Financial Literacy Badges

Say goodbye to the Daisy leaves!  This summer they were phased out and new, cloud shaped badges took their place.  I loved how the leaves created a scene with the daisy petals so this is a big bummer.  On the other hand, it will be easier to place these badges with the other cloud badges and not worry about spacing as much.  The requirements are pretty much the same as before so basically just a shape change.  

My troop works on a financial literacy badge every year.  We normally aim for December so we can either start planning how to use proceeds from our cookie sale or discuss spending and budgets around the holidays.  This year we have a Junior, several Cadettes, and a Senior.  This is an easy badge to adapt for a multi-level troop.

Similar steps include discussing wants vs needs, creating a budget, and learning something new about money each year

2021 Retiring and New Girl Scout Badges

GSUSA has just released 28 new badges, retired 13 badges, and changed the design of the Global Action Award badges.

Cookie Business:

Some of the old cookie badges are getting kicked out to make room for new and improved badges.  Thirteen very different badges are out, with thirteen very similar badges coming in.  This could make it easier to combine badges with a multi-level troop since many of the steps are similar, like set a troop goal and budget.

Retiring Badges:

Digital Leadership Badges

Find out how to stay safe online while using technology to make a difference in the real and digital world.

Math in Nature

Daisies, Brownies, and Juniors have a new series to bring math concepts outside of the classroom and into nature.  I am pretty excited about these, I only wish my troop was younger!

Global Action Awards

The Global Action Awards are no longer dated and instead are Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3 like the Cookie Family Entrepreneur pins.  The requirements each year differ and can be found here.

Junior Detective Badge

 

The detective badge can be such a fun way to experiment with science while having fun.  I originally wanted to complete this as an event with decorated lab stations and "scientists", but Covid changed our plans.  With a few adjustments, we completed this badge online with requests from the girls to play it again at a later time, hopefully in-person!

Plot:  Someone has stolen the cookies from the warehouse before our first scheduled cookie booth.  The suspects left behind a crumpled note with an encrypted message, a pen with a fingerprint, a shoe impression in the mud, and saliva on a coffee cup.

Station 1:  Observation Station

Play a round of "Kim's Game" to see just how strong your observation skills are and discuss ways to improve them.   If you are in-person, have everyone bring in a couple of their favorite objects and grab a sheet or tablecloth large enough to cover everything.  Uncover everything for a minute and then cover it back up.  For online meetings, share an image with a collection of clip art objects for a minute and then stop sharing.  Give them a minute to write down as many objects as they can remember.  Ask them if they incorrectly remembered any objects.  Could their eye-witness testimony be incorrect?

Station 2: Cybersecurity Lab

The crumpled note left at the crime scene is written in Morse code on one side and substitution cipher on the other.  Decode the messages to find out the motive of the thieves.  An easy way to write a message in Morse code is this online translator.  For the second part of the note I used a very simple substitution cipher for my troop with a basic swap of A=Z, Z=A, B=Y, and Y=B.  The message in the note is the motive for stealing the cookies.

Station 3:  Chromatography Lab

Multiple pens were left with the crumpled note.  Use the science of chromatography to see which pen was used to write the note, then analyze the fingerprint left on the pen!  Not a single one of the pens I had in my various drawers had the cool colors you would want to see for this experiment.  After a bit of research, I ordered the below black felt tip markers and pipettes from Amazon (affiliate link).

The second pens can be any gel pen, ballpoint, or sharpie.  I also ordered coffee filters but didn't really like them for this experiment so I switched to paper towels.  To make it look cooler, I used my Cricut to cut the paper towels and write in Evidence #1. The girls were able to complete the experiment in just minutes without an elaborate set-up and no mess.  Check out the results of my tests with various pens below and three drops of water on each test strip:

The AEN Art pen looked nice but doesn't come in a pack of just black and doesn't fit my Cricut Maker.  

Station 4: Fingerprint Lab

Use a pencil and tape or transfer paper to identify your fingerprint types.  Then compare the fingerprint left at the crime scene with the suspect list.  Most girls had completed this at school at some point.  I cut up some 1 inch squares of transfer paper for them to use instead of giving them each rolls of tape.  I grabbed some online images of different types of loops, whorls, and arch.

Station 5: Shoeprint Lab

A shoeprint was left in mud outside the warehouse.  Compare the tread and size with the suspect list to identify the thief.  This was a simple comparison of size using a ruler and matching tread patterns.  I gave them a sheet of paper and asked them to outline their own shoes and compare the shape with others.

Station 6: DNA Lab

Saliva was left on a coffee cup in the warehouse.  Learn about DNA and then compare the sample with the suspect list.  There are some neat science experiments to extract the DNA from a strawberry I would have loved to complete given more time, but this experiment seemed too complex to complete online with my troop at this time.  Maybe we can do it for the Cadette Special Agent badge in a couple years when we have in-person meetings again.

Finally, complete the search warrant form and find out if you have solved the crime!

I spent many hours grabbing clip art and formatting the activities into a printable workbook for our online meeting.  If you would like to skip the work, please head over to Etsy to download the copy I created for a small charge:

Etsy Digital Download

Want me to put everything together and ship it to you?

Etsy Detective Kit

Have fun with this badge, I know our troop really did!

Junior Journeys Overview

Switch to Daisy  Brownie  Cadette  Senior  Ambassador

Juniors have seven different Journeys available to complete. Below is a guide to help them choose which ones spark their interest.

Agent of Change

In this Journey, you will:

1. Explore how powerful individual women have been throughout history, how your own individual powers can be linked together to create a powerful team, and how your team power can become community power.
2. Plan a Take Action project that helps others.
3. Earn 3 leadership awards: Power of One, Power of Team, and Power of Community.

aMUSE

In this Journey, you will:

1. Explore roles you play in your life and try on new ones—play a role-playing game, invite actors to talk about the characters they’ve played, or learn to spot stereotypes on TV, in movies, or in ads.
2. Plan a Take Action Project, such as putting on a performance that creatively urges an end to stereotyping, drawing a graphic novel to share with younger girls, or starting a “mix it up” day in the school cafeteria and having girls sit with new people.
3. Earn 3 leadership awards: Reach Out!, Speak Out!, and Try Out!

GET MOVING!

In this Journey, you will:

1. Explore energy and how to use it wisely by interviewing power-use experts and conducting an energy audits of a building in your community.
2. Plan a Take Action project to fix an energy problem in your community. Your could launch carpools, work to dim the lights on city buildings, or promote energy savings at your school.
3. Earn 3 leadership awards: The Energize Award, the Investigate Award, and the Innovate Award.

Outdoor (Junior)

In this Journey, you will:

1. Deepen your outdoor skills when you earn your Animal Habitat, Camper, and Eco Camper badges.
2. Plan a Take Action project that helps make your favorite park, beach, or forest a better place for everyone.
3. Earn a Take Action Award.

Think Like a Citizen Scientist

In this Journey, you will:

1. Find out how citizen scientists make observations, collect data, and work with scientists to receive feedback on research.
2. Do 3 citizen science activities: sharpen your observation skills through 2 observation games and a SciStarter project.
3. Plan a Take Action project that helps others.

Think Like a Programmer

In this Journey, you will:

1. Find out how programmers use computational thinking to solve problems.
2. Do 3 computational thinking activities: create algorithms to make images with tangrams; create mad libs and craft suncatchers to learn more about algorithms, abstraction, functions, and variables; and create a personal innovation to discover rapid prototyping.
3. Plan a Take Action project that helps others.

Think Like an Engineer

In this Journey, you will:

1. Find out how engineers use design thinking to solve problems
2. Do 3 design thinking activities: design and build a paper structure that can support the weight of heavy books, an emergency shelter, and a prototype of a structure that can withstand an earthquake’s shaking.
3. Plan a Take Action project that helps others.

Easy chart for voting:

It's Your World-Change It Overview

     Next up on our schedule is the It's Your World - Change It journey.  This year the troop has both Brownies and Juniors so I will try to mash both Brownie Quest and Agent of Change together while meeting the spirit of both.  Downloading each journey ends up with about 30 pages of info to review, so I create an outline for each.

First step:  Use VTK to find the spirit of both journeys.

Second step:  Eliminate all the activities that will not work for my troop

Third step:  Blend them together

 

Brownie Quest

6 Meeting Overview

Discover Key, Connect Key, Take Action Key, and Brownie Quest Award

Meeting 1 – Discover Me

•          Discovering Me worksheet
•          Ball toss to discover talents and qualities
•          Search for the Girl Scout Law hidden around the room
• Read “Campbell’s New Friends”
• Family Star as homework

Meeting 2 – Team work

•          Review family star
•          Celebrate earning the Discover Key (Discovering our special talents, values of the GS Law, and the talents and values of our families)
• Play Banyoka to work together as a team
•          Create a Brownie Team Agreement
•          Read “What’s Happening at Campbell’s House?”
•          Homework – Find out how to take care of themselves and their families

Meeting 3 – Connecting with Community

•          Create circles of caring
•          Read “The Case of the Broken Sidewalk”
•          Hand out Address a Community Project
•          Hand out Connect Key award

Meeting 4 – Preparing to Take Action

•          Brainstorm places to help
•          Narrow down list to 2 or 3 ideas
•          Make a plan

Meeting 5 – Take Action

•          Complete the Take Action project
•          Reflect on the project
•          Hand out Take Action Key Award

Meeting 6 – Celebrate

•          Share the activities completed along the way with family
•          Sing Brownie Chant
•          Make a “Leadership Commitment” to earn the Brownie Quest Award

Agent of Change

6 Meeting Overview

Power of One, Power of Team, Power of Community Awards

Meeting 1 – What is Power

•          Rope and knot activity
•          Write 3 qualities from the Girl Scout Law they would like to discover in themselves
•          Read “The Journey: What It’s All About” to learn what “power” is
•          What Makes Me ME? activity
•          Power Log
•          Looking back at Herstory
•          Homework – choose a heroine

Meeting 2 – Power of One

•          Complete Power Skills, Power Words puzzle
•         Share their “herstory” from previous meeting
•          Complete Who Led the Way for You worksheet
•          Discuss how a quality within the Girl Scout Law fits one of the heroines they researched
•          Hand out Power of One award
•          Trust Me obstacle course
•          Real Girls, Real Moxie discussion

Meeting 3 – Super Shelter Makers

•          Read “SuperShelterMakers”
•          Begin your own heroine story

Meeting 4 – Preparing to Take Action

•          Continue working on superhero stories
•          Define community and think about where to make an impact
•          Narrow down choices to 2 or 3 ideas

Meeting 5 – Power of Team

•          Break down the project to its essential steps with Team Hopes
•          Assess resources and if they are confident that they can achieve their goals
•          Divide into task teams
•          Hand out Power of Team awards

Meeting 6 – Take Action

•          Complete the Take Action project
•          Reflect on the project
•          Hand out the Power of Community awards

To adapt the activities for my troop, I eliminated all research and homework. I have tried enough times to know this will not happen.  The Teen Titans, Go! series is popular with the girls so instead of a treehouse in Brownie Quest, we will act like they are in a clubhouse.  The SuperShelterMakers comic was just too long and confusing to read together during the meeting.  It needs to be about half the size and not have characters interrupting each other for us to make it work during our meetings.  I would love to include comics with the Drawing badge if I can find an art instructor to give us a hand at a later meeting.  Below is the plan....

Brownie Quest & Agent of Change

5/6 Meeting Overview

Meeting 1 – Superheroes

•          Invite troop to become "Agents of Change" in the “Quest for the Keys” Journey
•          Hand out capes and masks (Amazon affiliate link) with HTV names and sticker gems for decorating
•          Compare superheros with heroines
•          Real Girls, Real Moxie - contemporary heroines (Malala, Greta, Tiera Guinn)
•          Search for the Girl Scout Law hidden around the room
•          Discuss how a quality within the Girl Scout Law fits one of the heroines
•          Power Log (where are heroines needed today?)
• Try out a "superfood" - watercress/kale

Meeting 2 – Power of One/Discover Key

•          Ball toss to discover talents and qualities (What is my superhero power right now?)
•          What Makes Me ME? activity
•          Write 3 qualities from the Girl Scout Law they would like to discover in themselves
•          Read “What’s Happening at Campbell’s House?”
•          Complete Who Led the Way for You worksheet
•          Discuss how we can develop new powers
• Try out a "superfood" almonds
•          Hand out Power of One/Discover Key

Meeting 3 –Connect Key

•          Create circles of caring
•          Define community and think about where to make an impact
•          Read “The Case of the Broken Sidewalk”
•          Compare examples of real Girl Scout projects
•          Brainstorm places to help for our project
•          Narrow down to 2 or 3 ideas
•          Hand out Connect Key

Meeting 4 – Power of Team

•          Trust Me obstacle course
•          Create a Girl Scout Team Agreement
•          Break down the Take Action project to its essential steps with Team Hopes
•          Identify community partners to join the team
•          Divide into task teams
•          Assess resources and if they are confident that they can achieve their goals
• Try out a "superfood" walnuts
•          Hand out Power of Team awards

Meeting 5/6 – Take Action - 1 or 2 meetings depending on project

•          Complete the Take Action project
•          Reflect on the project 
  
• Try out a "superfood" blueberries
•          Hand out Take Action Key Award/Power of Community Award
  
•       Make a “Leadership Commitment” to earn the Brownie Quest Award

Daisy, Brownie, and Junior Digital Game Design using Roblox Studio

     If your Girl Scout Troop is tech savvy like mine, they have probably discovered the world of Roblox.  If you haven't heard about it before, Roblox is a platform where any user can create a game using free software, and then publish it online for everyone to play for free!  After reading the new Digital Game Design requirements, I thought this would be a perfect platform for my Troop since most of them are already playing games on it and having their own game on that platform would really spark their interest.  This would also be a great time to introduce the Cybersecurity badges to make sure they stay safe online with their gaming profiles on and learn about hackers and scammers they may encounter while playing an online game.  Learn about Roblox's commitment to keeping your kids safe on their platform at https://corp.roblox.com/parents/

Here are the Digital Game Design requirements for all the levels:

     The Daisy, Brownie, and Junior requirements all include creating a maze game which is a great start to creating a game on Roblox.  This will teach them how to manipulate the objects, test, and publish their game without having to learn any coding.  The Cadette, Senior, and Ambassador levels can also benefit from creating a maze but they should take it a few steps further and learn how to create interactive GUIs to include decision trees with basic coding.

Check out our maze example here roblox.com/games/3608084265/My-Maze

    All you need to complete the Digital Game Design with your Troop is a Windows or Mac PC with Roblox Studio installed (free at Roblox.com/create), a free Roblox account for each Girl Scout or team of Girl Scouts, and internet access.  Once the game is created using Roblox Studio, it is playable on PC, Mac, Android, iOS, XBOX One, and Amazon devices.

Check out our 8-minute, step-by-step video guide to creating a Roblox maze game on YouTube and have fun!!