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.  

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.  

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).