Survey Results: Cadette Journeys and TAPs

  This is one in a series of posts about a survey I did of members of a number of Facebook groups for Girl Scout leaders.  The other posts published to date are:

• Survey Results: Badges
• Comments re GSUSA Programming
• Daisy Journeys and TAPs
• Survey Results:  Journeys and TAPs
• Survey Results:  What I Ordered, What I Got
• Your Turn to Talk About Badges
• Your Turn to Talk About Take Action Projects
• Brownie Journeys and TAPs
• Junior Journeys and TAPs

While I have other posts summarizing the data as a whole, this post is looking at what they said about Cadette Journeys and TAPs--Take Action Projects.  While the What I Ordered...post more fully described those who responded, in general I'd say the people who did had a higher than average involvement in and commitment to Girl Scouting. 

Survey Results: Junior Journeys and TAPs

 This is one in a series of posts about a survey I did of members of a number of Facebook groups for Girl Scout leaders.  The other posts published to date are:

• Survey Results: Badges
• Comments re GSUSA Programming
• Daisy Journeys and TAPs
• Survey Results:  Journeys and TAPs
• Survey Results:  What I Ordered, What I Got
• Your Turn to Talk About Badges
• Your Turn to Talk About Take Action Projects
• Brownie Journeys and TAPs

While I have other posts summarizing the data as a whole, this post is looking at what they said about Junior  Journeys and TAPs--Take Action Projects.  While the What I Ordered...post more fully described those who responded, in general I'd say the people who did had a higher than average involvement in and commitment to Girl Scouting. 

Survey Results: Brownie Journeys and TAPs

 This is one in a series of posts about a survey I did of members of a number of Facebook groups for Girl Scout leaders.  The other posts published to date are:

• Survey Results: Badges
• Comments re GSUSA Programming
• Daisy Journeys and TAPs
• Survey Results:  Journeys and TAPs
• Survey Results:  What I Ordered, What I Got
• Your Turn to Talk About Badges
• Your Turn to Talk About Take Action Projects

While I have other posts summarizing the data as a whole, this post is looking at what they said about Brownie Journeys and TAPs--Take Action Projects.  

I Love Journeys: Part 2 of an Interview With a Journey Lover

 This post is the second part of an interview with Nicole, who is on staff for Girl Scouts of Colorado, and who responded to my request to interview someone who was very pro-Journey.  You can read about Nicole and read the first part of our conversation here.  Part 3 is here. 

Ruth:  To pick up where we left off, and to go back to the question I asked earlier:  I can see that the goals of the Journey program are good, but even you admit that the published programming isn't the best.  How do I as a leader make Journeys what they should be, rather than a chore or a hoop we have to jump through?

I Love Journeys: Interview With a Journey Lover: Part One

I recently published a bunch of comments about Journeys that were written by people who responded to a survey I did on GSUSA programming.  Most of those comments were pretty anti-Journey, anti-TAP.  That blog post garnered a couple of comments that were extremely supportive of Journeys and so I went back to the Facebook groups where I had posted links and posted that I really wanted to talk to those pro-Journey people.  Nicole came forward and offered to talk to me.  

Daisy Journeys and TAPs

I recently polled the members of a bunch of Girl Scout leader Facebook groups about Girl Scout programming.  While I have other posts summarizing the data as a whole, this post is looking at what they said about Daisy Journeys and TAPs--Take Action Projects.  

Survey Results: Take Action Projects

This is the third in a series of posts drawn from responses to a survey I ran about GSUSA programming.  If you want to know what type of people responded to the survey, read this  linked post.  

This post reviews the questions dealing with Take Action Projects on the different levels.  I stated that I thought that for TAPs, GSUSA wanted the girls to identify a problem, learn about things related to the problem, and then design and create a sustainable solution to the problem.  I asked if people agreed with that definition.

Survey Results: What I Ordered and What I Got

This post is to report the results of a survey I did of members of Facebook Girl Scout Leader groups.  My questions were designed to elicit opinions about the Girl Scout program as GSUSA has designed it and promulgates it at this time.  

Who Responded

To determine how much weight to give to the results of any survey it is useful to know who is responding.  80% of those who responded to my survey were troop leaders, 18% were co-leaders, 26% were other Girl Scout volunteers. 2% were council staff and 52.2% were parents of a Girl Scout.  222 people responded to this question.

Badges and Levels and Journeys Oh My -- and Patches Too

 One question that makes the rounds on Girl Scout leader Facebook pages is how the various program parts fit together and how to use them with multi-level troops.  

Honestly, the program we have now was developed with the idea of single grade troops.  There was no consideration given to making the program easy to deliver to multi-aged troops, particularly those at different levels.  Pretty much everyone who has run a multi-level troop has figured it out on her own or learned from through unofficial sources--though recently Volunteer Toolkit has started giving ideas for multi-level troops.  

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.  

What Girl Scout Leaders Think of the Brownie Program?

 This is the second post in a series that involves surveying members of Girl Scout Facebook groups about their opinons of the current program. You can read about the Daisy program here.  

Who Replied?

With any survey, knowing who responded is important.  My gut feeling, based on replies to other surveys I've done and responses to posts on those Facebook groups was that people who responded tended to be more experienced than most leaders, and probably had a bigger committment to the program than most leaders.  

What Do Girl Scout Leaders Think of the Daisy Program

 

One part of Girl Scouts that has changed a lot in the last 15 years is Daisies.  Originally it was a one year program focused on learning the Girl Scout Law.  The only "badges" were the petals and since it was often October or November before troops were up and running, they were really enough for the year.  

When my sixteen year old was in kindergarten, the current program started and Daisies became a two  year program.  The awards expanded to include the leaves and the three original Journeys (actually one was added per year for three years so my daughter could have only earned two).

A few years later GSUSA went though a couple of years of "girls' choice" badges and added Buddy Camper and Outdoor Art to the Daisy portfolio.  Then they substantially expanded badge choices at all levels focusing on STEM, and Daisies got even more badges, an Outdoor Journey and three STEM Journeys.  

I was curious what badges and Journeys Daisies work on, how they do them and what they think of them.  Since surveying Daisies is hard, I surveyed leaders who are members of various Facebook groups for Girl Scout leaders and at the time I started the post, I had 168 responses.  While I did not gather data about the leaders, in past experience with surveying members of these groups, I have found that those who reply tend to be older than the average Girl Scout leader and tend to have been leading longer than most.  Whether that is true of the respondents to this survey I do  not know.  

Think Like a Citizen Scientist: Virtual Meeting No. 2

We had our second virtual meeting of the year, and continued working on Think Like a Citizen Scientist.   We also played a Bingo game with Leave No Trace to being working on our Eco badges. 

Since the last meeting I distributed Memory Books and when I did so I provided the handouts for this meeting.  I also put them online in case anyone lost them or needed another copy.  You can find them here.

To prepare for the meeting girls were asked to view the SciStarter site and to pick and do a Citizen Science project.  I told the parents that iNaturalist was dead simple and that's the one everyone chose.  The packet had a short report for the girls to do.  With iNaturalist, you download the app and take pictures of living things (or you can upload photos already on your phone or your Google account).  The app grabs your metadata as far as the time and place of the photo.  It asks you to identify what you photographed and offers suggestions.  It asks if the item was wild or cultivated.  You then upload it.  If you can't identify it, chances are someone else will.  Other people or groups can add your photo to their collection.  "Louisiana Biodiversity" grabs my photos.

Think Like a Citizen Scientist for Cadettes, Seniors and Ambassadors

Think Like a Citizen Scientist is one of the newer STEM Journies GSUSA put out in the last few years. This post is an attempt to summarize the lengthy VTK plans into an easy-to-read quick resource. Once you have decided to lead the Journey at a particular level, I highly recommend reviewing the VTK plans and their talking points. I also recommend going to the GSUSA store and downloading the (at this writing) free packet for this Journey.  It does the best job of explaining the TAP process of anything I've seen GSUSA publish

The way these Journeys are designed, it is clear that the TAP is an integral part.  The purpose of the Journey is learn scientific skills and then to apply those skills to conceiving, planning and carrying out a TAP.  If you as a leader are trying to come up with TAP ideas before the Journey ever starts, you are doing it wrong.  

As the girls are brainstorming for their TAP the girls are reminded that the same process is used in developing projects for the Silver and Gold Awards and that they can use projects the group decides not to do, or they can expand on a group idea or design other projects to solve the same problems.

How Far Is Too Far: Adapting GSUSA Programming to Meet the Needs of Your Girls

I've heard it said that sometimes your greatest strength can also be your greatest weakness. I get many of my ideas for posts on this blog by reading the Facebook groups in which I promote it.  I write posts to address questions that are frequently asked, or to address thoughts that run through my mind as I read the groups.  This post addresses thoughts that run through my mind.

A great strength of the Girl Scout program is the ability of leaders to adapt it to meet the needs of your girls.  There are very few "musts" and not even a lot of "shoulds".  In the current program, badges have five requirements (except Daisies have three) and those requirements are quite vague, at least on the Brownie level.  While the badge inserts in the Girls' Guide to Girl Scouting say "Every step has three choices.  Do ONE choice to complete each step. Inspired?  Do more", which sounds to me like you are supposed to choose an activity from the badge packet, evidently people are now being told that the "requirements" are the short phrases on the front of the pack and/or on the Badge Explorer, not the listed activities.  That belief is carried through on VTK, which offers activities which are not on the inserts, and which, in fact, sometimes  has plans that don't even meet the short requirements (e.g. the First Aid badge has a requirement to talk to someone who treats injured people, and the VTK plan for the badge does not include doing so). So, what do you HAVE to do to earn a badge?

Review of the Daisy Flower Garden Journey

I can say without a doubt that the worst GSUSA programming I ever tried to do "by the book" was the Daisy Welcome to the Flower Garden Journey. While I had led my older daughter's troop through Brownies and Juniors, I had never been a Daisy leader.  While I had a lot of non-Girl Scout experience with 7-9 year olds, I had never worked with kindergartners.  When my younger daughter became a Daisy, it was the first year of the two year Daisy program and I knew I had to do more than the petals over those two years, so when the nice lady at our council shop told me to buy the new program, I took it.

I no longer have those books (good riddance) but I remember reading through them and thinking that the stories were too long, too convoluted and had too many similar characters.  I wasn't real impressed with the activities, but figured maybe that was because I wasn't used to dealing with kids who were that young.  

At each meeting, according to the plan given in the leader's manual, you would read part of this story to the girls.  You would then do some activities, none of which particularly impressed me.  Finally you would do a project, and three options were given:  raise ladybugs, raise worms or plant a garden.  The kicker was that the project was supposed to be done for someone or some organization and was supposed to be sustainable--in other words you were supposed to find someone to keep it up after you were done. 

Think Like an Engineer for Cadettes, Seniors and Ambassadors

A couple of years ago GSUSA released a new series of Journeys for Daisies, Brownies and Juniors, and last year, released two of them for Cadettes, Seniors and Ambassadors.  Even though this is mostly a blog about my experiences with Daisies and Brownies, I had a request to summarize the older girls' Think Like an Engineer Journey and since I was doing it, I figured I ought to get a few cents from AdSense for doing so (and more if you click on the ads on this page). 

What Do Girl Scout Leaders Think About Journeys and Take Action Projects

Last year I wrote a post basically saying that I thought TAPs were not developmentally appropriate for Brownies and Daisies and that, from what I could see, few troops did them as GSUSA envisioned.  A few months later I put a survey up on Survey Monkey and asked leaders who were members of several Facebook groups what they thought about TAPs.  This article is a summary of those survey results.

First, my Survey Monkey account is a free account, so while I got over 100 responses, I only get to see the first 100.  I did keep an eye on the survey as results were coming in and the percentage never moved that much. Therefore, among the universe of people who chose to respond to my survey, I believe the numbers are reasonably accurate.

Think LIke a Citizen Scientist

One of the new Girl Scout Journeys put out in 2018 was Think Like a Citizen Scientist. The plans are on the Volunteer Toolkit. These plans include word-by-word scripts for most meetings and many leaders find them difficult to review due to the length. Therefore, I have read them and compiled a summary. I hope you find it helpful

Update:  One thing I recommend is that you go to the GSUSA store and download their free (as of this writing) packet on this Journey. Of all the things I've seen from GSUSA, this does the best job of explaining and leading you to a TAP. 

Three Cheers for Pets?

This year I have a combined Daisy/Brownie troop.  Most of my Brownies were with me last year and are first year Brownies, but one came from another troop and had, of course, earned several badges.  Therefore, I am trying to not repeat those badges, particularly at a meeting, though I will repeat some of them via outings.

I have one Daisy who was with me last year, and she didn't join until after cookies in the spring.  She earned one or two petals last year but that was it.  My Daisy schedule, therefore, is wide open.

I looked at the requirements for the Daisy 3 Cheers for Animals Journey and the Brownie Pets badge and decided they would work well together.