hour, two used two meetings of an hour or less and two used two meetings over an hour each.  

Both VTK and the badge insert list vocabulary words and the "Explore Art and Design" step in VTK works on learning those words via a guest speaker or field trip, or by a discussion.  Four troops had guest speakers, three did a vocabulary discussion, one did a field trip and two did not do any of these. 

"Explore Your Medium" in VTK begins with a discussion about shapes, colors and various media.  Three troops had that discussion. Four leaders tried to work the words into the directions for the craft, one said she might have used a few of the words and two chose "no" as the response.  "Be Inspired by a Subject" also began with a discussion.  Three people said they did not have the discussion, three tried to use the words but did not follow the script and 4 said they had the discussion.  

VTK provides opening activities for meetings--things for the girls to do as they arrive that do not directly meet a badge step.  For this badge the opening activities are drawings.  One troop did this because of the VTK plans, four always draw when they come in, and five did not do the drawing.  

If you follow the VTK plans you will do a craft and a drawing at each meeting.  None of those responding did that.  Four did one drawing and one craft, two did one craft , one did two crafts and one drawing and one did one drawing and three crafts.  

For "Be Inspired" the troop has to choose between a design activity or an art activity.  Six leaders made that choice, four let the girls pick. Nine troops picked art. 

I asked people to rate the badge and gave three choices.  The responses:

• GSUSA and Stanley did a great job with this badge--5
• We skipped all that talking and enjoyed our crafts--5
• My troop did not like this badge--0

Create and Innovate

Of the fifteen people who earned one of these badges, only two earned Create and Innovate.  One created a plan using the steps on Badge Explorer and one attended a program. Both did it in one meeting, one was an hour or less and one, more than an hour. Neither did VTK's suggested opening activities of building a tower from cups or tossing a ball around while naming objects that could be useful to a particular user.

Discussion topics for this badge included the vocabulary words and problems crafts solve. Both troops had those discussions. Both also discussed user-centered design and the design thinking process as well as the problems solved by their craft and how they could improve it to better solve the problem.   

The VTK plans call for doing two crafts, one at each meeting. One of the responding troops did one craft, the other did three.  Neither did the paper mache piggy bank for which directions were provided. One of the troops did a VTK-suggested craft. VTK also has the girls sketching their improvements to the craft but neither troop did that.  

Both troops enjoyed the badge and both leaders said they tried to accomplish GSUSA's goals for this badge. 

Craft and Tinker

Of the fifteen troops who earned one of these badges, eleven earned Craft and Tinker.  One attended a program, two used Badge Explorer to come up with plans and eight looked at VTK or the badge insert before coming up with their own plans.  Two did in in one meeting of an hour or less, four had one meeting of more than an hour, one had two meetings of an hour or less, three had two meetings of an hour or more and one took three meetings of an hour or  more.  

VTK's opening activity for this badge is to supply a variety of craft materials and to allow the girls to make whatever they want.  Eight troops did this; three did not.  None used the opening activity for meeting two--looking at items brought in by the leader and then sketching another use for the item other than its usual use. 

Step one is "Learn the Basics". The VTK plans have the girls using rulers to measure things, and then discussing whether certain things are tools or materials.  Three troops practiced measuring, seven did not.  Ten discussed tools and materials, one did not. 

Six of the troops  used one of VTK's suggested projects for the first meeting; five did not. 

For meeting two, VTK has the girls sketching another use for a useful item.  No troops did this. 

For the second step, VTK gives a choice between Solve a Problem or Make a Gift. 64% chose to make a gift; 9% did not do either.  27% chose solve a problem. 

As with other badges in this series, there is a lot of discussion modeled in VTK. When asked if they had the discussion about crafts being art with a purpose, users, and features, 54% said they did.  18% said they tried to cover the basic concepts but did not have a direct discussion.  27% said they did not have such a discussion.  

As VTK suggested, 64% of troops brainstormed problems they have seen that could be solved with crafts. 36% did not.  Before doing the craft, VTK said girls should discuss the purpose of the craft, the parts it needs to fulfill that purpose and any features that could make it more useful.  54% of troops had that discussion, 45% did not. 27% of the troops did one of the crafts suggested in VTK for the second meeting, 72% did not. 

For the step "Make a Gift" the VTK script tells girls to pick a user for the craft before making it, and to imagine how that person would use it.  73% of troops did that, 27% did not.  45% of troops used one of the VTK suggested gifts; 54% did not. 

The final step for this badge is "Tinker with your craft".  It begins with a discussion of the word "Tinker".  54% of troops had that discussion.  The rest did not have a real discussion but the leader told them that Tinker meant to change something to make it better. VTK has the girls sketching how they would change the craft to make it better or more useful.  Only 9% of the troops did that. All the troops had the girls show off their crafts and identify the purpose, parts, features, user, tools, and materials.  

Of the eleven troops who did this badge, two did one craft, three did two crafts and six troops did three or more. Eight troops tried to accomplish GSUSA's goals for the badge and used the crafts as carriers for information.  Two said they had a craft they wanted to to and this badge seemed like the best fit and they skipped most of the discussion.  One was mainly interested in teaching the girls how to do the craft, not in all that design talk. 

When asked if the girls enjoyed the badge, 72% said they did, and that they did most of the discussion/non-craft activities.  One said they enjoyed it but skipped all that discussion and two said the crafts were fine but that they lost the girls with all that talking.  

Family Connection

VTK provided family handouts for this series of badges.  Of the troops that worked on Art and Design, nine did not send those handouts home; the other troop made paper copies for everyone. With Create and Innovate, one troop sent it home and the other did not.  With Craft and Tinker, one answer they could pick is "I didn't know it was there" and that's what 8 of 11 of people said.  1 saw it and didn't send it home, 1 emailed it and 1 copied it.  

My Comments:

When I first saw these badges (check my archives for the summer and fall of 2023 for review of them) I liked the way they seemed to be designed to allow multi-level troops to do much of the work together. 

Looking at the three badges at three different levels, they teach some terminology, encourage the design thinking process, and teach girls to sketch a plan before they do things.  They also teach that things can always be improved.  I seriously wondered what percent of troops would actually follow the processes that teach those skills, as opposed to just doing a craft and calling it good.  While the sample size for this survey is very small, I'll admit that more people were discussing more things than I thought  would. We'll see if that holds true when I look at the other levels.  

I agree with what was said over and over in my comments section, both on the Daisy level and on the other levels that these badges are fine, but GSUSA should have introduced them and not retired the individual craft badges.  

This post is one in a series about surveys about these badges.  The plan is to have, at each level, one post of comments (not yet published as of this writing), one of projects and one with survey results like this, per level.  Click the "Maker Badge Survey" label below to find all the posts written as of the time you are reading this.