Money Sense

1. Troop Budget
   With your troop, develop a troop budget. Include your expenses, such as equipment, supplies, and the cost of trips and other activities. Also include your income, or sources of money, such as troop dues, proceeds from cookie sales, and money earned through special projects. Then plan for a fun activity. Determine the cost, and figure out how long it will take to earn the money. See the section about managing money in the “Adventures in Girl Scouting” chapter of your Junior Girl Scout Handbook for information.
2. Best Investments
   Find out about the different ways to invest and save money. Learn about 3 of the following:
   1. Mutual Funds
   2. Money market accounts
   3. Certificates of deposit
   4. Saving accounts
   5. U.S. savings bonds
   6. Stocks
   7. Corporate bonds
3.  Invest Together
   With a group of friends, form the “investment club”. Ask an adult for advice. Choose two different stocks or mutual funds. With “pretend” amounts of money, invest equal amounts of money in each. Follow your investments for three months, and then compare how they did.
4. Cash or Credit
   Sometimes people prefer to use a credit card instead of cash when they buy something. Talk to a banker, an accountant, a financial planner, or another knowledgeable adult about how credit cards work. What are credit card interest rates? Find out how long it would take you to pay for a $250 bicycle if you used a credit card that charged 9 percent interest, 122 percent interest, and 18 percent interest. An adult can help you with the calculations.
5. Ups and Downs of the Market
   With the help of an adult follow a stock as it is reported in the newspaper or online for a month. Pretend you own 100 shares of that stock. Have you made a profit? If so, how much? If not, how much did you lose? Think about why you would or would not buy stock in this company, and explain your ideas to your troop or group.
6. Careers in Finance
   Find out about jobs in the finance industry. Invite someone who works in one of the following jobs to talk about her work. Ask her to explain what her day is like, the training necessary for her job, and what advice she has for someone interested in this type of job:
   1. Accountant
   2. Financial planner
   3. Bookkeeper
   4. Financial analyst
   5. Insurance agent
   6. Stockbroker
   7. Credit counselor
   8. Portfolio or mutual fund manager
7.  Learn about comparison shopping by spending an afternoon at the nearby mall. In small groups, head for the mall to check for best buys. Abe sure to bring a calculator and a notebook. Try to compare the same brand or similar items in various stores. Look for sale, coupon items, discontinued merchandise, and seconds (items with minor flaws). Were there big differences in prices at different stores?
8. Reality Check
   how much money do you think it takes for an adult or family to live today? With the help of your family, write down all the types of expense you can think of, including rent or mortgage payments, heat, taxes, electricity, cable television, insurance, phone, water, car payments, food, clothes, entertainment, and gifts. How much would you need to earn to pay these bills?
9. Money Doesn’t Always Matter
   Talk about some good things in life that money can’t buy, and make a scrapbook of pictures or drawings of these things. Then have fun for free – take a nature walk, attend free community events, visit a city council meeting, go window shopping with sister troops, or have a picnic.
10. How Much Is A Dollar Worth?
    That depends on where you are in the world. If you travel to a foreign country, most likely you will have to exchange your American Dollars into the currency used by that particular country. In China, it’s yuan; in Mexico, it’s pesos; in Italy, it’s lira; and in India, it’s rupees. If someone says there is a “good exchange rate” it means you get more for your dollar. Pick two countries and, with the help of an adult, check the newspaper or internet and keep track of the exchange rates for the American dollar in those countries for one month.

Ms. Fix-It

1. Call for Help
   find out what you should do when faced with each of these emergencies. Learn when you can help and when it is best to call for help and leave the unit
    until the emergency is over.
   1. You smell gas
   2. The smoke alarm or security system turns on accidentally or won’t shut off after an emergency is over
   3. A toilet or sink gets clogged
   4. The thermostat won’t shut off or fails to turn on the furnace
   5.  A washing machine is overflowing

2.      It’s Electric!
Learn more about how to handle and fix electrical problems properly. Do at least three of the following:

·        Have someone show you what to do if the lights go out while you are home alone

·        Show that you know how to follow three or more safety rules when using electricity

·        Look at the electrical panel box where you live

·        Find out about fuses and circuit breakers and how to change or reset them

·        Find out how to turn off the electricity in cased of flood, storm, or other emergency

·        Know how and whom to call in your community or in your building (owner, superintendent) in case of an emergency

3.      Flash
Keep a flashlight in your repair kit or in an easy-to-reach spot in your home. Learn how to change the battery and the light bulb.

2.       Fix a Faucet
A washer is a small disk with a hole in the middle. It can be made of metal, rubber, or plastic. A washer is placed beneath a nut or at a joint. Its main job is to prevent leaking. A common place to find a washer is in a faucet. Find out what fixtures in and around your home require washers. Then, learn how to replace a washer that is broken or worn out. Keep some spare washers in your repair kit for future use.

3.      A Simple Fix-It
Call a plumber for major plumbing problems, but you can solve some common problems involving a toilet yourself. Review the inner workings of the toilet tank. With the lid off, flush the toilet and watch how everything works. Learn the names of the parts, some of the common problems, and how to do the repairs.

4.      Conserve Energy
conserving energy not only helps your parents reduce the cost of utilities, but it is also good for the environment. Do at least one of the following to help conserve energy in your home:

·        Find out what changes you could make in your home that would help save water.

·        Learn how to weather-strip your windows and doors.

·        Find out about energy-efficient light bulbs an install them in the lights of your home.

7. Hang It Up
   Show your ability to hang an item on a wall. Learn about he different types of walls and what types of fasteners are best used for each.
8. Out and About the Home
   There are things inside and outside your house or apartment that may require some repair work. Ask an adult for assistance and do two or three of the following:
   1. Help paint or refinish a piece of furniture
   2. Tighten the screws to the handles of your kitchen cupboards and drawers
   3. Help fix a crack or hole in a wall, sidewalk, or driveway
   4. Help with some painting, papering, or other repair to your walls
   5. Help re2wire a lamp or replace the cord on an electrical appliance
9. Repairs Within Your Community
   Use your knowledge of basic repairs to help others. Find a community organization that could benefit from your “fix-it smarts” or help a senior citizen who needs to make some repairs at home.
10. Read All About It
    Read the operating instructions that came with a major appliance. What are three common problems that appliance may have? How do you fix them? Hint: Look at the troubleshooting section in the instruction booklet.

Music Fan

1. Express Yourself
   Design your own music awards. With a group of friends, decide on at least 5 categories you want to recognize. You can make up your own, such as the best single female singer. Ask at least five people to come up with the best in each category. Play the winning selections at a party.
2. Listening to Something New
   Listen to at least two types of music that are new to you – either live or recorded.
3. Sharing Music
   Perform! Sing, play an instrument, or produce a performance for others to see. Stage your performance for an audience of at least ten people.
4. Found Music
   Make your own simple musical instrument, using common objects found around the house. Your instrument might be one that produces a sound if you move it through the air, shake it, or hit it with another object. Pick one favorite song that you can accompany with your instrument.
5. What’s a Song Made Of?
   Choose a recorded song that you like and listen to it several times What instruments do you hear: drums, bass, guitar, violin, saxophone, others? How many singers are there? Do some of them sing backup?
6. Folk Songs from Afar
   Every culture has its own folk songs. Some have been translated into English; others are widely sung in their native languages. Learn a folk song from two different cultures.
7. Careers in Music
   You don’t have to know how to play an instrument to find a job where music is important. Interview someone with a career that involves music, such as a sound engineer, a music critic, a composer, or a music teacher. Find out why that person chose music as a career. How did she learn her job? What does she enjoy about her career? Write up your interview and share it with your troop, friends, or family.
8. Music: Insight to History
   It’s fun to look back and listen to music that was popular in another time. Find two songs that were written during another period of history. What does this music tell you about that period? Is that music still sung or played today?
9. Nature’s Call
   Not all music is made with instruments or human voices. There’s nature’s Music – for example, a frog croaking, the wind in the trees, rain falling on the roof, birds chirping. These sounds, when strung together with no talking, can be very relaxing “music”. Go for a hike through the woods, or a walk in the park. Bring along a hand-held tape recorder and make your own recording of the sounds of nature. Be careful not to talk while you are taping.
10. Dance Time
    Create a dance to a tape or CD that you’ve chosen.
     

My Community

1. Show and Tell
   Plan a 20-minute walking or bicycle tour of your neighborhood. What are the most interesting, beautiful, or unusual things that people should see? Tape your tour, making sure to give directions to follow as well as the descriptions of the neighborhood features.
2. My Favorite Things
   What are the best things about living in your community? Write an advertisement, draw a poster, or make up a song that could be used in a commercial that promotes your community.
3. Questions and Answers
   Have a question or problem in your community? Who do you go to for help? Find out the right places to get information about:
   1. Sports programs for girls your age
   2. Reporting a dangerous intersection or road hazard
   3. Neighborhood clean-up projects
   4. Services for senior citizens
   5. Reporting a dangerous animal
4. Take A Trip
   With your troop or group, visit a community service agency. Find out about the work it does in the communityy.
5. Who’s Around
   What are some of the businesses in your neighborhood or community? What do they manufacture, or what services do they provide? Choose one that interests you and find out more about it. Arrange to visit the business or to speak to some of the employees.
6. Lights, Camera, Action!
   Choose one unique thing about your community – such as a beautiful waterfront, a very old cemetery, or an historical event – and make a videotape about it. Get your family and fiends to help out by being in the movie. Premier your movie at your Girl Scout troop meeting, or at your next family get-together.
7. Make It Beautiful
   work with others on a weekend to improve, restore, or beautify a recreational or cultural center for children or adults in your community. Once it’s redone, show it off to your friends and family.
8. Helping Hands
   Everyone needs a little help now and then. Find out what’s needed in your community. Toiletry kits for the homeless? Stuffed animals for a children’s hospital? For the next couple of weeks, ask store owners and community members to donate materials to whatever cause you decide needs help. Then put the materials together and deliver them to a group that is working with people in need.
9. One Small Step
   Volunteer to make one improvement in your school or religious community. Can you help with the morning announcements at school or help to watch young children during religious services? What else can you offer to do?
10. How It Works
    Read in the “Adventures in Girl Scouting” Chapter of your Junior Girl Scout Handbook about the different types of troop and group government that Junior Girl Scouts can choose. What type of government does your community, town, or city have? How do decisions get made in your community? How would you improve the process?
     

My Heritage

1. Create a Heritage Scrapbook
   Find out more about your heritage. Do you know your family history or the history of other people who share your heritage? Display what you find out, perhaps through a char, a time line, a family tree, journal entries, a story, or a scrapbook of photographs or mementoes.
2. What’s In a Name?
   See if you can discover the meaning of your first name, your middle name, or your family name. Find out about other people who have the same name. Do they have a heritage similar to yours, or are there other reasons or sources for the name?
3. Broaden Your Background
   Find out about famous people who share your heritage. What did they accomplish? Why are they famous? Think about an accomplishment that you would like to make someday. Then think of a way you could accomplish this dream, and write a simple plan or time line with your dream as a goal.
4. Celebrate Your Heritage
   Find a way to celebrate your heritage. What have you inherited that makes you the person you are? How can you sow that you are proud of your heritage?
5. From Yesterday to Today
   Make a toy, cook a special dish, or learn a game, song, or dance that one of your ancestors might have enjoyed.
6. Who Said It?
   Begin a “wisdom list” of quotations, sayings, and advice that your parents, grandparents, and other older people have shared with you. Put together a booklet that includes your favorite ones.
7. Get Together
   Ask older people to tell you about their lives, interesting events they remember, or special stories. Can you discover something about your heritage from their stories?
8. Your Personal Heritage
   Start a diary or scrapbook of your own memories. Write about some important events from your childhood and include important recent happenings. Try to write in your diary at least once a week.
9. Memorably Yours
   Look around your room or your home and choose one object that you believe you would want to keep with you as you grow up. Why did you choose this object? Why is it important to you? Next, ask older fri3ends or relatives to show you and tell you about an object that they have had for a long time. Why have they kept it? Why is it important to them?
10. Host a Heritage Night
    Turn one of your Girl Scout troop meetings or events into a heritage celebration. Each girl can share three things about her heritage. Show pictures, read poetry, display artwork, or prepare food that reflects your heritage. You can also teach a game, song, or dance from your heritage.

Now and Then Stories

http://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_central/insignia/online/junior/now_then_stories.asp (click here for requirements)

1. How nature works

2. The trickster

3. Once upon a time

4. Moral of the story

5. Latest tall tales

6. Stereotype myths

7. Telling stories for a living

8. Care for the Earth

9. Stories in the family

10. Keeper of the past

Oil Up

1. A Day’s Work
   Learn what rescue workers or scientists do to try to save animals that have been affected by an oil spill. Read a story, watch a TV show or videoed, or use the internet to get information.
2. Fossil Facts
   Create a display that shows how plants and animals from millions of years ago became the oil used today.
3. Where In The World?
   Design a map that shows where most major oil deposits around the world are located.
4. Around the World
   Pick one country other than your own that supplies the world with oil. Find out about the people who live there. What are their customs? What languages do they speak? If you were to visit there, what would you want to see?
5. Make and Clean Up an Oil Spill
   Oil is often prepared and shipped thousands of miles (or kilometers) before it reaches your home, school, or local gas station. An oil spill is always a risk. Find out why oil spills can be so difficult to clean up. To see what it’s like to make and clean up an oil spill, pour some cooking oil in a bowl or pan of water. Try different ways of getting the oil out of the water.
   • Try to gather it all in one place using a string.
   • Try to skim it off with a spoon.
   • Try to soak it up with paper towels or cotton balls.

            What else can you use?
             What works best?

6. How Does An Oil Spill Affect A Beach?
   Use sand and water to build a “beach” in a foil pan. Put a block of wood, rock, feather, furry fabric, leaf, or twig in the sand. Pour vegetable oil in the water and make waves to wash the oil up onto the beach. What happens? Try removing the oil from the objects on the beach using the techniques listed in activity 5 for an oil spill.
7. Ten? Twenty?
   How many careers are involved in finding oil, getting it out of the earth, moving it fro place to place, making fuels from it, producing chemicals and other products from it, and preventing and cleaning up oil spills? Read an article or web page, or watch a TV show or video about jobs in the fields of geology, engineering, ship building, or environmental protection.
8. Oil Drop
   Pretend you are a drop of oil. Create a comic book or skit that explains what happened to you after you were removed from the earth. How were you transported? Where were you taken? What changes did you go through? Where are you now?
9. Come Clean
   Visit a service station when it’s not very busy. How many spots of oil or grease do you see on the ground? Ask the service station manager how he or she cleans up oil and gasoline spills. How does the person dispose of the used oil when the oil in a car is changed? What does the service station do to prevent spills?
10. It’s In What?
    If fewer petroleum products were used, the chances of oil spills would be reduced. Below is a list of products that are made from petroleum. Keep a log for one week of which petroleum products you use and why you are using them. At the end of the week, look at your chart. What can you personally do to cut down on petroleum usage?
    • Fabrics made of synthetic fibers
    • Most “wrinkle-free” clothes
    • Plastic bags, containers, pails
    • Food packaging
    • Vinyl house siding
    • Interior and exterior paints
    • Toys
    • Video and audio tapes
    • CDs (music and computers)
    • Costume jewelry
    • Detergents
    • Rugs, carpets
    • Methane for heating
    • Propane for  camp lighting, barbecue grills
    • Automotive gasoline and aviation fuel
    • Diesel fuel
    • Home heating oil
    • Finished lubricating oils
    • Wax
    • Varnishes, alcohols, solvents
    • Prescription drugs, plastic intravenous (IV) bags, and sterile syringes
    • Computers, cellular phones, and fax
    • Asphalt
    • Baby oil
    • Lip gloss
    • Skin lotion
    • Jet fuel
    • Petroleum jelly
    • Charcoal lighter fluid
    • Paraffin wax
    • Paint thinner

1. Create a Travel Postcard
   Choose a place that you would like to visit, and look at pictures of tourist attractions located there. Create two or more postcards about this place that you could send to a friend. Add messages on the back describing the places you have drawn.
2. What Would You Do?
   With your troop, friends or family, brainstorm ideas for problem situations in which travelers often find themselves. For Example, you might begin you list with “asking for directions when you’re lost” and “arriving at a hotel and finding out your reservations have been lost.” Put the situations into a haft and take turns acting out the problem, and finding the solution.
3. Travel Bug
   Choose a spot away from your hometown that you would like to visit for a weekend. Decide how you will get there, the people and places you will want to visit, what you will wear, and what you will take with you. Figure out how much this trip will cost. Then, if possible, go to the place you have chosen.
4. International Cooking
   Choose a food specialty from a different region of the United States or from a country you would like to visit. Find a recipe for this dish in a cookbook or magazine. Prepare this food and have a tasting party.
5. Girl Scouts Statewide
   Find out about places Girl Scouts can travel together within your state. Check out camps and other council resources. How would you arrange your visit? What permissions are required? What costs would be involved? How far ahead would you need to plan?
6. Plan for a Day
   Plan a day trip by completing the Travel Action Plan in the “Adventures in Girl Scouting” chapter of your Junior Girl Scout Handbook. If possible, take the trip. After the trip, evaluate what you did. Discuss what went well and what you would do differently on the next trip.
7. I’d Take….
   Imagine spending a weekend away from home. Make a list of 10 things that you would take on this trip. Not sure where to go? You could go to a cabin in a snowy mounts in the winter, an alligator farm in a swamp in the spring, a city hotel in the fall, or a rafting trip on a river in the summer.
8. Life Travel
   Check out travel careers. Visit a travel agent or tour guide, or have one visit your troop or group meeting. Find out who she plans trips and tours, what an itinerary looks like, how she uses a computer in her job, how trips and tours are packaged to be more affordable, and what training is needed for this type of career.
9. Travel Safe
   Be prepared for emergencies when traveling. Review the safety tips found in the “How to Stay Safe” Chapter of your Junior Girl Scout Handbook. Make up a “Travel Safety Quiz” game. Apply the safety tips that you reviewed to travel situations and use them as questions for your game. Play your game with your troop, friends, or family.
10. Pack Up!
    Pack suitcase or backpack for a weekend trip. Make sure that:
    1. Nothing will leak or spill on your clothes.
    2. What you need first will be easy to find.
    3. Your clothes won’t wrinkle too much.
    4. Your shoes won’t get your clothes dirty.
    5. You have all your “personal stuff” – toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, etc.
    6. You can carry the bag!

Outdoor Cook

1. Bon Appetite!
   With a group, help plan, prepare, and serve an outdoor meal. Help do at least one of the following: plan the menu, make shopping and equipment lists, shop, and pack, take care of food at the site, prepare and serve food, or clean up.
2. Bean There, Done That
   Find three recipes that use a common food such as beans, rice, or potatoes. Prepare at least one of those recipes during a cookout. Save the other recipes for future trips.
3. Cook It
   find out how to use at least two different cooking methods from the list below:
   1. Propane stove
   2. Butane stove
   3. Gas stove
   4. Charcoal
   5. Canned heat
   6. Solar energy
4. Don’t Let the Fire Go Out
   Show your ability to maintain a cooking fire in windy or wet weather.
5. Cooking on a Camp Stove
   Show how to use a backpacker’s stove or camp stove safely by preparing a meal on it for yourself and your group.
6. Keep It Clean
   On one of your cookouts; take a lead role in the clean-up process. Show that you can do two of the following:
   1. Put out a fire
   2. Remove the ashes
   3. Extinguish the camp stove
   4. Wash, sanitize, and store the dishes
   5. Dispose of the trash, wet garbage, tin cans, and glass without endangering or damaging the environment
7. No Cooking Tonight
   Help plan and prepare a tasty, easy-to-pack, lightweight, high-energy dinner for hot weather or emergency use that requires no cooking or refrigeration.
8. Mix It Up
   Experiment with making and packaging your own dry mixes for use on your next camping trip.
9. All Dried Up
   Sun-dry or oven-dry some fresh fruit, vegetables, or seasonings to use on a cookout.
10. Test the Waters
    In camping unit
    s where the water has not been tested and approved by the local health department, you will need to know how to purify the water before using it for drinking or cooking. Show your ability to purify water using one of the following methods:
    1. A commercial water purification kit
    2. Water purification tablets

Outdoor Creativity

1. Many Ways to Be Creative
   use nature as your inspiration and create a drawing, painting, sculpture, or other work to share with others. Talk about why your subject appealed to you and what you hoped to show in your work.
2. It’s Famous
   Find a famous creative work that was inspired by the natural world. You can choose a piece of music, a painting or sculpture, a poem or story, or another work. Learn a little bit about your choice and the person who created it. Share the work and your knowledge with others.
3. Nature in Three Lines
   Try writing the kind of poem known as a haiku. Haiku is a form of poetry that originated in Japan. A haiku doesn’t rhyme, and has 17 syllables – five in the first line, seven in the next, and five in the last. A haiku usually mentions one of the four seasons – either by name (winter) or by reference (snow). Tow examples are:
   1. Girls in a circle
      Summer campfire glowing
      Sparks stories and song.
   2. Snow falls softly swift
      Flakes swirling and dancing like
      Tiny ice skaters.
4. Capture a Piece of Nature
   Capture a season in full bloom by pressing flowers.
   1. What You Need:

                                                              i.      Two sheets of cardboard

                                                            ii.      Sheets of newspaper

                                                          iii.      String or rubber bands

                                                          iv.      A flat, heavy weight (a large, thick book would do nicely)

                                                            v.      Flowers (Do not pick wildflowers – use flowers that you have permission to pick from a garden or yard. Flowers that are flat dry better than flowers that are very round and dense.)

2. What You Do:

                                                              i.      Lay out your flowers. You can keep the stems and leaves or remove them.

                                                            ii.      Put down a sheet of cardboard and top with two sheets of newspaper.

                                                          iii.      Place some of your flowers on the newspaper. Make sure they don’t touch each other.

                                                          iv.      Place two more sheets of newspaper on top of your flowers.

                                                            v.      Continue to layer flowers and 2 sheets of newspaper.

                                                          vi.      Top with the other piece of cardboard.

                                                        vii.      Carefully tie string or put rubber bands around your stack of flowers and papers.

                                                      viii.      Place your stack in a cool, dry place where it can remain undisturbed for 2 – 3 weeks.

                                                          ix.      Place a weight on top of the stack.

In 2 – 3 weeks, very carefully check your top layer of flowers to se if they have dried. If they have not, leave them alone for another week. After the flowers are dry, you can use them for many types of artistic creations.

5. Celebrate Nature
   Plan a creative outdoor event – on your own or with a group. Include activities in which the audience can participate, such as songs, or skits. You can have poetry readings, readings of traditional legends about nature and the environment, and other activities. Include an activity that particularly celebrates the natural environment in the spot you are holding the event.
6. Your Own Garden
   Plant a garden of your own. If you don’t have space for a large garden, you could participate in a community garden or you could use a large planter. You could choose plants that fit a special color scheme, plants that flower, plants that are mentioned in a favorite book, or herbs that you could use to make lotions or bath oils. Get advice in choosing plants and caring for plants.
7. A Garden Tour
   Gardening can be a very creative pastime. Take a tour of a community garden, a botanical garden, or a number of gardens in your neighborhood. You can also tour gardens online. Look at the plants that are growing when you visit and ask about the succession of plants that will bloom the rest of the season. Notice the arrangement of the plants, the plants that need sun and those that need shade, those that are scented and those that aren’t, and those that have other uses (such as herbs for medicine or cooking). Decide what you would plant in a garden of your own.
8. A Girl Scout’s Own
   Plan a Girl Scout’s Own ceremony that takes place outdoors, celebrating the special relationship Girl Scouts have with the outdoors. Make sure each person attending has an opportunity
   y to participate.
9. Starry, Starry Night
   Participate in a night watch when you are on a camp-out. Choose a special spot outdoors. Arrange for one-hour shifts through the night, signing up in pairs. Let yourself become part of the outdoors at night by keeping silent. How is the night world different from the day? What happens to your senses?
10. Diversity in Nature
    Find 2 very different outdoor spots in which to express your creativity. Choose the same medium in which to be creative – writing, painting, or song, for example – and create two works that represent your feelings about the 2 different places.

Outdoor Fun

1. Get Going
   Help your troop, group, or family plan and carry out 2 outings. They should each be one half-day or longer. Plan activates specific to the sites you choose to visit. Find out what types of equipment and facilities are already on each site. Then make a list of additional group and personal equipment you will need to take.
2. Outdoor Emergencies
   Do you know what to do during outdoor emergencies? People can get lost or hurt. A bad storm can come up – anything can happen. Pick 3 emergencies and role-play what you should do.
3. Eating Out
   With others, help plan, buy, pack, carry, prepare, and serve a different meal or snack for two outings. You may plan one that requires no cooking, one that requires each person to cook her own food, or one that requires you to cook for the group. Prepare a menu and kaper chart – remember to include clean-up chores.
4. Build A Fire
   Show that you can build a basic fire, prepare food on it, put it out, and leave the fire site “without a trace” of use. Use only enough wood or charcoal to get your job done.
5. A First Aid Kit
   Help plan, assemble, and pack a first aid kit that is appropriate for your outdoor activities. Demonstrate your knowledge of the uses of the items in the kit. Know first aid and prevention practices for burns, cuts, and cold or hot weather-related illnesses.
6. Protect the Environment
   Know how to dispose of waste water and garbage without damaging the environment. Learn how to sanitize and keep your dishes clean in the outdoors.
7. Sing Around the Campfire
   Plan songs, games, and activities for each of your outings that are suitable to the season and the site.
8. Tied Up In Knots
   Demonstrate how to tie a square knot and several ways it may be useful when on an outing. Learn another know as well, like a bowline and its outdoor uses.
9. Clean Up
   Help unpack, clean, and store your group’s equipment after each outing. Discuss the trip, what you learned, and what you would do differently next time.
10. Looking Ahead
    Make plans for the next trip outdoors. Figure out how to make the next trip different from the last one – maybe you will stay overnight instead of going on a day trip, or camp in a tent or a cabin.

Outdoors in the City

1. What Can You Do?
   Find out about 3 outdoor activities your city has available for kids your age. Not sure where to begin? Try these for starters:
   1. Call or visit your city’s Parks and Recreation Department to find out about programs offered year round.
   2. Find out about recreation sites that are free and those that cost money to sue.
   3. Find out about sports programs, gardening, or urban ranger programs.
   4. Find out about day camps or other activities offered by schools, youth-serving agencies, government organizations, and houses of worship.
2. Safety on Wheels
   Organize a safety clinic for younger kids on roller-skating, in-line skating, or scooter or bicycle riding. Help younger kids improve their skills and learn basic safety rules.
3. Urban Wildlife
   Find out what kinds of animals are in your city and where they live. Look for different habitats and spend some time observing wildlife in more than one habitat. Check out parks, trees, rood gardens, and schoolyards. Is there wildlife that lives year round in your city? Are there birds that pass through your city during fall or spring migration? Is there wildlife in your city that can be harmful to your health?
4. Do the Double –Dutch?
   Learn how to play an outdoor game that kids living in the city have been playing for generations. Try:
   1. Double-dutch jump rope
   2. Hopscotch or potsy
   3. Stick or stoop ball
   4. Handball or punch ball
5. Group Walk
   Plan a guided walk with a group. Look for interesting sites in your city. Map a route that includes these sites and some rest stops. Organize a group to follow your route.
6. Cook with City Sun
   Use the city sun to make sun tea and / or sun jam.
    

7. Urban Art
   Find a spot outdoors in your city that you think is especially beautiful. Create a piece of art that reflects your feelings about this spot.
8. Tackle a Community Service Project
   Participate in a community
   y service project that tackles a community environmental problem or help with a community event that involves outdoor recreation. For example, you could help spruce up a city park or work at an aid station at a city-sponsored marathon.
9. A City Garden
   Become involved in a city garden. Help with an established community garden plot or start one. Plant a rooftop garden, window boxes, or planters. Share the fruits of your gardening labors with a neighborhood food bank, community center, or senior center. (You can supplement the meals if you are growing vegetables or decorate tables if you are growing flowers).
10. Kites and Frisbees
    Find an open spot and practice flying a kite or tossing a Frisbee. Invite an expert in kite flying or Frisbee tossing to speak to or perform a demonstration for your group, friends, or family.

Pet Care

1. To Have or to Have Not?
   Identify 4 animals that would make good pets for you. Then identify 4 animals that would not make good pets. Consider each animal’s daily needs, how well it would fit in with your home life, the cost of keeping it, and how long it generally lives.
2. Be Responsible
   Take responsibility for a pet – yours or someone else’s – for two weeks. Provide shelter, food, exercise, water, and grooming. Did you spend more or less time caring for the pet than you thought you would? Which tasks were fun? Which ones weren’t so much fun?
3. Add It Up
   What’s the cost of owning a pet? Figure this out for a pet you have now, or for an animal you’d like to have as a pet. What does the pet eat? How much does it eat? Does it need a special place to live? What will that space cost? What are its medical needs? Does it require special equipment, like a leash (dogs), a litter box (cats), a saddle (horse), or an air pump (tropical fish)? Does your community have any laws regarding that animal? Are there fees? Figure out the daily, monthly, and yearly costs for that animal.
4. Facts of Life
   Is your pet male or female? If female, how many young could your pet produce at a time? How many pregnancies would be possible in a lifetime for your pet? Would you be able to take care of that many animals? Or find good homes for them? What does a vet or an animal shelter recommend?
5. Staying healthy
   Find out about illnesses that are common for your pet. How can you prevent them? What are their warning signs? How can they be avoided or treated? Learn how to give medicine to a pet, if possible, and how to seek emergency treatment for your pet.
6. Don’t Pass It On
   Identify two diseases that pets can get or spread, such as tick-borne Lyme disease, tularemia (rabbit fever), or rabies. Find out what is being done to control these diseases and what you can do to prevent your pet from getting them. Do something that will help educate people about a pet disease or help prevent a common pet disease.
   http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=18560 (read about the first person ever to survive rabies without a vaccine)
7. Healthy Diet
   What is a good diet for your pet? Collect ads for pet food. What information do they give you about the nutritional needs of your animal? Read labels on pet food containers and compare them for food values.
8. Animal Talk
   How do you communicate with a pet? How do you show a pet what you want it to do? How does your pet communicate what it wants? Describe some specific behaviors that your pet uses to communicate anger, fear, hunger, and loyalty.
9. Book It
   Create a scrapbook about your pet. Include pictures from when it joined your family until the present. Write about how you felt when you got your pet. Keep licenses, vaccination forms, and other emergency information in the scrapbook, too. If you don’t own a pet, create a scrapbook for the type of animal you’d like to have.
10. Other Ways to Be Around Animals
    Find out about groups and places that care for pets in your unit
    . Are there rescue societies? A foster care program at an animal shelter? A zoo mentorship program? A bird rehabilitation clinic? Is there a group that fits your interests and abilities where you could volunteer? Share what you’ve discovered with a parent or guardian.

Plants and Animals

1. Plants Here, There, and Everywhere
   Play a game in which you try to find as many plant products as you can in your local market. For safety, play this game in teams. Here’s how:
   Using a certain amount of time, each team must find (and write down) as many things that are made with or of plants. The team with the longest list wins.
2. Garden Gifts
   Gardeners use different plant parts to propagate (make more) plants. Grow your own greenery from one of the following:
   • Seed, such as avocado, orange, or sunflower seed
   • Root, such as a sweet potato or ginger root
   • Leaf, such as a jade plant or African Violet
   • Stem, such as daffodil bulb or crocus corm
3. Creature Teacher
   Are you cut out to be an animal trainer? Find out by teaching a dog, a cat, or a bird a trick or a new behavior. Always work with an animal you know is friendly, and ask an adult to help. Figure out how to get the animal to do what you want without making it feel scared or uncomfortable. It might take a while for the animal to catch on, so be very patient. Remember to reward the animal each time it does what you want.
4. Wild Relatives
   Animals such as dogs, cats, pigs, and chickens were domesticated (tamed) long ago. How are they different from their wild relatives? Find out by observing the same domesticated animal at least twice to see how it behaves. Next, watch a TV program or video, or read a book or a magazine about one of its wild relatives. Note the things these “cousins” do that are the same and those that are different.
5. Creature Clusters
   Scientists like to group things according to the characteristics that they have in common. Create your own animal groupings by cutting out 15 to 25 pictures of different animals. Group the animals in at least two ways such as: how they look, what they eat, where they live, how they move, or how they bear their young. Explain your reasons for the groupings.
6. Veggie Voyagers
   Pick one fruit and one vegetable grown in another country that you have never tasted. Prepare a dish with each one for your friends, family, or troop. Get recipes from a cookbook, a magazine, the web, a relative, or a friend.
7. Seed Art
   People around the world use seeds to make decorative items, such as jewelry and mosaics. Use at least two kinds of seeds that people eat to make your own work of art.
8. Living Sculpture
   Imagine being able to make sculptures that are alive! Gardeners do just that when they train and trim plants into shapes such as baskets, balls, hearts or even giraffes! This is called topiary. Create your own plant sculpture by using bushy, trailing, or flowering plants. Try using thick wire, metal clothes hangers, wooden sticks, or plastic strawberry containers to create your topiary frame. Tie the plant to the frame with plastic covered twist ties or string. Use a hand pruner to shape your plant, but ask an adult to help with this.
9. What a Pest!
   Some plants and animals are considered pests because they damage crops, cause diseased, and harm other plants and animals. Learn about one plant and one animal that are considered pests in your community
   y. Find out why they are considered harmful and how they are being controlled. Here are some examples of pests you might investigate: deer tick, rat, cockroach, Mormon cricket, flea, kudzu, poison oak or ivy, and leafy spurge.
10. Go on Safari
    At a zoo or using your favorite animal books, go on a “world wildlife safari” Find the name of animals that:
    • Have thick fur coat for a cold climate
    • Have long fingers for grasping branches
    • Have bright colors for attracting a mate
    • Have long legs for wading
    • Have a dark color for living in shadows
    • Have a tongue that reaches in hard-to-get places
    • Have big ears that help to cool their blood in hot climates

Prints and Graphics

1. Rubbed the Right Way
   Make 3 different rubbings – you can use anything that’s got a raised or engraved design. Place a blank sheet of paper over the surface. Rub back and forth with a piece of crayon, chalk, or pencil. Experiment. Repeat patterns and make designs with different objects.
2. Stamp Designs
   Make your own stamp. Cut a design into a soft object like a potato, eraser, or sponge. Press the design into a shallow plate of water-based paint or an ink pad and then stamp it onto paper.
3. Nature’s Prints
   Find a natural object, such as a leaf or a piece of bark. Press one side of the object into an ink pad, or paint one side with water-based paint, and place it on a piece of paper. Place another sheet over the object and press on it firmly with your fingertips. Lift the top sheet of paper and the image of the object will be revealed. Use paint, markers, or colored pencils to complete your design.
4. Stencil Fun
   Create a stencil. Draw a design on a piece of stiff paper and then cut out the design. Place your stencil onto another piece of paper. Using paint, markers, or colored pencils, color over the design. Overlap your designs or try this on other materials like fabric or wood.
5. Silk Screening
   Learn about silk screening. Create a design that can be easily silk-screened. Print your design.
6. Graphic Design
   Try your hand at using graphic design software. Create a design and print it up.
7. Eye For Design
   Use one of the print o design techniques in this badge to create some stationary, cards, or wrapping paper.
8. Help By Design
   Use your print-making skills in a service project. You can make note cards or stationary for an organization, programs for an event, or posters for a community
   y center.
9. Decorating with Prints
   Create a suitable mat and frame for one of your prints to use in your home or give as a gift. Or use one of your print designs as a wall hanging.
10. Book Design
    Design the page of a book, including choosing the font, creating an illustration, and adding a border.

Puzzlers

1. A Maze With A Theme
   Design your own maze on paper. Give your maze a theme, such as “Help the Bird Find Her Next” or “Show Sue How to Get to The Beach.” Add pictures to make it more interesting. Make copies of your maze and ask at least two other people to solve it. Ask them what they think could make the maze easier or harder.
   OR
   Create a walking maze on the ground, using tape or chalk, for others to test their skills. Or visit a garden or cornfield that has a maze you can investigate.
2. Crossword Puzzler
   Pick a topic and make up your own crossword puzzle. Be sure you have at least five clues across and five clues down. You can use graph paper or a computer software program to help lay out your puzzle. Have a friend or family member try to solve your crossword.
3. Do You See It?
   Optical illusions “trick” your eyes. You may see one thing, while someone sees another, or something may seem to be something that it is not. Look at the optical illusion above. What did you think when you looked at it? Try out optical illusions on your family or friends.
4. Picaria
   Picaria is a game played by the Zuni people of the southwestern part of the unit
   
   United States. It is thought that the first form of this game was created by Arabian people who lived in Northwestern Africa. They introduced the game to people who lived in Spain hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Spanish travelers brought the game with them to the unit
   
   United States more the 400 years ago.
   What You Need:

a)      A game board. The board may be drawn on the ground, stone or on wood.

b)      Six counters (pebbles, bottle caps, leftover game pieces, buttons) three for each player

            What You Do:

·        You need 2 players. Each player has 3 counters of one color. You move your counters on the diagonal lines attempting to make “three-in-a-row” where the lines intersect.

o       Players take turns putting counters on the game board.

o       Neither player can put a counter in the center spot until all six counters have been put on the board.

o       When the players have taken turns getting all 6 counters onto the game board, the next player may move a counter along a line to the next empty intersection to try to make a row of three.

o       Jumping is not allowed.

o       The first person to get 3 in a row wins!

There are 8 ways to do this. Set a time limit. If no one makes a row of 3 in the given time, the game ends in a tie. Play another version of this game from Ghana and Nigeria called Achi, with each player using 4 counters instead of 3.

5. It’s in the Cards
   Learn and perform 3 card tricks that use mathematical or logical thinking. See if your audience can figure out how you did your tricks.
6. It’s Magic
   Become an amateur magician. Learn 3 magic tricks. You can refer to a book or a kit, or ask someone to help. Practice each trick and then perform them for others. Ask if anyone can solve the trick. Or attend a magic show and learn how at least one of the tricks is done.
7. The Game of Nim
   Play the game of Nim, described below, several times with another person. If you are playing with a group, change partners after each game. Figure out strategies that might help you win. Here’s how to play:

a)      Put 9 pennies in 3 rows, with four pennies in one row, three in the next, and two in the last row.

b)      The two players take turns removing pennies using these rules: A player can take away pennies from only one row during a turn. The player can take as many pennies as she likes from the row, but must take at least one.

c)      The player who takes the last penny is the winner.

8. Scramble
   Word scrambles are a type of puzzle. For example, the letters “nanaba” can be unscrambled to spell the word “banana”. Choose a topic, such as sports, books, or Girl Scouts. Scramble the letters of 5 – 10 words on that topic. Try out your puzzle on your family, friends, or troop. See who can unscramble the most words in 2 minutes.
9. Word Search
   Make up a word search using a piece of graph paper or a grid that you create. Chose a theme and a title that reflects the words that can be found, such as weather, school, or seasons. Include at least 10 words in your search. Ask friends or family to find the hidden words.
10. One Dollar Words
    In this math puzzle, each letter of the alphabet represents an amount of money. A = 1 cent, B = 2 cents, C = 3 cents, and so on. Find at least three words that are worth exactly $1.00. Ask your friends and family members to join in the fun, and see who can come up with the largest number of $1.00 words in a week.

1. Global product hunt

2. Cooking with the sun

3. Using resources wisely

4. Penny power

5. Wildlife in danger

6. Plant a tree, help it grow

7. Global tree action

8. A credo

9. Local issues

10. Get political

11. Take action

Rocks Rock

1. Be a Rock Hound!
   Start a rock collection. Go exploration hike to see how many different kinds of rocks and minerals you can find. Before you go, consider what equipment you might need. Take safety Precautions! And don’t collect any samples from an unit where collecting stones is prohibited. If removing a rock will make an impact on the environment, don’t take it home! Instead, photograph or observe the stone where you found it, so others will get to see it later.
2. Geo Hunt
   Search for clues in your community or in a place you visit that shows one or more of the following:
   • Where a glacier had been
   • Where a volcano had erupted
   • Where erosion had happened
   • Where water once covered the unit 
   • Where the earth has shifted

Discuss, describe, or show others what you have found.

3. What Type Is It?
   Each rock you collect will fall into one of three major categories: igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic. Which types are yours? Use books, web sites, or maps to help you figure out which types of rocks you’ve gathered.
4. Soil Sense
   Discover what makes up soil. Collect two soil samples, each sample from a very different spot. Spread each soil sample out on a light-colored sheet of paper, and use your senses.
   • Look: Are the grains large and easy to see? Medium? Or small? Are there any stones in the soil? Is the overall color of the soil light, medium, or dark?
   • Smell: What does it smell like? Wet some of the soil and rub it between your fingers and smell it again.
   • Touch: What does it feel like? Sandy soil feels rocky or pebbly. Clay soil feels sticky. A loamy soil feels gritty.
5. “Geo” Careers
   Can you imagine yourself working with dinosaur bones? How about with precious stones? Or have you ever pictured yourself being an expert on volcanoes, the ocean floor, or far away planets? Believe it or not, all of these careers have backgrounds based in geology (the study of rocks). To learn more about possible geology-related career choices, complete the match-up activity below. Pick one career that you’d like to learn more about.
    

6. Wipe Out Erosion!
   Erosion is the wearing away of rocks and soil by air, wind, and water. Hook up with a group that is trying to fight the effects of erosion in your unit
   . Some activities to look into could be:
   • Planting dune grass to help keep the sand along the shore from being blown out to sea. Small, wooden fences can also be used to create artificial sand dunes. These methods keep the beach where it should be – on the beach!
   • Maintaining trails, which could include helping to build terraces or steps along steep paths. Terraces and steps make it harder for rainwater to wash straight down a hill, so less soil is removed when it rains.
   • Helping to build a walkway over marshy wetland units.
7. Around the Globe
   Volcanic eruptions, geysers, earthquakes, and tsunamis (tidal waves) have had tremendous impact on people around the world. Pick one of these phenomena, and find out a place where it affected people and what those effects were.
8. The View From Above
   Find photographs of the earth taken from a high altitude. Photos that were taken from a plane or satellite would be best. Use these photos to locate:
   • Major oceans
   • Land units
   • Mountain ranges
   • Fault lines
   • Volcanoes
   • Farmland
   • Rivers, lakes, and other inland waterways
   • Other features of interest
9. Fossil Fun!
   Fossils can be formed in different ways. A fossil may be the image (impression) that an object leaves in stone, which becomes the “mold” for that object. Make your own “fossil” by pressing a leaf, rock, skeleton, bone, or dead insect into some soft plaster of Paris and allowing it to harden. Look carefully to see the details made in the impression when the item is removed. If you can, go on a fossil hunt.
10. Weathered or Not…
    To discover firsthand the effects of weather on the land, do one of the following:
    • Go for a walk in your neighborhood and look for chips, cracks, and rough unit
      s in a sidewalk. Think about how these might have happened. How has nature helped cause these changes in the sidewalk?
    • Discover what happens when water gets into cracks and spaces in rocks and then freezes. Fill a small plastic container with water, put the top on it, and then freeze it. What happens to the container? What does this mean for unit
      s where there is water that freezes?
    • Acid rain affects different types of stone in different ways. Visit a cemetery and notice the different types of stone used to make the headstones. Or walk around your neighborhood and check out buildings made from different types of stone. Notice how the lettering, statues, carvings, and/or corners are worn away. What conclusions can you draw from your observations?

Safety First

1. Safe at Home
   Conduct a safety check of your home with your family. Do you have the proper number of smoke detectors? Are they all working? Are all electrical wires safe and out of the way/ correct any hazards that might be dangerous for an infant, a toddler, someone who has a disability, or an elderly person. Then list the following information and post it in a handy spot: pone numbers for the fire department, police, poison control center, doctor, and an ambulance.
2. Safe at Any Age
   Do an informal survey to find out the most common types of injuries for people your age. Are they from bicycle falls, sports, or just plain carelessness? Write a 30 second or 60 second public safety announcement about how to help prevent these injuries and see if it can be aired at your school.
3. Sports Safety
   Create a large cardboard cutout of a person wearing a variety of protective gear and equipment for a particular sport or activity. If you created an in-line skater, for example, include kneepads, elbow pads, wrist pads, and a helmet. Use this figure to teach sports safety to your troop, group, or family.
4. Create a car safety poster, videotape, or some other form of media. Include information about ht importance of using a seat belt every time people ride in a car, the proper way for infants and toddlers to be buckled into car safety seats, and why children should not ride in the front seat of a car equipped with airbags.
5. Fall Safe
   Help prevent one of the most common causes of injuries and deaths in the United States: falls. Point out where falls can happen easily, such as in bathrooms or on stairs, and show how they can be prevented.
6. Look Out!
   Take a “hazard identification hike” along a bike path, foot trail, horse trail, compass course, or similar place. As you go along:
   1. Identify places where you could get hurt or that could cause you trouble.
   2. Set up some way to warn others of the hazards, or work to remove them.
7. Out and About in Public
   The 4^th. of July – and holiday celebrations like it – can be loads of fun. But don’t forget about safety. Choose an upcoming holiday or event, such as a parade, a trip to the state fair, or a local carnival. Talk to the adult you are going with and make a safety plan. What should you do if you get separated? What are the hazards you might prepare for ahead of time, such as: doing activities on water, being in unfamiliar places, being around strangers, having no clean drinking water or shade, being in a sudden storm, traveling in cars or other vehicles, being in crowded places, or being out in the dark.
8. It’s Not Just a Ride
   Learn the basics of bike safety and develop a bike safety checklist. Include topics such as protective gear, how to see if your bike is in proper working order, and rules for riding on the road. Talk to a local bike shop employee, police officer, or other resource person for help.
9. Show the Way
   With your troop, friends or family; plan a way to help younger children learn about safety. Include topics like crossing the street, safety in the kitchen, and getting help in an emergency. You can use the “Safety Sense” Brownie Girl Scout Try-It to help you plan.
10. Fire Safety
    Knowing what to do in case of a fire saves lives. Plan, talk about, and practice fire escape routes fro your home, troop meeting place, or school. Learn what to do by checking out the information in your Junior Girl Scout Handbook, going online to find resources about fire safety, or talking with a firefighter.
     

Science Discovery

Science in Action

http://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_central/insignia/online/junior/science_in_action.asp  (click here for requirements)

1. Emergency science

2. Got to communicate

3. Technology-tables

4. I'll jet right over

5. Science in Manufacturing

6. Science in agriculture

7. Engineering 101

8. Bridge building

9. Slurping plant

Science in Every Day Life

1. Tools of the Trade
   Interview a doctor or dentist and find out about the different ways science and math are used in her work. Ask for a demonstration of science at work. For example, have your blood pressure taken or find out how tooth decay can be prevented.
2. Catch the Beat
   Your heart flexes as many as 100,000 times a day pumping blood throughout your body. What a machine! Learn to take your pulse when you are sitting and at rest. (Ask someone to show you the arterial pulse points on your wrist or on either side of your neck.) Figure out the beats per minute (count the beats for 15 seconds and multiply by 4) to determine your resting heartbeat. Now, find what your heartbeat is after doing two of the following: jumping, standing, dancing, or running in place for 30 minutes each. Be sure to bring your heartbeat back down to resting between each activity.
3. Natural Geometry
   Spiders are some of nature’s best weavers, and the thread they use is remarkably strong. Observe some webs outdoors. Look for differences in the patterns done by different spiders. Sketch a web or capture a spider-web print on black paper. Use a gentle mist of glue or silver spray paint (under adult supervision) to spray the web. Then, “capture” the web against the paper and snip the threads that are holding it in place.
4. Forces of Nature
   Try to imagine how long it took the Colorado River to carve out the Grand Canyon. Combine the time and powerful forces, such as water and gravity, to create erosion by doing one of the following:
   • Build a “mountain” with soil outdoors or observe a pile of earth at a construction site over a period of time. What are some of the patterns of erosion that develop?
   • Experiment with water flow as a force or erosion at the beach, in a sandbox, or at a “stream table” in a science museum. What are some patterns that develop? Can you change them by diverting the water?
   • Soak some bean seeds overnight and place them in a plastic c film canister with a moist cotton ball (or a piece of a cotton T-Shirt.) Put the lid on and leave it for a week. What happens? How does the result exhibit a force of nature?
5. Science Fiction?
   Authors of science fiction have often correctly anticipated new technology and social changes in their writings about the future. Write a science fiction short story, skit or musical about life in the year 2075. What will life be like? What will have become better? Worse? Below, can you match the writer to her or his prediction or plot device?
   
    

6. Color Mixing
   Is mixing different-colored lights different from mixing different-colored paints? Tape some squares of white paper up in a dark hallway. Use flashlights with red, blue, and green cellophane (the primary colors of light) taped over them, and shine different combinations of light on the paper. Record the secondary colors you get with each combination. You can also experiment by shining the lights through different-colored water in clear glasses, or through colored glass or marbles. What happens when you combine a primary color of light, such as blue, and a secondary color like pink? Now do the same thing mixing the primary colors of red, yellow, and blue on paper using paint. What happens when you mix secondary and primary colors?
   
   Continue experimenting with paint colors, and create a picture or design that contains at least 15 or more colors that you have mixed. Which of these predictions have come true?
7. Rockin’ Along
   Go on a geology walk! Find evidence of a changing earth brought about by water, wind, weather, plants, animals, and gravity. Look for:
   • Crystals in stone or soil
   • Decaying plant life
   • Erosion on a hillside
   • Evidence of changes brought about by people
   • Examples of weathering on buildings or statues
   • Loose rocks at the bottom of a hill
   • Material deposited by water
   • Rocks formed by compression
   • Rocks smoothed by water
8. How Much Time?
   Time has always been an important unit of measurement. People have invented many different ways to measure time. Find out about early time-keeping tools. Create your own simple instrument that marks the passage of time.
9. Here Today, Still Here Tomorrow?
   Pick an item that you use often. Find out how it has changed since the time it was first invented. Draw or design a model of what you would like to see it become in another 25 years, or create a replacement for its functions. Some items to think about are a radio, a wristwatch, a computer, a book, money, medicine, or a fast food.
10. The Key, Please
    Choose a group of living things you can observe, such as birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, flowers, or trees. Use a simple identification book or field guide to find the names off 7 different species in that group. Learn the key characteristics of each species that can help to identify it. These might include what it looks like, where it lives, and how it behaves.

Science Sleuth

1. What’s Vibration Got to Do With It?
   Make a simple musical instrument that you can tune. Here are some ideas: bottle pipes (blowing across the top of water bottles), glass chimes (using a spoon against water glasses), comb kazoo (using tissue paper), drum (using plastic stretched across a cup), shaker (a container with dried beans), maraca (using a shaker with a handle), or idiophone (using your fingers to rub around the rim of crystal wine glasses). Listen to the pitches of the sounds and experiment with ways to change the pitches and add more notes. Then, try to explain how the sound is created using vibration, or play a simple melody.
2. The Science of Papermaking
   How many kinds of paper can you find around your house? Compare the differences in color, texture, absorption, and composition. Create a paper-testing lab and choose different types of paper that are best for wiping up spills, painting, writing in ink, and writing in pencil.
3. Crystal Quest
   What do ice, diamonds, rock candy, quartz, and snowflakes have in common? Crystals, of course! Grow your own crystals by following the recipe below:
               What You Need:
   • Epsom salts
   • Water
   • Small saucepan
   • Large spoon
   • Pipe cleaner
   • Food coloring
   • Pencil
   • clear plastic cup

What You Do:

• With the help of an adult, boil the water in the saucepan, take the pan off the burner, and place it on a hot pad.
• Using the spoon, slowly add the Epsom salts a little bit at a time, stirring constantly. Keep adding the salts until no more will dissolve or mix in.
• Pour the solution into the plastic cup, almost up to the top.
• Wrap the pipe cleaner around the pencil so that it hangs over and into the cup. Curl the end so that the crystals will have a good place to grow and suspend it in the solution
3. When Is Silver Green?
   Fin out what happens to different kinds of metals when they are exposed it air (oxidation) and weathering. Compare iron, silver, copper, and brass. Find at least five examples of metals, indoors or outdoors, that have undergone some kind of surface changes.
4. You Can’t Escape Your Identity
   With the help of a police officer, private investigator, or other professional, dust for and lift a fingerprint. Try comparing your fingerprints to someone else’s and note the differences and similarities. Find out what other evidence, such as DNA from hair or skin samples, can be used to identify a person or a vehicle. The FBI uses seven main characteristics in fingerprint identification: the loop, arch, whorl, tented arch, double loop, central pocket loop, and accidental.  

      WebPages to see samples:
       http://www.cornwallis.kent.sch.uk/intranet/elearn/science/crime/1crime.html
       http://www.ridgesandfurrows.homestead.com/fingerprint_patterns.html

6. Water Questions
   Have you ever seen a bug walking on water and wondered how it does it? Sometimes things look impossible to do, but if you know your science, there might be an answer. Here are some challenges to try with your friends, family, or troop members. Do at least two of the following:
   • Move water from one container to another without pouring it.
   • Use water to show how that air exists, exerts pressure, and takes up space.
   • Make something heavier than water float.
   • Cause a plant to drink water indoors without watering it, as shown in the “Incredible Slurping Plant” activity in the Explore and Discover” chapter of your Junior Girl Scout Handbook.
7. Read the Directions – But How Does It Work?
   Find out how to hook up a computer to the Internet, a VCR to your television, or a music system to speakers. Demonstrate to another person how all the parts and pieces link to each other and what each piece of equipment does.
8. Seeing the Light
   Your eyes can only see a portion of the light that is there – the white light. With technology you can see other kinds of light on the spectrum, such as infrared or X-ray. Each type of light has its own signature pattern that can be seen when it is separated with a prism. Try separating light. Use a crystal or prism to separate natural light. Then separate light that is created by technology. Can you record the signature of a regular light bulb? The sun? A fluorescent bulb? Are there any differences?
9. It’s in the Genes
   Genes “tell” each cell in your body how to develop. In the future, scientists may be able to anticipate and cure illnesses by mapping individuals’ genes. Find out about a disease or condition that is believed to be linked to genes. Discuss the following with your troop, family, or another adult:
   • In what situations would you want to know about your genes? In what situations would you not want to know? Why or why not?
   • Do you think others should have access to information about your genes? Why or why not?
10. What Is a Simple Machine?
    A machine is a device that helps use a force to move something and do work. See the six simple machines below. Do one of the following:
    • Participate in a scavenger hunt where you find two examples of each of the machines, one indoors and one outdoors.
    • Use at least three simple machines to put together a piece of equipment that will perform a job.
    • Create a complex machine that combines two or more simple machines.
      
                            
          Pulley                           Screw                               Inclined Plane

 
                 
             Wedge                          Lever                        Wheel and Axle

Website with pictures: http://snebulos.mit.edu/egoeke/GS/SciSleuth.pdf

Sew Simple

1  Hands Down
   Try your hand at sewing: running stitch, hemming stitch, slip stitch, catch stitch.

2  A Stitch in Time
    Explore machine stitching on a sewing machine. Try basting, zigzag stitching or seam stitching.

3  Foot Fun
   Decorate your socks by stitching lace/fabric to the upper cuff or embroidering on them!

4  Program It
   Many sewing machines contain mini-computers. Learn how to program a design on a machine, then sew it!

5  Pick a Pattern
   Look at different patterns and decide on an item you'd like to make. Look at the number of pieces, what notions (zipper, thread, buttons, etc.) are needed, the type of fabric recommended and the amount of fabric.

6   A Perfect Fit
    Use the diagram on a pattern envelope to figure your size. You can use this handout to determine your bust, waist and hips measurement. Then look at a pattern envelope to determine your size.

7   Sew for Service
   Choose some items to make for people in need, such as baby quilts, "ditty" bags, warm scarves or lap robes.

8   Hospital Helpers
     Make "cancer caps" for kids going through radiation and donate them to a hospital in your unit
.

9  Find the Fabric
    Explore fabrics - they can have different widths, textures, colors and designs. Decide which fabric would be appropriate for an item you wish to make.

10  Sew a Puppet
     Make a puppet according to the directions in the book, or make your own item!

Sky Search

1. Mapping the Skies
   Learn how to use a star map. Obtain or make such a map for your stargazing location that adjusts to the time and season when you are observing stars.
    
2. Constellations
   Constellations are stars that appear to be groups when looked at from Earth. If you were to travel in a spaceship, you would find that most stars that look close together are actually millions of miles apart. Learn to identify at least five of the constellations seen from Earth.
    
3. Direction, Please
   Learn about the North Star and why it has been used for navigation throughout history. Help others locate the North Star. Use the North Star to find two constellations or asterisms (part of a constellation).
    
4. Planets
   Learn which of the nine planets are visible to the naked eye. Try to locate at least one of these during a stargazing adventure. If possible, use a telescope to help you see better detail. Write down what you discover.
    
5. Connect the Dots
   Learn stories from two or more ancient cultures - such as Greek, Norse, American Indian, Pacific Islander, or Chinese - that were used to explain what was seen in the sky.
    
6. Tools of the Trade
   Learn the parts of a telescope and how to use one. If possible, use a tracking telescope or look through telescopes with different magnifications.
   OR
   Visit a large observatory and learn what kinds of telescopes are used there. What do astronomers learn by using telescopes?
    
7. Time for the Moon
   Learn more about the moon - its phases, age, names of features - and then take a closer look. The best time to observe the moon is when it is full, or almost full. Use binoculars or a small telescope to help you see the valleys, ridges, mountain ranges, and craters on the moon.
    
8. The Sky is Falling!
   Learn about meteors, meteorites, meteor showers, and comets. Find out when meteor showers may be visible in your unit
   . With an adult, arrange a meteorite-watching party and count the number you see in an hour.
    
9. Star Stamps
   Address an envelope to yourself or a friend; include your solar system and galaxy address. Draw a stamp on your envelope that celebrates an event in space exploration. Write a letter and include a map to your favorite planet.
    
10. Mission: Space
    Learn about a current mission in space. What is the purpose of the mission, and how is information recorded and sent back to Earth? If possible, follow the mission over a period of time and visit a Web site that describes the mission and shares pictures or data.

Small Craft

1. Staying Afloat
   Show that you can select, use, and care for a PFD (personal flotation device). Be able to:
   • Adjust a life jacket or life vest to fit
   • Know if a PFD is in good condition
   • Throw a buoyant cushion or life ring
   • Float, swim, and do HELP (Heat Escape Lessening Position) and huddle in a PFD
   • If you are a swimmer, put on a PFD while in water that is over your head
2. All Hands On Deck
   Be ready for boating emergencies. With a knowledgeable adult, talk about what to do if three of the following things happen:
   • You fall overboard
   • Someone else falls overboard
   • The wind rises (or, if sailing, dies)
   • You see a storm approaching
   • The boat swamps or capsizes
   • It gets dark or foggy
   • There is a fire on board
3. From Bow to Stern
   Learn nautical terms for the major parts of a boat and use them correctly. Identify three kinds of water craft.
4. Permission to Board
   Be able to trim your craft (maintain a balanced position of a boat in the water by moving around passengers and gear). Show that you can:
   • Board properly
   • Stow things and move weight around safely
   • Change places safely
5. Shove Off
   Show that you can handle a small craft safely. Demonstrate in a rowboat, rowing shell, kayak, or canoe that you can:
   • Stow the paddle(s) or oar(s)
   • Get underway
   • Make turns and go straight
   • Speed up, slow down, and stop
   • Dock or land
   • Secure the craft
6. Hoist the Sails!
   Show that you can handle a sailboat. Demonstrate that you can:
   • Get underway
   • Raise and lower the sail(s)
   • Sail straight ahead
   • Tack and come about
   • Speed up, slow down, and stop
   • Dock or land
   • Secure the craft
7. Full Speed Ahead!
   In a boat with a motor, show that you know how to:
   • Get underway
   • Start the engine, change speed, and stop
   • Use the oars, if the boat has them
   • Make turns and go forward and backward
   • Dock or land
   • Secure the engine and the craft
8. Thar She Blows!
   Learn to keep a sharp lookout. Show that you practice rules of the water by knowing how to:
   • Keep away from swimmers, divers, and people fishing
   • Look out for other craft, floating objects, or hazards under the surface
   • Spot landmarks or navigational aids such as buoys or lights or read a navigational map
   • Help someone in distress, and signal for help yourself
   • Cross wakes correctly
9. Red Sky in the Morning, Sailors Take Warning
   Be a water and weather watcher. Check to see if it is safe to be out on the water by keeping track of the following:
   • Wind direction and speed
   • Waves, tides, and currents, or water releases from dams
   • Cloud formations
   • Weather signals and reports
10.  Swab the Deck!
    Do your share to keep a boat shipshape. Do at least 3 of the following:
    • Unload or stow gear or rigging
    • Wash down, bail out, or sponge off
    • Sand, scrape, or chip
    • Paint, patch, or fix up
    • Tie knots, splice, or whip lines

Sports Sampler

1. Stretch It Out
   A proper warm-up before you take part in sports and fitness activities will help reduce your chances of getting hurt by increasing the blood flow to your muscles and preparing them for exercise. Create a five minute warm-up and a five-minute cool-down. Learn three stretches for your upper body and three for your lower body. Do them before and after you play – every time!
2. Practice Makes Perfect
   Choose a sport that you want to learn or improve on. Pick three skills that you want to practice, either with a friend or on your own. With a coach, teacher, or parent, set some improvement goals. Then spend at least an hour a week practicing the m for the next three weeks.
3. Play Time
   Participate in a sport by taking part in a tournament or play day, or become a member of a club, team, or intramural program. Discover two ways you can improve your play.
4. Try Something New
   Playing the same sport over and over again can stress your body out. So try a new sport in addition to your regular favorite. In-line skating, volleyball, tennis, snowboarding, cycling…. You make the choice. Spend at least six sessions at the sport. Decide if you like it or not.
5. Safety First
   Safety awareness is vital when you play a sport. Still, accidents can happen. Learn how to treat tow of these basic injuries that might happen when you are learning or practicing a new sport: skinned knees, nosebleeds, blisters, ankle sprains, and muscle strains. Can you think of ways to avoid these injuries in the future?
6. See and Tell
   For one week, look through the sports sections of your local newspaper. Compare articles about sports with male players and sports with female players. The sports can be played by professional, high school, or college teams. Write a letter to the sports editor of your newspaper complaining if sports weren’t covered equally or congratulating them it they were.
7. You Go Girl!
   You can almost feel like you are participating in a sport by cheering for someone else. Write a cheer – with at least two verses – for your troop or favorite team. If you want, you and a friend can make up a movement routine to go along with it. Show your cheer to your troop and encourage them to perform it with you at a local girls’ or women’s sports event.
8. “Her Story” of Sport
   Pick a sport you would like to know more about. Trace the role of women in the sport’s history. When did women start playing it? Were the rules changed for women? How did it become popular among girls and women? Do many girls and women play this sport? Do famous women athletes compete in this sport?
9. Spread the Word
   Some people can’t play certain sports because they don’t have the proper equipment. With some friends, find a group in your community
   y that needs help with its sports program. Ask what the group needs and what you can do to help. For example, you could start a sports equipment drive for the group. You might need to work with someone from a sporting goods store, or another adult, to collect equipment. Make sure the equipment is safe and in good working order.
10. Sport Search

Find out about two sports that are new to you. Are they played or taught in your community? Check out the local Parks and Recreation Department, community centers, or the yellow pages. Collect the following information about these sports. Where can you play them? How do you start learning? What are the fees? What equipment do you need? How many people do you need to play? Share your findings with your troop and see if anyone wants to learn a sport with you!

1. Create a Personal Stress Kit
   Let your personal “stress less” kit rescue you from stressful events! Make an attractive container. Carefully stock it with things that will help you relax, laugh, dream, or put you at ease. Be sure there are at least six items in your kit. You might include books, cartons, photographs, music, a card or letter from a friend or relative, or a picture from a magazine of a place that looks peaceful. Think about how each item helps you relieve stress. Remember to pull out your kit when you need to de-stress.
2. Stess Less Writing
   One way to let go of feeling s that are stressful is to write in a journal or notebook about what’s on your mind. Start a “stress less” journal for those times when you need to release some tension.
3. What Are You Feeling?
   Learning how to identify and describe your different moods and feelings is an important part of dealing with stress. Keep a feeling s diary for a day. How many different moods did you experience?
4. Do For Others
   One of the best ways to lessen your stress is to focus on someone else. For one afternoon or evening help someone with a project or problem.
5. Move That Stress Away
   Physical motion can release the tension in your body. (Make sure your motions aren’t harmful to you or anyone or anything else.) Make a list of ten actions you can take to reduce stress. Some examples are running up and down stairs a few times, dancing around to your favorite song, or jumping rope. Look at your list when tension starts to rise. Do one of your motions!
6. Listen to Music
   Listen to five of your favorite songs. Decide which one is most relaxing to you and why. Play your song for two other people and see if they think it is relaxing. Find out what music they would choose to relax to!
7. Pass It On
   Ask three of your friends or classmates how they deal with stress. Collect the five best techniques. Remember to try one of them yourself the next time you’re feeling stressed!
8. Read and Relax
   Read a book. Following a character’s adventures can help you forget about your stress. With other girls, come up with a list of especially relaxing books.
9. One At A Time
   Are you stressed because you are trying to do too much in too little time? Maybe you need to practice some time management. Read about time management in the “Be Healthy, Be Fit” chapter of your Junior Girl Scout Handbook.
10. Practice Elevator Breathing
    Deep, focused breathing can refresh your mind. Imagine that breathing in and exhaling out is like an elevator moving up and down the floors of a building. Practice these exercises:
    • Inhale slowly through your nose. Feel your breath travel all the way to the basement (the bottom of your spine).
    • Exhale slowly through your mouth.
    • Put your hands on your belly and inhale, taking your breath up one floor to your navel. Exhale.
    • Put your hands on your ribs and inhale, taking your breath up a second floor, to your chest. Exhale.
    • Put your hands on your face and inhale up to the attic – your throat, cheeks, and forehead. Feel your head fill with breath. Exhale and feel all your tension and worries leave your body and go out the elevator door.

Swimming

1. Know Water Safety
   Show that you know when and how to:
   • Select and wear a PFD (personal floating device)
   • Keep afloat using clothing and other flotation devices
   • Cooperate with someone who is trying to rescue you
   • Use good sense in cold water, in deep water, in a current, and in rough water
   • Thread water
2. My Buddy and Me
   Swimming with a buddy is more fun than swimming alone, and it helps keep you safe. Create and practice a “buddy check call” so that you and your buddy know if either of you need help. Use it every time you swim.
3. Like a Fish
   Learn to snorkel. Show that you can choose a mask that fits your face, put it on so it won’t fog, breathe through it, and clear the mask. Practice your snorkeling skills by swimming 25 yards along the surface parallel to the shore. Show that you can surface – dive, swim 15 feet underwater, resurface and clear your snorkel and mask.
4. Go Swim!
   Show that you can swim by doing each of the following:
   • Glide six feet
   • Kick 25 yards
   • Swim the crawl 25 yards
   • Do two of these strokes for 50 yards: crawl, elementary backstroke, sidestroke, or breaststroke
5. Helpful Swimmer
   Show that you can help another swimmer who:
   • Has a cramp
   • Is shivering with hypothermia
   • Has a sunburn or heat exhaustion
   • Is tired

            Read the first aid section in the “How to stay safe” Chapter of your Junior Girl Scout Handbook for more information.

6. Check it Off
   Make a water safety checklist that includes ways to avoid:
   • Underwater hazards
   • Falling through ice
   • Falling in water accidentally
   • Overestimating your swimming ability
   • Polluting the water that you swim in
   • Swift currents
7. Underwater Swimmer
   Swim under the surface of the water. Show that you can do a surface dive, a deep dive, or a jump, and then swim underwater and bring up something from the bottom.
8. Diver
   Perform two different dives from a low board, platform, or deck. First, be sure an adult who is present has checked the water depth and hazards, and they have said it is safe to dive.
9. Going for the Gold!
   Get involved in a swimming competition.
   • Join a swim team to build your speed and endurance.
   • Learn about swimming stars and their records
   • Be able to follow the rules in competitive swimming for starting, turning, timing, and scoring.
10. Water Moves
    Look at ways other living things move through the water. Watch for creatures that have tails that act as rudders, feet that paddle, or finds that flutter. Imitate animal actions in a water game you make up.

Theater

Toymaker

1. It’s Your Design
   Create a toy of your own design in one of the following categories: rolling toy, spinning toy, balancing toy, stuffed toy, mechanical toy, musical toy.
2. Toys Around the World
   Find out about toys in other countries or in several cultures in the United States. Check out library books and Internet sites for information. Create a simple toy that you discovered.
3. Toys Through History
   Investigate the history of toys. What were some of the earliest kinds of toys? What kinds of toys did your grandparents and great grandparents play with? If possible, visit a museum or historical society to see a collection of toys. What kinds of materials were they made from? Learn how to make one of these toys and make it.
4. Make a Doll House
   Make a doll house for yourself or a younger child. Use wood, foam board, or heavy cardboard. You can make furniture from wood, clay, cardboard, plastic or papier-mâché. Decorate the walls and floor of your house with wallpaper, paint, or other materials.
5. Make a Board Game
   Find out what makes a good board game by playing several different kinds. Then decide upon a theme for a game of your own. Decide how players will move, make up rules and create the board. Try your game out with friends and family.
6. Challenge the Imagination
   Create a brainteaser game, toy, or puzzle. It could be a mechanical puzzle, a mathematical game, a string game, a computer-created puzzle, or a trivia game. Play it with family or friends.
7. Design an Educational Game
   Many games help you learn while you are having fun. Create a game that helps someone learn something new.
8. Toy Safety
   Talk to an adult about toy hazards. Do toy hazards check at home, at a nursery school, or at a day care center. Share your findings with adults and children and help develop a plan to eliminate toy hazards.
9. Toy Recycling
   help collect toys and fix them up for kids who would benefit from them. You could help out with an existing toy drive in your community
   y or start one in a group.
10. Trash It!
    A “trash toy” is made from anything that might be thrown away. Ask your family to save some things they would usually toss out. Boxes, milk cartons, cans, egg trays, string, buttons, shells, and newspapers are just a few of the things you might use. Let your imagination run wild and see what kind of trash toy you can create. Will it be a set of musical instruments? A wheeled toy? Stilts? Share your toy with your group, troop, or others.
     

Traveler

1. Stay Safe on the Road
   Staying safe is an important part of traveling. With your Girl Scout troop or your family, brainstorm a list of at least eight things you can do to be safe while you are in a new place. Your list might include things like always carrying change for a phone call or remembering not to pull out large sums of money in public.
2. Promote a Place
   Send away for travel brochures and information on places you want to visit. You can often get information for free by going online or phoning a visitor’s bureau or chamber of commerce. Share your brochures with your troop or family. Do they want to go?
3. Culturally Curious?
   Pick a country or culture, then make or learn about two of the following:
   • A traditional article of clothing
   • A puppet or toy related to a folk tale
   • A traditional craft or folk art
   • A musical instrument
   • A typical song or dance

Share what you’ve made or learned with a group of younger children. Tell them about the county or culture, and show them how to make or do something similar.

Document the Days
Plan and take a trip that lasts a weekend or more. On your trip, keep a diary or log, collect postcards, take photographs, make a video or slide show, or make drawings of your travels. Share them with others when you return.

4. Dream Vacation
   Create an itinerary for a week-long trip to a country you would like to visit. What is the country most well-known for? How will you get there? What famous sights will you want to see? How will you travel from place to place? What type of money is used in the country? Did finding out about the country make you want to visit it more? Share your dream vacation with a friend. Does she want to come, too?
5. Who? What? Where? When? How?
   Pretend you are a travel agent or a tour director. Help one of the groups listed below plan a trip to your town or state. Include the transportation they’ll need to use, the places they will stay and visit, activities they can do once they get there, and how much you think the trip will cost.
   • A sixth-grade class, with four accompanying adults, who want to visit two historical sites in a weekend.
   • Two people who enjoy the out of doors and do not want to damage the environment or wasted fuel.
   • A Junior Girl Scout troop, including two girls in wheelchairs, who want to visit an amusement park in a nearby state.
6. Careers in Travel
   Find out about two of the following careers: conference planner, hotel manager, pilot, flight attendant, train conductor, cruise director, or cruise ship captain. What education or training would you need for the career? What are the average salaries? What other requirements or skills are needed? Invite someone who has worked in one of these careers to talk with your troop. Share your information with others who might be interested in these career units.
7. Girl Scouts Far and Wide
   Talk with an older Girl Scout who has participated in a national or international wider opportunity. Find out how she applied and prepared for it, and what her experiences were.
8. Entertaining and Alien
   Say a representative from a friendly distant planet is visiting the Earth for the first time and you have been chosen to be her host, and you will decide what she will see during the two-week visit. If you could take her anywhere on Earth, what would you take her to see? What are your reasons for h the sights and activities on your itinerary?
9. Girl Scout Travel Spots
   Take a trip to a Girl Scout site: the Juliette Gordon Low National Center in Savannah, Georgia; the Girl Scout national headquarters in New York City; Camp Andrée Clark in Briarcliff Manors, New York, or visit a Girl Scout sister in another city.

United We Stand

http://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_central/insignia/online/junior/united_we_stand.asp  (click here for requirements)

1. Show the colors

2. Write on

3. Express yourself

4. Roots

5. Pledge of Allegiance

6. Sing out

7. For which it stands

8. Check it out

9. Days gone by

10. Lend a Hand

Visual Arts

1. Color Wise
   Find out about primary and secondary colors. Make a color wheel and explain it to others. What are complementary colors? Practice mixing colors to make new ones. Create a picture using all the colors on a color wheel and some of the new colors that you created.
2. Color Your Mood
   Using color; create a picture that shows a feeling or emotion. You can try:
   • Happiness
   • Sadness
     Surprise
   • Joy
   • Calm
3. Black and White
   Make a design or picture using only black and white. Look for examples of drawings, advertisements and photographs that are in black and white instead of color. Share some of these with others. See if you can figure out why the artist or photographer chose to use black and white instead of color.
4. One Color, Many Shades
   You can make many shades of the same color. Look at something that is mostly one color. Notice that light and shadow can change the basic color into different shades. Make a picture of something that is mostly one color. Some examples are a hill full of trees that are many shades of green, buildings in a city that are many shades of brick red or gray, or snow on fields that are many shades of gray and white.
5. Still Life
   Collect a variety of objects with unusual an interesting shapes, such as shells, rocks, or jewelry. Place them on a blank piece of paper and trace around them using a pencil or black ink pen. Remove the objects and complete your design, adding more black, white, or color
6. Art Bridges
   Have you ever thought about art as a way to build bridges across cultures? Each country or culture has its own history and style of art. Find examples of artwork you like from other cultures and try to make an example of your own.
7. Design It
   Look for design in everyday objects. Find different designs in nature (such as a spider web) and different designs that are made by people (such as a skyscraper). Make a drawing of one of the designs you see.
8. On the Move
   Draw or paint a person, an animal, or an object in motion, perhaps a boat sailing or a dog running. What did you do to show movement?
9. Tour It
   Visit one or more places where you can see many types of visual arts. You could visit a museum, an art exhibit, an art gallery, a gift shop, a department store, a card shop, an art collector’s home, an artist’s studio, or an advertising agency, or a graphic design studio. If possible, visit a place where you can see the artist at work.
10. Put It In Perspective
    See how perspective works by looking at a few works of art that show things looking smaller in the distance. Then draw your own picture using the first rule of perspective: As two parallel lines move away from you – as in railway tracks or highways – the lines get closer and closer together. Eventually, the lines may touch at a point in the distance. After that point, you can’t see the lines any further.

Walking for Fitness

1. Warm Up
   Learn three stretching exercise to do before and after waling. Practice warming up before you walk, and cooling down after.
2. Make A Plan
   Develop a personal walking program and follow it for three weeks. Each week, try to increase your speed and distance. Need help developing a realistic plan? Talk with a coach or a fitness instructor.
3. Best Foot Forward
   Visit a store that sells walking shoes. Ask a sales person what to look for in a walking shoe. Compare several brands of shoes. Be able to explain which brand you would buy and why.
4. Keep Track
   Make a list of interesting sites within walking distance of your troop meeting place, school, or home. With a family member, friend or Girl Scout troop, walk to at least two of these sites.
5. Be Prepared!
   Create a simple first aid kit to take on walks. Learn how to care for sunburn, insect bites, heat exhaustion, heat stroke, and blisters.
6. Fast Food
   Plan and pack a well-balanced, easy-to-carry snack for an extra-long walk. Don’t forget to take along a filled water bottle.
7. Weather It Well
   Put on a walker’s fashion show with your friends. Show that you would know the right ways to dress for the weather when you walk in cold or hot weather. Be sure to explain the importance of dressing in layers.
8. Lend a Hand
   Take part in a weekend project to clean up a walkway or trail in or near your community.
   OR
   Help at a charity walk by cheerleading, passing out water or snacks, or giving directions.
9. Add It Up
   Keep track of your car or bus trips for one week. Write down the mileage and the time it took to travel that distance. Could you have walked any of your trips instead of riding?
10. Find the Way
    On a walk, use a street or road map to arrive at a new destination. Know which side of the road to walk on and how to safely walk in groups.

1.        Safety First
 Show how to use a PFD (personal flotation device). Refer to the American Red Cross Web site www.redcross.org.

        ·         Put it on, adjust it to fit, and fasten it securely.

        ·         Jump into the water with a PFD on.

        ·         Float and swim with a PFD on.

        ·         Practice the HELP (Heat Escape Lessening Position) and the huddle position to keep warm.

2.        Picture It
 Increase your awareness of different water habitats by doing three or more of these activities:

        ·         Listen to the sounds of moving water by the ocean, along the shores of a lake, or by a swiftly funning stream.

        ·         Watch waves in salt or fresh water.

        ·         Watch a leaf float in running water.

        ·         Smell the air near salt water, running water, or a swamp or bog.

        ·         Look for signs of life on a beach walk.

        ·         Feel a breeze while on the water or fly a kite along the shoreline.

        ·         Watch a sunset or sunrise reflected in a large body of water.

        Find a way to express your feelings about your experience through the arts or participate in a Girl Scout’s Own ceremony that celebrates water as your theme.

3.        A Balancing Act
 Show how to get in and out of a small craft safely. Keep the boat in trim (balance) as you:

        ·         Load gear

        ·         Stow things

        ·         Sit down and stand up

        ·         Move around and change places

         NOTE:  This can be done in a small boat, sailboat, canoe, or two-person kayak.

4.        Get in the Swim of Things
 On a swimming trip to a pool, pond, or lake, show an adult how you can:

        ·         Float on your back for one minute.

        ·         Tread water for two minutes.

        ·         Do two different swim strokes.

        ·         Use your best stroke and swim 50 Yards.

        REMEMBER:  Use the buddy system at all times.

5.        Water Games
  Make up and play a game in the water to show you understand and can use the buddy system.

6.        A Sailor’s Life
 Do at least two of the following:

        ·         Tie a fancy knot.

        ·         Sail a model boat.

        ·         Learn a song about the sea and sing it.

        ·         Learn something about life on the water or under it.

7.        Precious Water
 Brainstorm ways that you can conserve water. Also think of how not to add to water pollution in your communit

y, or in an unit
 that you are visiting with your family or group. Then, start the habit of being a clean water saver.

8.        Look Closely
 Plan a discovery trip to a lake, stream, or salt-water environment. See how many exciting discoveries you can make about this aquatic habitat. Find out:

        ·         What plants and animals live in the water and on the land nearby.

        ·         Whether the water is warm or cold, clear or murky.

        ·         What the bottom surface is like under the water.

9.        Let the Games Begin
 With a friend or family member, attend a water event, such as a canoe or kayak race, swim meet, surfing competition, fishing derby, parade of sail, synchronized swimming event, or water polo game. Learn the rules of the event.

10.     Jobs on the Water
 Tour a place where people go to have fun on the water, such as a marina, pool, cruise ship, party boat dock, or boat landing. Talk to someone who works there and find out what they do that helps others enjoy and be safe on the water.

Water Wonders

1.        It’s in a Cycle
 Water is the ultimate in recycling. Show your understanding of the water cycle. What happens to each step of  the cycle – evaporation, transpiration, condensation, and precipitation? Hint:  Don’t forget the role of the sun in providing energy.

2.        The Water you Drink
 Find out where your drinking water comes from. Is it from an aquifer, spring, river, reservoir, or another source? What is done to the water to make it safe to drink?

3.        Not Enough?
 Find out about an unit
 of the country or world that has too little water. Learn why the unit
 is so dry, how the people who live there are affected, and what is being done about the problem?

4.        Life Underwater
 Visit a place like an aquarium, fish hatchery, zoo, or pet store and look closely at the aquatic animals. Find three different animals that live all or part of their lives underwater – like fish, frogs, turtles, snails, sea lions, or beavers – and learn how their adaptations allow them to live in water.

       ·         How do they move?

       ·         How do they breathe?

       ·         How do they protect themselves?

5.        Water Food Chain
 Find out about a water ecosystem’s food chain by doing one of the following in a body of fresh water or salt water.

       ·         Drag a plankton net in the water and observe what you capture, using a magnifying glass or a microscope.

       ·         Take a bottom sample from a marsh. Place it in a white dish or pan. Look for signs of life.

       ·         Look under rocks, in a pool, in a stream, or in a tide pool. What do you see?

        In each case, find out what would make a food chain that would include the animals you observed. Would you have a place in such a food chain?

6. A Balanced Life
    Set up a fresh- or salt-water aquarium. Balance the numbers and kinds of living things with a healthy food and water supply.

7.        Water Work
        Visit a place where water has been put to work, such as a sewage- or water-treatment plant, an irrigation control center, a mining operation, a power plant, a fish hatchery, or a physical therapy center. Find out where the water comes from, how it is used, and what happens to it afterwards. What kinds of jobs can you observe at the facility? What things do the people do? How did they lean how to do them?

8.        Fixing It Up
 Help with a project to improve a water-related habitat. You might participate in a shoreline clean-up, do plantings to filter water, fill gabions (a wire basket that holds rocks) along banks to prevent stream erosion, or construct and put up birdhouses or nesting platforms. The water’s the limit!

9.        Just Add Salt
 Find out how salt water and fresh water are different. Do at least two experiments to find out which:

        ·         Boils first

        ·         Freezes first

       ·         Yields crystal

       ·         Makes better soapsuds

       ·         Makes floating easier

        **Recipe for Salt Water – Mix 1 cup of water with 1 tablespoon of salt until the salt is completely dissolved, or dip a  bucket in the ocean!

10.     Water Comparisons
  Conduct a water taste test with others. Taste several different kinds of water (tap water and different brands of bottled spring and mineral water) and rate each on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 is the best tasting). What did you find?

Weather Watch

1.        Weather Maps
  Learn to read a weather map printed in a newspaper. Look for places where it’s raining, or places where it’s hot or cold. Predict the weather in your unit
 using the maps and information given.

2.        Visit a Weather Station
 Visit a weather station, or interview a weather reporter or meteorologist about weather forecasting. Find out what kinds of equipment are used to watch and predict weather, why weather stations are useful, how the data about weather are interpreted, and how accurate weather predictions usually are. 

3.        Become a Cloud Watcher
 Pay special attention to clouds for a week. Find out what kinds of clouds you are watching and what kinds of weather usually go with them. Then, make a cloud chart by drawing pictures or gluing magazine photos of cloud types on a piece of paper. Label each type of cloud (such as cirrus, cumulus, nimbus, and stratus) and use your chart to help predict the weather for a week. How accurate were you?

4.        Build a Weather Instrument
 Find directions for building an instrument that helps you predict the weather, such as an hygrometer (measures changes in humidity), a barometer (see Junior Girl Scout Badge Book), an anemometer (measures wind speed), or an alcohol thermometer (measures temperatures). Then build it. 

5.        Weather Smarts
 Find out about weather-related emergencies that your community might face, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, flash floods, or lightning storms. Create a family plan for each emergency situation that could occur in your unit
. Include an emergency number to call for local or state weather reports. Then do one thing that will help your family be better prepared for a weather emergency.

6.        Weather Trends
 What’s all the talk about global warming, La Niña, El Niño, and holes in the ozone? Find out more about one of these major weather trends. How is it affecting the climate and quality of life in your part of the world? What, if anything, can you or your community do to learn to live with the changes in weather cycles?

7.        Weather Games
 Make a game about weather. You can make a card or board game, a word game, or an active game. Share this with others.

8.        Help Others Be Weather-Prepared
 Help to run a weather-safety booth at a community event. You can make posters or distribute safety tips for weather emergencies common to your unit
. At your booth, include some hands-on learning for kids.  OR  
 Help an older neighbor prepare a kit for use in a weather emergency. 

9.        Paper Spirals and Frontal Systems
 How do you make a paper spiral spin without blowing on it? Cut a spiral out of paper using the pattern on page 219 of the  Junior Girl Scout Badge Book.  Put a small hole through the center using a large needle. Tie a knot in a 6- to 8-inch-long piece of string and thread it through the hole. *Hold the spiral very still above a lamp. Be patient and wait a few minutes. What does the spiral do? Do you know why? A front has come through. When two air masses of different temperatures meet, the boundary between them is called a front. The colder air sinks and the warmer air rises. This movement often causes rainy weather storms.

10.     Make Your Own Weather
 With the help of an adult, try making your own rain cloud.

What You Need:

·         Very hot (but not boiling) water

·         A large piece of plastic wrap

·         Matches

·         Ice cubes

·         A clear liter plastic bottle cut down to be about 6 – 8 inches tall

What You Do:

1. Cut a piece of plastic wrap large enough to drape over the top of the bottle.

2. Put several pieces of ice on the plastic wrap and set it aside.

3. Fill the bottle 1/3 full with the hot water.

4. Light a match and throw it into the bottle.

5. Quickly place the plastic wrap with ice on top of the bottle.

6. Wait and watch to see a rain cloud appear.

What is the cloud that is formed? It isn’t smoke. It’s water droplets forming on the smoke particles. The water vapor rises from the hot water and when it gets to the cool air near the ice, the vapor cools and begins to sink, condensing into water droplets. This forms a cloud. Droplets that form on the underside of the plastic may become so heavy that they fall as rain.

Wildlife

 1.        Wildlife Symbol Party
         Every state in the USA has a state bird, flower, and tree to represent it. Which were chosen by your state? Why? Have a wildlife symbols “party” at which each person chooses an animal or plant that best represents her. Everybody then takes turns trying to figure out why the other person chose her symbol.

 2.        It’s All in the Details
        Field scientists often sketch, draw, or photograph the plants and animals they study. Try your hand at drawing or taking pictures of a plant or an animal you can easily observe. Use your pencil or camera to capture details, such as the shape of a flower, the color of a bird’s eye, or the design on a butterfly’s wing.

 3.        Creature Feature
        All birds have a beak, but the shape and size of it depends on what the bird eats. For each of the following, choose something from your kitchen or from a toolbox that best matches how each bird uses its beak as a tool to eat its food.

·         Hawk (tears meat)

·         Flamingo (strains water for tiny creatures)

·         Hummingbird (drinks nectar from long flowers)

·         Woodpecker (picks larvae hiding under tree bark)

·         Goldfinch (cracks seeds)

 4.        We Are Family
        Scientists group all organisms (living things) according to characteristics that they share. Pick two of the wildlife groups listed here and learn what characteristics all of its members share:  amphibians, birds, fish, insects, mammals, reptiles, plants.

 5.        Touch-Me-Not!
        Have you ever touched poison ivy or seen a scorpion use its stinger? If so, you know firsthand how plants and animals use poison to protect themselves or catch a meal. These poisons can hurt or even kill people. Learn to identify one or two poisonous plants or animals in your unit
. Where are you likely to run into them? What should you do if you touch, or a bitten by, one of them?

 6.        Staying Alive
        Find two animals or plants in your state or region that are considered endangered (in danger of dying out). Why are they endangered? What’s being done to protect them? Participate in a project that helps wildlife in your community.

7.        Take a Closer Look
 People use different tools to help them get a closer look at plants and animals. Use two of the following items to see a plant or animal up close:  binoculars, magnifying lens, microscope, spotting scope, zoom camera.

 8.        Animal Watcher
        Scientists and nature lovers use field markings (special patterns, marks, or shapes found on the animal’s body), behaviors, and the song or call of that animal to identify animals and birds. Use these three things to identify at least three kinds of birds or other animals in your neighborhood.

9.        Nature’s Remedies
Many medicines, home remedies, and beauty aids are made with plants. Find out the healthful properties of three of the following:  aloe, ginger, chamomile, peppermint, ginseng, hot pepper, garlic, coriander, foxglove, and chocolate. Ask a librarian, a pharmacist, or someone at a health food store, or go online if you need help.

 10.     How Was Your Day?
        Field biologists learn a lot about animals by observing them doing everyday things, such as eating. Pick a wild animal that you can easily observe in your backyard, a neighborhood park, a zoo, an aquarium, or a wildlife preserve. Watch the animal for a while to try to discover three of the following:  what it likes to eat, where it spends most of its time, how it gets around, how it keeps clean, how it communicates, and how it cares for its young.

Winter Sports

1.        Material Girl!
Winter fun can make you sweat! Which fabrics will keep you warm and dry? Try this experiment to find out  Take one wool sock and one cotton one. Soak them both in water and then wring out the water. Hang the socks to dry. After one hour, check on your socks. Which feels drier? Which sock would you rather wear in the cold? Got something made out of a wonder-wicking fabric? Repeat the experiment using that item, too.

 2.        Get Ready for Skiing or Snowboarding
        Prepare for skiing before you hit the trail or slopes! Learn about the difference between snowboarding and cross-country or downhill skiing. Learn how to clip into and out of bindings. Compare different types of equipment. Find out what works best for you. Learn at least two different exercises to help you get ready for using those ski and snowboarding muscles!

 3.        On the Slopes
        On the slopes, learn how to turn, stop, walk uphill on your skis, and recover from a fall. Learn how to safely and properly get on and off a ski lift. Learn how to get back into your bindings if your boots pop out. Don’t forget:  Warm up your muscles first so they are ready to ski. Remember – never ski alone.

 4.        Distance Traveling
        People have used cross-country skis, snowshoes, and sleds to travel long distances in snowy climates. Use a winter form of transportation to follow a marked trail or path. Learn how to use the equipment, including how to stop and start. Travel with a well-trained adult and winter survival gear.

 5.        In-Line Skating
        Downhill and cross-country skiers, speed skaters, figure skaters, and hockey players train all year round. You can, too. In-line skating uses and develops the same muscles used for winter sports! First, learn about in-line skating safety gear that is necessary to wear – helmets, wrist guards, kneepads, and elbow pads. Next, learn the basic skills of in-line skating (how to start, stop, turn, and most important, how to fall and get back up). Practice for at least one-half hour.

 6.        Don’t Forget Your Sled!
        Plan a sledding outing with a group. Learn what makes a good sled hill and what is involved in safe sledding, including what protective gear to wear. Find out about the different types of sleds available and which ones are the safest. Learn to steer, slow down, and stop.

 7.        First Aid for Cold
        Learn how to recognize the signs of wintertime health hazards, such as windburn, hypothermia, and frostbite. Learn what to do about each.

 8.        The Winter Olympics
        Visit the library or the unit

ed States Olympic Committee Web site www.usoc.org to find out about one of the following sports:

        ·         Bobsled

        ·         Curling

        ·         Luge

        ·         Speed skating

        ·         Ski jumping

        ·         Biathlon

 9.  Balance, Coordination, and Agility
        ·         Practice these moves on ice skates, or do them wearing in-line or roller skates on a smooth surface. Remember to wear protective gear and to skate with a buddy.

        ·         Glide while balancing on one foot. Alternate balancing on your right foot, then your left. See how far you can glide while balancing.

        ·         Skate backwards.

        ·         Cross over. Crossing one skate over the other lets you turn quickly. Start skating slowly. Pick up your right skate and take a giant step over and across your left skate.

        ·         Skate an obstacle course. Set up several cones or plastic soda bottles filled with sand. Skate around these as quickly as you can. Try crossing over or even skating on one foot.

 10.  Ice Hockey Anyone?
        If you are attracted to the ice, learn the basics of ice hockey and become a team player. Discuss the importance of playing fair. Learn why protective gear is so important. If possible, attend a women’s ice hockey game.

Women's Stories

http://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_central/insignia/online/junior/womens_stories.asp (click here for requirements)

1. Read all about it

2. Talk about

3. Display it

4. In your own family

5. Oral history

6. Creative control

7. A New Game

8. Moments in history

9. Women in the news

10. Women's issues

World in My Community

http://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_central/insignia/online/junior/world_in_my_community.asp (click here for requirements)

1. Map it out

2. What's in a name

3. Getting around

4. Celebrate

5. Let's dine out

6. Welcome wagon

7. Let's get together

8. Culture sleuth

World Neighbors 

1. Global Games

2. The Love of Language

• To count to ten
• To say "hello"
• To say "goodbye"
• To say "thank you"
• To say "you’re welcome"

3. Traditions

4. World Hunger

5. The World Next Door

6. Without a Home

7. There’s No Place Like Home

• What are the houses made of?
• How big or small are they?
• Why are they made the way they are?

8. It’s a Small World

9. Kids Helping Kids

10. Clothing All Over the World