IPP Requirements
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Last Update: 3-24-08

Each interest project contains numerous activities, which are organized into four different categories:
Skill Builders, Technology, Service Projects, and Career Exploration.
By doing these activities, you will gain insights about yourself - your strengths and weaknesses, your likes and dislikes.
You will have a range of new experiences, and you will develop  valuable skills and expertise in specific unit
s.
To earn an interest project award, you must complete at least seven activities as follows:

• Two Skill Builders activities

• One Technology activity

• One Service Project activity

• One Career Exploration activity

• Two activities from any category that you choose

OR NEW VERSION of earning IPP's:

• Do the one REQUIRED activity (or Sill Builder)
• Do ONE activity of your choice for each of the THREE categories (LEARN, DO, SHARE)
• Design and do ONE activity of YOUR OWN
• Create a short REFLECTION after you've completed all of the activities

NEW: IPP Breakdown Sheet
Look up individual items to see which steps it fulfills on a related IPP!

          Skill Builders

1. Observe leadership in action; visit meetings of at least two different groups, such as members of a city council working on a piece of legislation, or a group of volunteers developing plans for an event. Before your visit, talk to the group leader about the group's purpose and agenda. and out how the group seeks to accomplish its tasks and what role the leader will play. Ask the leader for her tips on running a meeting. Take notes, and make your own one-page tip sheet on how to run a meeting. Refer to it when you're a group leader.

2.  In a group meeting, observe how people interact. Who talks and why? Is there a person who helps move the group along or blocks progress? How does the setting (room, tables, lighting, etc) affect the group? How does the leader get everyone involved? Are goals stated clearly, and are they achieved? If so, how? If not, why not? Share your observations and conclusions with at least two people.

3.  What leadership skills do you bring to a group? What leadership skills do you need to add to your repertoire? For some ideas about leadership skills, read the relevant chapters in either the Cadette Girl Scout Handbook or A Resource Book for Senior Girl Scouts. Pick one of the skills that you want to develop and devise a plan that will help you become better at it. Follow your plan for at least one month.

4.  Read about leadership styles and figure out your dominant style. Ask other girls in you r troop or group to do the same. Discuss how all of you differ in the ways you lead and what things you have in common. Then, each girl role-plays leadership style different from her dominant one.

5.  Name and discuss two or three examples of "negative leadership,' such as political leaders who used their power in ways that were harmful or illegal. Come up with a group vision or checklist on how to recognize and prevent the destructive aspects of negative leadership.

Technology

1.  Presentation skills are important for public speakers and leaders. Have someone videotape you speaking in front of a group. With an adult, such as a teacher, professional coach or trainer, or public relations professional, analyze what worked and what could be improved based on the tape.

2.  Watch a variety of television shows and read newspapers and magazines to see how leaders are represented in the media. which people, besides politicians, are represented as leaders? What are some of the issues facing leaders? how do leaders deal with those issues? What kinds of ethical issues do leaders confront?

3.  Talk to two or three educators, business people, consultants, or other leaders about how changing technologies affect leadership. Does a telephone conference call require different leadership skills than an in-person meeting? Ask about video conferences or forum discussions on the Internet.

4.  Help organize an online forum to discuss an issue affecting older girls. Establish rules for the discussion to make sure all participants are made to feel welcome and have the opportunit

y to contribute.
      Or observe an online forum. How is leadership determined and consensus reached? Compare and contrast the dynamics of a cyberspace forum with a real-life forum.  What are the advantages and disadvantages of online leadership?

Service Projects

1.  Volunteer to help coordinate your school elections or participate in a planning committee for a school event. Or run for an office or take the lead on a project like managing the set design for your school play.

2.  Help to organize an ongoing service project, such as a communit

y literacy program highlighted by a yearly book fair. Create follow-up activities for the project, such as a weekly reading program using communit

y leaders, school tutoring programs matching older students with younger students, or a poster contest with the theme of reading.

3.  Identify a needed in your communit

y like recycling, building school spirit, preventing child abuse, ensuring accessibility for people with disabilities, or celebrating diversity. Recruit or join others to work together on a project that addresses the needed change through outreach posters and presentations, news items, a speakers' bureau, or other means.

4.  Organize a youth meeting through your school, religious communit

y, or Girl Scout organization to identify projects that can improve your communit

y as a whole. Plan your work by identifying general goals and specific action steps to accomplish them.

5.  Lead a group of younger girls by volunteering to be a coach for a sports team in your neighborhood. Younger girls look up to teenagers and you will have an opportunit

y to help girls have a happy, healthy sports experience.

Career Exploration

1.  Compile a multimedia leadership resource list. Go to a public library, bookstore, video store, school library, or your Girl scout Council office to look for books, newspaper and magazine articles, videotapes, and audiotapes to create your leadership bibliography. You might search the World Wide Web for resources as well. Organize your materials in categories, such as definitions of leadership, new trends in leadership, leadership skills, ethics in leadership, and issues for women in leadership. Share your resource list with others.

2.  List the careers that you are interested in pursuing and identify leadership skills that you will need to succeed in those fields. Talk with a teacher, academic adviser, or professional in one of those careers to learn about ways to develop and practice the needed skills. For example, practice listening to others or making speeches.

3.  Create a resume that highlights your leadership experience and the skills and qualities you posses.

4.  Start a club or after-school activity, such as a debating, drama, computer, or sports club. Enlist the aid of teachers or advisers.

5.  Get involved in the election process. Help arrange a candidate forum, issues night, or voter registration drive. (Be aware that you cannot campaign for a candidate or advocate partisan issues while representing Girl Scouts).

Lure of Language

          Skill Builders

1.  People who share common activities or professions, like sports, computer science, medicine, and the law often use specialized languages. Tennis, for example, uses terms like ace, love, and foot fault. Some terms may not be known to people outside these fields. Create a small dictionary of specialized words for a particular activity or profession and share them with your troop or group.

2.  Using a unabridged dictionary or encyclopedic dictionary, identify five of your favorite words and trace their origins. Ask your local librarian or language teacher for assistance.

3.   Become familiar with American Sign language. Learn a few simple phrases. Are there other ways deaf or hearing-impaired people communicate? If possible, attend a production for the deaf or hearing-impaired.

4.  Even people who speak the same language pronounce some words differently, have different accents, and use different dialects and colloquialisms: for example, "pop" for "soda". If you know someone from another region of the county, compare some familiar expressions. Have an English teacher recommend some American authors who successfully used dialects in their writing. Read at least two books or stories by one of these authors. Write down five of your favorite expressions from each book.

Technology

1.  Go online and surf the Internet. identify at least five new words being used in cyberspace. or learn how people from different countries can communicate with each other via computers and satellites. See if you can find an international pen pal.

2.  Using your computer, listen to a foreign language CD and learn some phrases.

3.  Explore how technology is used to help facilitate communication for people with disabilities': for example, software that uses voice controls for people who are unable to use a keyboard. Arrange to visit a school, clinic, or training site for people who have disabilities and speak to professionals about the latest advances in communications technology.

4.  Use visual aids in a presentation to trace the progression of writing implements from stone tablets to recyclable paper, quill pens to laptops.

Service Projects

1.  Learn the alphabet in American Sign Language and teach it to a group of younger girls.

2.  Experience the power of words. Develop a letter-writing project to cheer someone: a child in the hospital, someone in the armed services, or a resident of a nursing home.

3.  If you are fluent in a second language, try producing a one-act play in that language for children or senior citizens who understand that language.

4.  If you speak and write a second language, offer your translation services to someone.

5.  Thoughts and feelings can be conveyed not only through spoken or written words but through body language as well. using a series of movement exercises, work with younger girls and show them ways that feelings and moods can be expressed nonverbally.

Career Exploration

1.  A variety of disciplines follow the structure and development of languages. Contact a nearby college or university to investigate courses offered in the study of language.

2.  Interview one or two teachers of English as a second language (ESL). Ask them about their backgrounds, required training, and greatest challenges. Or investigate a local program offered by library or literacy group that helps immigrants learn English.

3.  Public speaking skills can translate to careers as trainer, translators, or broadcast journalists. Invite someone with experience in one of these unit
s to discuss the skills she uses on her job. For example, you might invite a journalist to show your troop or group the basics of "air copy" and then draft several stories for a radio show with her help. You could event perform the show before a live audience with one person serving as a translator for the hearing-impaired or for a second language.

4.  A speech therapist or speech pathologist works with individuals who have speech impairments (for example, stuttering), speech articulation problems (the sounds of letters and words), or language-processing problems (something is at the tip of your tongue and you can't remember it). Talk to a speech therapist or pathologist who works with children and, if possible, arrange to observe her in action. What props and activities does she use? Does she play speech games? What advice can she offer to a young person interested in this career?

Math, Maps, and More

          Skill Builders

1. Use your math skills to create a budget for something that you would like to do or own. You could plan a dream trip or create a savings plan to buy a new computer. Choose tools for the task, such as a calculator, price, lists, maps, or computer software. be sure to list all the costs involved. For example, if you are planning a trip, include all the costs of accommodations, food, and ground and air transportation.

2. Math is a vital part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Percentages of fat, protein, starch, and fiber in your daily diet change as your age, health, and activity levels change. Determine the total calorie intake for someone of your age, height, and activity level. Put together a menu for yourself, keeping in mind the need for balanced nutrition.

3. Many indicators of health and fitness require math computations. do a complete profile of yourself using numbers. For example, use math skills to determine resting, target, and recovery heart rates. Find your pulse and count how many times your heart beats in 10 seconds. Multiply that number by 6. this is your resting heart rate. Be very active for at least 15 minutes. Take your pulse and compare this rate with your resting heart rate. See how long it takes for your pulse to return to your resting heart rate. Other things to check are height, weight, blood pressure, and respiration.

4. Find out about the statistics used to determine how well a player and team in a particular sport are doing. local papers carry many statistics on a variety of teams. Select a team or single player to follow for a month. Determine how your team or player did. Try this with a friend who tracks another player or team. See whose team comes out on top.

5. Geographers and cartographers use math skills to make and read maps. Use symbols to create a key for buildings, parks, and other features of interest. Draw your map to scale: for example, 1 inch = 1 mile or 1 cm = 1 km.

Technology

1. Use graphs to illustrate an issue that you feel is important, such as U.S. Population shifts, acid rain patterns, or endangered species. show comparisons, changes over time, and your projections for the future. if possible, use a computer to organize the data to create graphs or charts and then analyze them.

2. Use online resources to search for and explore several math-related Web sites. Find out about at least three women mathematicians, or visit a news group to discover what's being discussed by people interested in math.

3. Learn to play a computer game that uses math skills. practice during several sessions to improve your sill level. For example, play a flight simulation game on a computer and try to get your plane safely to its destination without running out of fuel.

4. Technology is changing the field of medicine, and math plays an important part in the new advances in equipment and treatment. MRI and CAT scans are diagnostic techniques that can give a visual mapping of the body. Talk with a medical professional who can show you how MRI and CAT scan images are created and used to diagnose and treat diseases.

5. Learn how to read a thermometer, a barometer, a psychormeter, and an anemometer.

Service Projects

1. Create a math activity kit to use with children. You can write a weird and wacky math story or a detective story with math "clues". Or develop a math play focusing on one particular math concept such as factors, fractions, or percentages.

2. Host a Girl Scouts' Game Night. Use Games for Girl Scouts to find math-based games or collect board games from your friends and neighbors. Make sure they are age-appropriate! You may also want to consider creating your own board game. You will need to devise not only the board and the pieces, but also a method of scoring.

3. Volunteer to help collect data that could be used to assist an organization. You could do program surveys for your Girl Scout council or you might do something like assist the National Audubon Society with a bird count or help a local environmental group monitor water quality.

4. Volunteer to be a treasurer for an organization and keep records in a ledger for a period of at least three months.

5. Help younger girls develop arithmetic skills by using simple computer math games.

Career Exploration

1. With two friends, create a list of eight "traditional" math careers like accountant, engineer, or statistician. Talk with adults and add another 10 careers which, while not math-based, rely heavily on mathematical skills. Then find out which of these 18 fields are "very easy entry" (high school education only is needed) and which are "delayed entry" (graduate school and internships are required).

2. What does math have to do with being a chef or restaurant owner? Find out by creating and running your own restaurant for a day. Select three dishes to feature on your menu and then estimate how many of your customers will wish to order each dish. Calculate how much of each ingredient you will have to purchase to provide each dish for your customers. Compute how much money you will have to spend to purchase these ingredients and what you will need to charge to make a profit. Figure out what profit you made (if any). What changes would you make for the next day? Or interview a restaurant owner, a caterer, or the banquet manager of a hotel. Ask questions such as how forecasts are made, how quantities are controlled, and how inventories are kept.

3. Use online resources, personal interviews, or the  resources a career education center to investigate college programs in mathematics. Determine which programs are best for under-graduate and graduate studies.

4. Imagine that you have your own small business. how would you need to use your math skills? Come up with a product or service you can provide and sell. How much capital is required to order supplies and equipment to start your business? List these start-up costs. Estimate your total number of customers. How much will you charge? Why?

5. For a week, keep a log of all the people you interact with who use math in their work. What types of math skills do they need?

Media Savvy

         Skill Builders

1. Watch or listen to a variety of promotional ads ("promos") for television shows or movies. Compare three promos with the actual movie or telecast. Note how the upcoming stories are presented. When you watch the actual show, determine whether the presentation matches what you were led to expect from the promo. If not, why do you think there's a difference? Prepare more accurate promo for  a show you felt had a misleading promo.

2. Research a trend in today's society and prepare a 5-10 minute video presentation by taping portions of shows and commercials to illustrate the trend you have chosen. Show your video to your troop or group, or you family. Follow this with a discussion addressing concerns about this trend.

3. Look at a variety of ads, movies, or TV shows with characters who reflect the diversity of American society. Are the characters well portrayed, or are the writers relying on stereotypes? Analyze how screenwriter depict one type of character, such as teenage girls. Note how they are portrayed in at least four different shows or ads.

4. How do movies, videos, situations comedies, docudramas, infomercials, talk shows, and news shows differ from one another? Create a graphic way to illustrate the similarities and differences among them.

5. Make a collection of ads designed to appeal to teenage girls. Get samples of print ads and record or write brief notes on them for TV or radio. What kinds of products are marketed? Identify those ads that you find appealing or unappealing. Why?

Technology

1. Innovations in cameras have had  a great impact on what is seen on TV, in movies, and in videos. Do one or more of the following:

• View an actual video production and note the number, placement, and types of cameras used.

• Make your own video, using cinematographic techniques.

• View at least three different types of shows: For example: live sports event, a prime-time action show, or an infomercial. Compare camera techniques for each show.

2. with the advent of the Internet, the explosive growth of cable television stations, and other changes, how do you envision the future of television, radio, newspapers, and magazines? Pick two of these media and share your vision with your troop or group, or with friends.

3. Critique several popular computer games. Survey at least five friends to find out what games they like and why. Select a game that you would revise and describe how you would do it. Or design your own video game.

Service Projects

1. Hold a panel discussion that focuses on the effects of television violence on children. Invite teachers, psychologists, communit

y leaders, and social works to speak. Encourage audience participation.

2. How have music videos influenced television and movie production? Tape segments from a variety of shows to illustrate this influence. Present your findings to your troop or group, or to your family.

3. Organize a video and audio library for a school, hospital, or hospice. Or arrange a collection for children in need. Make assure the resources are appropriate, in usable condition, and labeled well.

4. Do a review of television programming that is on at the prime viewing time for young children: early morning, early evening, and weekend mornings. Compile a viewing guide with recommendations about the acceptability of the programs, and why. You might work with a parents' group like the PTA to make a guide available.

5. Develop a project that would help vision-or hearing-impaired individuals. For example, volunteer at your local TV station to be trained in using closed-captioned technology or assist in putting books on tape.

6. Create a safety video to be viewed by children. Choose a topic such as bicycle safety, staying at home alone, or first aid, and make sure information adheres to Safety-Wise standards.

Career Exploration

1. Look at the masthead of your favorite magazine or newspaper, and identify five different media careers to explore. Find out more about at least one of these careers by contacting a professional and interviewing her.

2. Arrange to observer a video shoot, photo shoot, edit sessions, or the studio taping of a television show. Note all the different jobs on the site involving, for example, lighting and sound, computer graphics, or film or print editing. Which of these fields look interesting? Find out more about the field and what is required for a career in it.

3. Volunteer to be a media critic for a local or school newspaper. Focus on movies and on TV and radio shows that target a teenage audience.

4. Become media savvy. Find out more about how the public relations and communications industries use television to get across their messages. Share this information with others.

4. Visit or learn about the exhibits at Juliette Gordon Low Girl Scout National Center in Savannah, Georgia or GSUSA’s National Historic Preservation Center. If possible, visit a historical exhibit at your council.

5.  Build a model or draw a blueprint of a site such as a medieval castle, modern skyscraper, sports arena, or a neighborhood. Describe your model in writing on an exhibit card.

7. Design clothing for a special occasion, such as a bridesmaid's gown for a wedding. You might want to collaborate with seamstress or dressmaker.

Technology

1. Visit at least three American (including the Smithsonian) and three foreign museums online. Visit at least three virtual museums online, keep a log of you see, and compare your experience to an actual trip. Develop an online tour for family members or friends based on her interests.

2. Museums house priceless and irreplaceable collections of all kinds – from dinosaur bones to manuscripts from ancient times. Discover the high-tech security methods museums use to protect their collections from vandalism or theft.

3.  If moon rocks were exposed to the air they would rust. If medieval tapestries were placed in direct sunshine they would fade. Find out about the special lighting temperature, and humidity systems that museums use to exhibit rare and delicate objects.

4. Visit a local museum and check if it is accessible to people with disabilities. What technologies are used to aid people with disabilities to visit museums? After your visit, make a list of recommendations on how you would improve the facilities.

5. Find out how audiovisual materials such as videotapes, music cassettes, films, slides, and photographs are preserved.

Service Projects

1.  Develop or facilitate and activity for younger Girl Scouts at a local museum. For example, you might arrange a sleepover at a historical site or a science museum.

2. Create a small exhibit on something you feel strongly about. Arrange to show or share this exhibit in your local Girl Scout Council, house of worship, or school. Topics might include women in arts, women’s inventions, history of your favorite music or dance, fashion, a conservation issue or civil liberties.

3. Form a museum association for people your own age and explore ways to provide service to a local museum, historical society, nature museum, library, historical society, nature museum, zoo, or botanical garden as aides, docents, or museum interpreters. Or participate in as existing volunteer program. Evaluate your training and experience.

4. Develop a directory of local and regional resources for your council or Service Area


, include museums, historical societies, archeological sites, botanical gardens, zoos, arboretums, libraries, or exhibits. Make sure to include features (elevators, audio tours, Braille guides, etc.) that make each site accessible to a broad audience. Suggest how these places could provide educational experiences for Girl Scouts.

Career Exploration

1. Find out about three careers that are museum-based, such as conservator, exhibit preparer, curator, educator, librarian, graphic artist, researcher, public relations, or communications staff, fund-raiser, or editor of a museum publication. Find out what educational preparation and training are required for these positions.

2. Identify two museum studies programs at colleges or universities. Find out if these programs might enable you to work in a specific kind of museum; for example, a museum devoted to art history, science education, American history or zoology.

3.  For one day shadow a person in a museum related career. It there is no museum in your unit
, check to see if there is a museum outreach program that comes to your communit

y, a nature center, zoo, botanical garden, or other facility. Or shadow someone who contracts with a museum, such as an exhibit maker, story teller, or artisan. What kinds of skills does the person practice on her job?

4. Learn about maintaining exhibits at living museums such as zoos, aquariums, and botanical gardens. Request a behind the scenes tour and ask questions about training and experience in this field.

5. Work as an intern or aide in a museum.

On a High Note

          Skill Builders

1. Take a poll in your class or Girl Scout troop or group of the most popular types of music. Plan a musical program that includes music from the top three or four musical categories. Present the program at a special assembly, to commemorate an event in your communit

y, or as part of a Girl Scout program activity.

2. Karaoke singing ahs become very popular in many communit

ies around the world. Karaoke machines make it possible for people to sing along with the instrumental music of popular songs, Many places offer this activity as entertainment. Arrange for a karaoke party for your Girl Scout troop or group. With enough practice, your group could put on a show!

3. Investigate the roles of music in your own and another culture. Is it a part of celebrations? What instruments are used? Compare the two cultures and create a visual and/or audio presentation. Share it with others.

4. Music has long been a part of religions around the world. Listen carefully to the music in your place of worship. Then visit other places of worship or discuss with friends form other faiths how their religious music is similar to or different from your own.

5. Opera has a very long and rich history. From your school or local library, borrow and listen to tapes of operas in three languages different than your own. Share one of your selections with your family, friends, or other Girl Scouts.

6. Attend at least three different types of musical performances or concerts. Keep a journal. Note, for example, the selection and quality of music played and its high points. Included sketches of the musicians and their instruments. Using your journal notes, put on your critic's cap, and write an article about one of the performances for a school or Girl Scout publication.

Technology

1. Computers are now a part of the world of music. Visit a music store to find out what instruments rely on computer technology to make sounds. If you can, use software for composing music electronically.

2. Visit a museum that displays musical instruments. What changes have taken place in the equipment? Create a scrapbook of pictures of old and new products in the musical field.

3. Go online and explore the various "music" rooms and information available on the World Wide Web. Chat on the Internet with other teens about your own musical interests and favorite artists.

4. Learn about advances in music-recording technology. Compare the same song recorded several decades ago with one recorded recently.

Service Projects

1. Put on a signing show at a local nursing home. you can invite the audience to sing along.

2. Most of you are probably familiar with the instruments in school bands and orchestras, but do you know about other instruments, including handmade ones, used around the world? Work with a group of younger girls to create their own world band, using both handmade and school-band instruments.

3. Background music is an integral part of films and other entertainment involving visual images. Listen to a few musical scores from movies or television shows. Then create your own original background music score. Tape the misc or play it 'live" to enhance a slide presentation, puppet show, story-telling, or poetry reading.

4. Learn song-leading techniques. or help to create a Girl Scout chorus or band with a group of younger girls. Select musical pieces appropriate to the age of the girls. Practice over the course of several weeks and put on a concert for the parents and friends of the girls.

Career Exploration

1. There are many careers in music that you can explore: for example, composer, lyricist, promoter, recording or performing artist, sound technician, and musicologist. Visit a music school or a music department at a college or university, an opera house or a theater, a music store or a recording studio. Talk to people you meet and find out how they got started in the field of music.

2. Music can involve setting poetry to a tune. Get together with a partner and put your words to her music or vice versa. Or set to music one of the poems from either the Cadette Girl Scout Handbook or A Resource Book for Senior Girl Scouts.

3. Practice being a radio or live disc jockey and create a half-hour musical program. Select the music and write or record your introductions to the songs. Included commercials or public service announcements in your programming. you might want to put on your show for a local children's hospital or communit

y center.

4. Learn some basic conducting techniques form your music teacher or another music professional, or by watching instructional videos. For practice, you can conduct while playing some of your favorite music. Shadow your school's band or orchestra leader to improve your conducting techniques.

5. It is said that music can have a healing effect on someone who is ill. What does a misc therapist do? Arrange to shadow or interview someone in such a career. Ask her about the challenges and rewards of her profession.

6. Play the role of a music critic and review a performance for a school or local newspaper or for a class.

On The Court

          Skill Builders
* This skill-builder is required before doing any of the other activities! *

*1. Before you start playing any sport, you should warm up and stretch the muscles you will be using. Although your physical education teacher, coach, or athletic trainer will be able to show you the best warm-ups for specific muscle groups, generally start by slowly stretching the muscles you'll be using for a minimum of 15 seconds. repeat the stretch and hold for another 15 seconds. In addition, several minutes of low-intensity aerobic activity (running, skipping, walking, jogging, biking, etc) will also warm the muscles.

2. With the help of a knowledgably person, learn the basic rules for basketball. What is a foul? What is a foul shot? what does a "double dribble" mean? What are the three basic positions? Then learn three basic skills: dribbling, passing, and shooting. Be able to travel half the court while "holding" your dribble; complete a pass to another player, and make a basket from the foul line.

3. Get on the tennis court with a friend or coach. Learn how to serve the ball and how to hit forehand and backhand strokes. See if you can maintain a rally for five exchanges. learn the rules of the game, how to score, and the meaning of such calls as "net", "out",  and "fault".

4. Working with someone who is knowledgeable about volleyball, learn about he different positions, such as "hitter" and "setter". Understand how player rotation works. Learn how the game is scored, the difference between a "point" and a "side-out" as well as the basic strategy of "bump, set, spike". Be able to serve the ball (either underhand or overhand), set a ball, and hit a ball over the net, either by bumping or spiking it.

5. Become better at one particular sport. Keep a record of your progress over a three-week period. with the help of a coach, teacher, or knowledgeable adult, develop a pogrom that concentrates on basketball, volleyball, or tennis skills while increasing your overall fitness level.

6. Learn more about the skills needed to be the official or referee who enforce the rules. Watch two or three games in a sport of your choice. Make a list of the major rules the officials must monitor during a game, like "traveling" or "foot faults". If possible, record part of the game and review the official rulings in two or three cases. Do you agree or disagree with each ruling? Why?

Technology

1. How has equipment for court sports changed over the years? Choose one piece of equipment and chart is evolution, focusing on both the design and materials used. What do you predict will happen to sports equipment in the future?

2. Sports medicine and rehabilitative therapy training equipment have improved the ability of athletes to perform at their maximum levels. Follow the treatment of one athlete through the news (television, newspaper, radio) as she recovers during a season. Keep notes on the medical terminology and processes she undergoes, as well as the rehabilitative treatments she receives.

3. Choose one sport and determine how equipment ahs been adapted for athletes with disabilities, depending on their specific needs. Were changes made in the rules of the sport? Why?

4. do a survey to determine which court sports, at which level, get the most media coverage. Keep track of both women's and men's teams, on both the college and professional levels. Also include in your survey the types of media coverage. How have the media affected the playing of a particular sport, players' rights, and salaries?

Service Projects

1.Develop a resource list of sports programs for girls or women in your communit

y. Contac schools , parents or guardians, youth-serving organizations (such as Girl Scouts), or a communit

y recreation agency. you might also check the sports section form the local newspaper for information.

2. Find out which colleges and universities offer sports scholarships for women. Investigate four colleges that would be of interest to you and find out if they offer athletic scholarships and in what sports. Or select a sport in which you excel and find at least six colleges and universities that offer that sport and have scholarships available.

3. Volunteer at a sports clinic for girls in your communit

y or work with a group of younger Girl Scouts to help them develop sport skills.

4. Work with either a teacher or organization leader to develop a sporting event for girls. For more details in setting up a tournament, read pages 119-121 in the Cadette Girl Scout Handbook.

5. Volunteer in a sports grogram that helps children with disabilities. While developing the activities, find out about the challenges that these children face. Follow through with your work to help the children complete an event.

6. Compile information about Title IX. Research how it has affected the sport of basketball, volleyball, or tennis for women. Interview at least three women of different ages about their opinions and experiences with Title IX and sports. Make the information available to others.

Career Exploration

1.  Invite a professional female athlete to give a talk or demonstration at your school or to your team. Publicize the event in a variety of ways - fliers, radio spots, etc.

2. With a group of friends, watch a movie about the life of an athlete or coach. Discuss what was inspiring about this individual.

3. Shadow a coach at either the high school or college level. Spend at least one day with the coach and have her describe her profession, participation in the sport, and future plans.

4. Learn about sports photography as a career. Contact a communit

y newspaper to locate a sports photographer. Find out pertinent information from this photographer and then spend some time with her. Take notes on her work and experiences.

5. Observe a sports announcer. What does she do? How does her sports-casting affect your understanding and enjoyment of the game? Investigate the field of sports casting by finding out about eh experience and education of three different announcers.

6. Write an article for your school or communit

y paper focusing on girls' or women's teams. Observe both the game (or series of games) and spectators. Interview the players, coaches, and family members to obtain quotes to use in your article. Don't forget to include statistics as well as human interest!

On The Playing Field

          Skill Builders

1. Read pages 127-129 of A Resource Book for Senior Girl Scouts and take note of the sports safety tips, or get some background information on different sports by referring to pages 117-124 of the Cadette Girl Scout Handbook. Set up a one-month schedule to reach a sports-related goal and follow it.

2. Enroll in a sports clinic offered in your communit

y or school.

3. Become an expert. Learn the rules, basic skills, and strategies of a specific sport.

4. Create a scrapbook or poster devoted to the accomplishments of female athletes all over the world. Scan the sports section of newspapers, sports magazines, and other journals for articles and pictures to use in your project.

5. With the help of a coach, physical education teacher, or medical professional, develop a conditioning program designed to improve y9our level of fitness or to prepare you for participation in a specific sport. Understand the reasons for including each activity in the conditioning program. Decide on a period of time to carry out your program. Compare your level of fitness before, during, and after participation in this conditioning program.

6. Teach a friend a sports skill at which you are particularly proficient. you might show someone how to throw a softball correctly, or spend some time reviewing the rules or strategies of volleyball or field hockey with someone who is unfamiliar with the details of the game.

Technology

1. There are a huge number of sports-oriented computer and video games. Most of these products, however, concentrate on men's sports and male athletes. Being as creative as you can be, develop on paper or on a computer, if possible, an idea for a game that features female athletes. Think about the objectives and rules of your game.

2. From batting cages to rowing machines, all sports have highly technical equipment to help athletes hone their skills. Choose one sport and brainstorm a list of the various kinds of equipment that athletes might use. Try to test out at least one piece of equipment.

3. Technology helps physical therapists and athletic trainers reduce injuries among athlete or recover from injuries. Arrange to interview a physical therapist or athletic trainer. Have her show what new advances have improved the type of medical care that can be given and for what types of injuries they are used.

4. Get online to help girls who are interested in sports to learn about opportunit

ies that exist in your communit

y. You can create a directory of sports programs and teams open to young women. Try to include school sports, including intramural teams, communit

y recreation programs, and Girl Scout sports programs.

5. Sports photography is a field that requires professionals to have in-depth knowledge of specialized equipment. Go to a camera store and ask the employees what types of film, lenses, cameras, filters, tripods, etc, are used by the experts. If possible, take a series of pictures using some of the special equipment and techniques you learn about. You may be able to borrow a camera and other equipment form your high school newspaper, your council, or maybe from your religious or communit

y center.

Service Projects

1. Volunteer to take photographs of a Girl Scout sports event to help publicize the project in the communit

y.

2. Together with other Girl Scouts and members of the communit

y, clean up a park or a vacant lot and establish afield where sports like soccer, softball, field hockey, or ultimate frisbee might be played.

3. Be a referee in a league for younger children who play a sport you know about or for which you can receive training as a referee or coach. make sure you know all the rules and be fair in calling the game.

4. Volunteer to coach a team of younger children. Help them to develop the skills and attitudes necessary to be successful athletes. Read about the benefits of playing team sports on pages 118-119 of Cadette Girl Scout Handbook and find out more about how sports can affect your outlook on life on pages 128-129 of A Resource Book for Senior Girl Scouts.

5. Collect sports equipment to distribute to individuals who are unable to purchase their won. you may want to establish a loan system or you may want to give the donated equipment away permanently.

Career Exploration

1. Watch a professional sporting event on televisions and make a list of at least five careers associated with that game other than "professional athlete". Share this list with other members of your troop or group.

2. Create a sports networking list. Start by brainstorming all the people you know who are involved in sorts-related careers and to whom you feel you could talk. Call at least two of these people and conduct an "informational interview." Ask them questions about their profession, their educational background, what a routine day is like, etc. At the conclusion of each interview, ask if the person knows someone else to whom you might speak. you might want to speak to these people when you are seeking a summer job or an internship.

3. Most organized sports have professional associations that monitor the manner in which the games are played. Using the Encyclopedia of Associations, find the name and address of an association for the sport that most interests you. Either by writing or calling, find out what prospects women have for careers in the sport. Ask the association what other careers might be related to that sport.

4. Read the biography or autobiography of two female athletes on professional teams. Try to determine if their fields interest you. Are professional sports as glamorous as they might appear in the media? Do women receive a fair amount of recognition for their accomplishments? After reading, host a discussion in your troop or group on these topics.

Once Upon a Story

           Skill Builders

1. Read at least two novels or short story collections. Study the mechanics of plot and characterization and note the author's style. keep a file or box of ideas, pictures, quotes, words, phrases, lyrics, or slogans you come across that you like. Add to it at least once a week for a month.

2. Write a science fiction story projecting what life would be like in the future. Create your own world with its own set of rules and unique characters. For example, imagine being on the planet Zan in the next galaxy during the year A.D. 3000. What conflicts would the main characters have to face there?

3. Write  a historically based fiction story. To do so, you first have to learn about the time in history you plan to cover in your setting. Who were the famous people? What were the important events and politics of that time? What was daily life like for the average citizen? Most writers of historical fiction use real people and events to some degree in their stories, even though their plot is fictionalized.

4. If poetry is what you enjoy, learn three different poetic styles, and write at least three poems in any style you like: light verse, haiku, free verse, ballad, blank verse, sonnet, limerick. Identify instances of literary devices in your writing such as alliteration, assonance, consonance, simile, metaphor, personification.

5. Write a play, You can be serious or humorous, melodramatic or lighthearted. Formulate a premise or conflict on which to base the action of the play. What lesson will the main character learn? How will she learn it? What secondary characters will support or attack your main character? Remember, a play depends largely on dialogue, so write it carefully. Dialogue will direct the "rise and fall," the movement, of your play to conclusion. Or create a drama by adapting a children's story.

Technology

1. All writers have their favorite tools. Some like to write with pencils on legal pads, some prefer fountain pens and unlined journals, while others need a computer keyboard to compose and organize their thoughts. Try three or four different techniques. you might find that one type of writing works best in one medium, while another requires some other tool Explain to someone what tools work best for you, and why.

2. There are lots of different writing editing, and publishing software programs available for the professional and amateur write. Look through catalogs, talk with both users and salespeople, and compare three different software programs. If possible, try out a couple of programs for yourself, by "demo-ing" them at a store or by running programs at school or at a friend's house. Which ones have the best editing options? Which would best fit your needs and budget?

3. Watch at least one TV show a night for a week, and take notes as you view any special video effects. For instance, how do the TV production people work with the TV scriptwriter to show  a scene in a hospital emergency room or in a burning building? How could you find this out? In your club or troop or group, write the first scene of a TV program similar to one you studied.

4. Use a word processing program to write a fiction story. It may be on the topic of your choice. After you have completed the story, use computer clip art to illustrate your work.

Service Projects

1. Perform a play for an audience of your choice. The play can be an original play or a published play that you adapt to suit your needs. It can be performed for younger Girl Scouts, at a neighborhood gathering, or elsewhere.

2. Tutor a younger student in writing skills. Work with her or him once a week for at least a month. Help your student to write a book, complete with pictures, on  atopic of special interest. It can be as short as eight pages.

3. Collect material about writing classes, workshops, or seminars in your communit

y. Enlist the aid of your librarian, a teacher, or troop or group leader. Organize and share this information with at least three budding writers you know.

4. Write a humorous story, essay, or play based on a real-life experience. Think of some humorous incidents from your own life. Sometimes the use of exaggeration or something silly can make for humorous stories. Can you think back to a funny incident in your own life? Write it or tell it to group of children in a hospital, day-care setting, etc.

Career Exploration

1. Attend a writer's conference or workshop.

2. Interview a writer. Talk about the full-time or part-time jobs she holds as well as the type of writing she does. How does she manage her time? What are the advantages and disadvantages of her work?

3. Find out from a write about jobs in teaching, editing, or other related unit
s. Ask her how these jobs can sharpen her writing skills or inspire story ideas.

4. Which jobs in publishing or entertainment employ strong writing skills? Consult any number of occupational handbooks in your library or review the resource list at the end of the Interest Projects book.

5. Watch or read interviews with fiction writers. What are their sources of inspiration? Strategies for staying motivated?

Orienteering

          Skill Builders

1. Obtain a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) topographical map or an orienteering map. Show that you can identify and explain the map symbols for water, vegetation, human-constructed features, and contour features. Be able to explain what is meant by a contour interval and why it is important. Learn how to use the map scale and practice determining the actual distance between points on a map. Draw a map of your neighborhood, schoolyard, communit

y park, or Girl Scout camp. Be sure to include the scale and legend.

2. Be able to identify each of the basic parts of a protractor compass. Learn to take a compass bearing from a map using a base-plate protractor compass. Be able to demonstrate your skill at taking a bearing from a map and then walking to your destination.

3. Using a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) topographical map of your communit

y, learn how to orient the map to magnetic north. Fold the map so you can focus on the unit
where you are located. Practice the orienteering skill of "thumbing the map" by marking your place on the map with your thumb as you go for a walk around the neighborhood. Maintain contact with the map with your thumb t all times while keeping the map oriented.

4. Learn to select the proper clothing and footwear to participate in an orienteering meet. Consider the time of year, the terrain, and the distance of the course. Learn to dress appropriately to protect yourself from ticks, poisonous plants, and snakes. Know what to do if you become lost. Be able to explain the meaning and importance of a safety bearing. Show that you can follow a safety bearing to a road or major trail.

5. Apply your knowledge. Take part in a local orienteering meet. Complete a white (beginner) or yellow (advanced beginner) level course. After the meet, compare your route choices with others. Discuss what you did well and what you might have done differently.

Technology

1. Use a computer graphics program or a CAD (computer aided design) program to create a map of your neighborhood, school-yard, or local park. Be sure to include the scale and legend.

2. Explore the internet for topics related to maps, compasses, and orienteering. Subject unit
s you might investigate include orienteering, backcountry, hiking, maps, weather, U.S. Geological Survey, and geography. Find several bulletin boards that post messages about orienteering. Talk to others interested in orienteering through online chat sessions.

3. Find out how a compass is constructed and the different features to consider when purchasing a compass. Learn how designers of compasses use computer technology to create their products.

4. Learn about eh U.S. Geological Survey National Mapping Program. What resources are available and what tools are used? Information is available online or through he U.S. Geological Survey and the Department of Interior.

5. Find out how a Global Positioning System (GPS) works. What types of recreational activities and professions might utilize a GPS device and in what ways?

Service Projects

1. Prepare an orienteering map of one acre or more for a Girl Scout camp, local park, or schoolyard. Field-check features for accuracy; include a legend, a scale, and contour intervals.

2. Work with an orienteering club to organize an orienteering meet in your communit

y. You can also organize a meet on your own by consulting printed resources. find out the duties of the meet director, registrar, course setter, and persons in charge of the start and finish. Practice being a course setter. Use an orienteering map and set out 5-10 controls for a white (beginner) course.

3. Contact your local orienteering club or the U.S. Orienteering Federation to find out about string orienteering, a program for young children. Set up a string orienteering course for Daisy or Brownie Girl Scouts.

4. Organize an orienteering meet or workshop for Girl Scouts in your neighborhood or council. If possible, ask volunteers from an orienteering club to help you. Provide instruction for the participants in the use of a map and compass. Make an orienteering map available, recruit assistants, design a course, set the controls, and plan an awards ceremony.

Career Exploration

1. Learn about people who use maps or orienteering skills in their jobs. Make a list of careers that involve the significant use of a map and compass. Interview two people with such careers in person, by telephone, by fax, or by e-mail. Find out about educational requirements and employment opportunit

ies.

2. The ability to use a map and compass accurately is an important skill for someone who leads sea kayaking, backpacking, or other high adventure trips. Discuss career possibilities with outfitters or trip leaders. What other skills and educational requirements are required to do these jobs?

4. Be the route finder on a wilderness trip with your troop or group.

Outdoor Survival

Skill Builders

1.         Read books or view videos about survival experiences and adventures involving physical and mental endurance. Talk about ways to deal with hunger, thirst, pain, and panic in crisis situations. Discuss the importance of the determinations to survive. Agree on way to make decisions, such as when to turn back, to stay put, or to change plans.

2.        When traveling outdoors, know how and where to report an accident and how to get help. Have a local search-and-rescue group (for example, county sheriff’s office, Civil Air Patrol, ski patrol, Coast Guard, or park security force) provide you with information on signaling methods and symbols, using flares and other devices, and locating help in an emergency. Create a “lost plan” for a group going on an outing. Include emergency numbers and contacts and what each person’s role should be in an emergency. Review appropriate activity checkpoints and “Planning Trips with Girl Scouts”, pages 126-140 in Safety-Wise, if applicable.

3.        Take a course with special emphasis on outdoor survival techniques. Put together your own essentials to meet the need for shelter, water, warmth, energy, and signaling to carry in your daypack, backpack, or vehicle.

4.        Evaluate what shelter sites and materials can be used most effectively to protect you from wind, cold, heat, lightning, or falling objects. If it is environmentally sound and permission is given, construct a shelter using fallen branches, other found materials, or the natural features of a site; for example, construct a snow cave for winter survival or storm-lash a backpacking tent. Or create an exhibit of small-scale models of improvised shelters.

5.        Water is a priority for survival along with air and shelter. Learn two methods of water purification – for example, boiling water, using special chemicals or filters that eliminate Giardia lamblia (water-borne parasites). Learn how to construct and use a simple solar still in the ground to extract water, and above-ground to turn sea water into fresh water. Practice ways to avoid hypothermia. Refer to Outdoor Education in Girl Scouting, pages 36-37.

Technology

1.         How do you find out about weather conditions prior to departing on a trip? Use two different technologies to access information about weather.

2.        Compare the properties of cotton, wool, and synthetic fabrics for protection from wet, cold, and heat. Interview someone at a store specializing in outdoor equipment for recommendations and, if possible, test different fabrics yourself for warmth and wicking (water traveling by capillary action in fabric) when wet. How does “down” compare with other materials?” How does a “space blanket” work? When might it be needed in a survival situation?”

3.        Become confident with a compass. Use a compass to orient a map, to navigate accurately around obstacles, and to back sight to return to your original location. Go on an orienteering course or travel from one point to another cross-country to test your compass skills. Demonstrate two methods to find direction without a compass. Discuss how conditions, such as fog, a sandstorm, or a snow white-out, would complicate directions-finding and what you should do in case of each of those conditions.

4.        Know when, where, and how to start a campfire for warming, drying, lighting, cooking, and signaling. Know when and where fires should not be used. Specifically, learn how to: light a fire (find two methods) without using a match; light and maintain a fire under difficult conditions such as on a wet day or in a deep snow; produce a fire without wood fuel; make a fire starter for your survival kit; extinguish fires safely, leaving no trace; and use a backpacking stove to heat water.

5.        Consider the safety of staying in a car in a snowstorm, severe lightning storm, or dessert survival situation. Assume that you and another person are stranded in a car. Describe how different parts of the car might be used to ensure survival. Investigate safety precautions (for instance, with a car’s heating system).

Service Projects

1.         At a school, campground, or camp, plan and present “what to do if you become lost” program or skit for younger children. Include discussions on how to handle panic; simple equipment to carry (such as a whistle) on outings, dressing for any weather; encountering animals; and what to do if separated from a group. Discuss occurrences common to your unit
, such as flash floods, extreme weather conditions, or city safety.

2.        Plan and facilitate an outdoor skills game that promotes learning about survival skills for peers or a Junior Girl Scout troop or group.

3.        Using the first-aid skills and survival training you already have, plus any special training needed, volunteers your services. Work with a search-and-rescue group, ski patrol, or other emergency rescue group in your communit

y. Participate in an actual search or disaster drill.

4.        Develop a survival board game, poster, video, or outdoor game that highlights outdoor safety and survival tips for your council’s resident campsite, program center, or library, or for use in a local elementary school.

Career Exploration

1.         Interview someone professionally involved in outdoor survival or search and rescue. This person could be a wilderness guide or instructor, member of a sheriff’s patrol or search-and-rescue team leader, U.S. Coast Guard member, ski patrol coordinator, wilderness ranger, search-and-rescue dog trainer, or mountain rescue paramedic. Find out what training and certification they have for their jobs, and what career paths they would recommend.

2.        Tour an outdoor goods store or company that manufactures outdoor gear. Find out about jobs in retail, equipment/clothing design, or manufacturing, that relate to outdoor gear. Learn how equipment is designed and tested to enhance safety.

3.        Relate how you might incorporate your interests in survival with a different career path (such as teaching, research, writing, business, medicine, or law) and talk to someone with this experience.

4.        Host a panel discussion on a survival topic, such as disaster preparedness, hypothermia, or a local concern.

Paddle Pole & Roll

          Skill Builders
          ** Activities #1 & #2 are required before doing the other activities in this section. **

1. In the presence of a certified lifeguard or instructor, demonstrate your ability to go under and back up to the surface of the water confidently and your comfort level in the water while wearing a PFD. Or pass an American Red Cross swim test.

2. Show an instructor that you can handle a canoe or kayak. Demonstrate that you can:

• Balance your craft and get in it safely

• Start, stop, dock, and beach your craft

• Go straight for 50 yards

• Go backward for 50 yards

• Go sideways for 50 yards

• Make a left turn, a right turn, and a 360° turn

• Swamp your canoe and paddle back to shore

• Lift your craft over your head safely for portaging

3. Demonstrate with proficiency for your instructor the following strokes:

• Stroke

• Sweep stroke

• Feather stroke

• Reach and pull

• Rudder

• Forward paddle

• Double-blade paddle

• Single-person paddling

• Double-person paddling

4. Write the maintenance and storage checklist for your craft and equipment. Include basic care for transportation and long-term storage, and repair instructions for trouble such as leaks, punctures, broken ribs, and bends in the gunwale. Check the accuracy of this information with your instructor. Submit this list to your local Girl Scout camp for posting in its waterfront boathouse, if such a list is not already available.

5. Know basic first aid for water safety, including hypothermia, drowning, shock, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), breaks, sprains, heatstroke, dehydration, and bleeding. Enroll in a standard first-aid course and CPR course. Create a list of the contents for a first-aid kit, including an emergency management plan with contact persons included.

6. With your instructor's or leaders' assistance, role-play the following situations and demonstrate how you would handle them:

• A medical emergency happens while you are canoeing: for example, the friend who is accompanying your suffers sunstroke.

• A person is thrown into fast moving water. The other person is alone in the boat.

• A canoe overturns, leaving one person with a broken arm and the other with a PFD in the water.

• Your paddle falls into fast-moving water.

• A severe storm, with lighting and thunder, rolls in while you are out boating in the middle of a large lake.

7. Help plan and take part in at least a one-day canoe/kayak trip. Learn to "read" the water conditions and know the international scale of difficulty. Understand the importance of planning a safe trip; include in your plan time for reading the river, checking the weather, and assessing whether or not you will portage your craft at any point on the river.

Technology

1. Assemble a waterproof fanny pack of river supplies and tools and submit it for your instructor's approval. Include river-reading tools, compass, repair kit, map, first-aid kit, rescue tube, flare, food, and written emergency procedures.

2. Use the internet to locate information on four rivers in different regions of the country. Research a nearby campground for each river, including cost per night, the facilities available, and unit
activities. Write down the uniform resource locator (URL) for each Web site you discover on an index card for your troop or group planning box.

3. Interview a salesperson at an outdoor supplies store about the materials used to construct today's canoes, kayaks, water  clothing, and supplies. Find out why these materials continue to change and where this technology is going in the future. Report back to your troop or group.

4. Know the major parts of a canoe or kayak. Construct a small-scale model out of cardboard, clay, bark, or synthetic materials. Explain the function of each part. For an added challenge, construct a model canoe or kayak from your own design and explain its advantages.

Service Projects

1. Create a file of articles and brochures about river trips as well as a list of outfitters who guide such trips. Share this information with others in your council or communit

y.

2. Volunteer at your local Girl Scout camp during its pre-camp training session. Help bring canoes out of storage; scrub them down in preparation for summer camp use.

3. Help develop a detailed canoe/kayak trail guide of a single navigable river or water-way. Include some interesting facts about the unit
, such as its geology, animal and plant life, and ecology.

4. Demonstrate how to choose a proper-fitting personal flotation device (PFD). Share information about the role of clothing in preventing hypothermia with a group planning a water adventure.

Career Exploration

1. Find out the necessary skills and age and certification requirements for a job as a river guide by contacting a local trip outfitter.

2. Conduct a canoe/kayak skill and safety demonstration for other Girl Scouts in a swimming pool.

3. Consider the career of owning your own canoe/kayak tripping business. Make a flier advertising your business that states why people should choose your company as its recreational water outfitter. (Consider safety, fun, cost, etc). Show your flier to your troop or group and ask for feedback.

4. Prepare for a job at a Girl Scout camp. Check Safety-Wise for requirements and ask your Girl Scout council for a waterfront boating staff job description. Write a resume for this job.

Paper Works

          Skill Builders

1. Papermaking was developed in China centuries ago, as an alternative to writing on silk. You can make your own paper by following these directions. Get permission from a parent or guardian before starting this activity.

Materials: Newsprint or other uncoated paper (to start, you will need two or three times as many sheets as you wish to make), large bowl; blender; water; flat rectangular pan, or vat; framed screen smaller than the dimensions of the pan; iron; gelatin (optional); cloth or towels.

Procedure:
- Cut or tear paper into 1" square pieces.
- Fill the blender about two-thirds full with water. Add about a cup of paper squares, and let soak at least 20 minutes. Blend on high for about 10 seconds, then pour into vat. Repeat this process three or four times.
- Take the screen, mesh side up, and in one continuous motion, lower it into the vat, until it is horizontal along the bottom. Then lift he screen slowly, just until it breaks the surface of the water. Gently shake it from side to side to even out the pulp. Continue to slowly lift it out of the water to drain.
- Slowly peel the sheet of paper off the screen and set it aside to dry, on a towel, in a bathtub, or in a shower stall. Layer cloths between the sheets of paper. Press down lightly to force out as much water as possible (a board or pan may do this more evenly).
- Set the iron to a low setting, and iron one sheet at a time unit

dry. You can also air-dry sheets by hanging them with clothespins on a drying rack overnight.
- Seal the paper so that ink or watercolors will not bleed on it. Follow the directions for mixing the gelatin with water. While the gelatin is still watery, brush it on each sheet. Let dry.

2.  Papier-mâché is popular because it is easy to learn and involves easy-to-find materials. All you need are strips of old newspaper and a bowl of starch or paste. Because the process is messy, cover your work surface and wear and apron. Make a mold for your project from a bowl, an inflated balloon, or a wire frame. Saturate your strips in the paste or starch. Then layer them until the surface is covered, and there is a thickness of 1/4" or more. Let your project dry, and determine if any unit
s need more layers for strength. When your project is completely dry, sand the rough edges, paint it, and then add a finish with a shellac or varnish.

3.  Paper cutting is an art form practiced in many cultures. The finished products often resemble fine lace. Find out about the tools and expertise needed for this craft, and participate in a class or try a kit on your own.

4. Decoupage is a craft in which sections of paper are cut out and glued on to a surface, which is then decorated. Once the design is completed, the entire surface is coated with a protective layer of varnish or similar protectant. Create your own design with paper pieces glued onto a smooth, flat surface. once the design has dried, use a small brush to "paint" a mixture of 1 part water to 2 parts white glue onto it.

5. Origami is the art of paper folding to create three-dimensional pieces. Refer to a book on the topic or work with someone who knows the are and complete at least three different designs.

Technology

1. Visit a paper plant or processing facility. Find out the types of equipment needed to make various products. How has technology improved the development of paper products? How does the process differ from your own paper-making process?

2. Archivists as well as artists, craftsperson's, and photographers rely on different types of paper for storing and preserving their work. Find out how the following affect the longevity of paper products: acid-free stock, rag content, dyes, and finishes.

3. Use a computer program to design your own stationery, posters, greeting cards, or some other product. Compare the results from color printers with the results from black-and-white printers.

4. With the aid of a computer or hand-held design tools, develop a catalog of craft projects that you and your friends have made. Include illustrations, if possible. Develop a price list. Print and distribute your catalog to others.

Service Projects

1. organize a paper drive to collect a supply of paper that can be used in craft projects by troops or groups or a local recreation program. Try to collect a variety of paper goods, including old newspapers, pieces of construction paper, wallpaper scraps, or wrapping paper.

2. Using a variety of paper products, learn the technique of bookmaking. make a scrapbook or journal, and give it to a girl in your unit
who may be attending a wider opportunit

y. Ask her to record her trip and share it with others when she returns.

3. Help a group of Brownie or Junior Girl Scouts complete an art project that involves the use of paper.

4. Design and make a selection of greeting cards for a holiday or event. Donate these cards to a group that could use them: for example, Thinking Day cards that your council can send to those who have helped the council.

Career Exploration

1. Many people are involved in processing paper from its raw pulp state to the finished product in available stores. Find out about at least two of the following careers: chemist, wallpaper designer, paper wholesaler, gift shop owner, greeting card buyer, and printer.

2. Develop a money-making project for yourself or a group by designing invitations, greeting cards, gift tags, or gift wrap. Use a computer in the design and production of your product, or try calligraphy, stenciling, or fabric bonding.

3. Visit a local paint store, home improvement center, or home furnishings department in a store to find out what types of wallpapers are available and how they might be used for different decorating purposes. Ask what decorating services the professionals in each place provide to their customers.

4. Develop a list of art-s related careers that use paper in some way. Find out the skill level and training needed for each, and rank them accordingly. Make a list of schools in your unit
that provide such training, and share this information with friends who may be considering such careers.

The Performing Arts

          Skill Builders

1. All performers need to warm up before they perform. Look through relevant magazines and books or talk with a music, dance, or theater teacher and ask her or him to show you three different warm-up exercise. One should be for large muscles (legs, arms, etc.), one for vocalization or breathing control (lungs, vocal cords), and a third should focus on small muscles (like the fingers, toes, or lips.). Practice each of these warm-up exercise at least five times over a two-week period.

2. Before there was television, millions of people listened to the radio. Actors read stories that were enhanced by sound effects and music. Practice reading a story aloud to a small group of your friends or to younger kids. talk with a librarian, teacher, or coach, attend a reading given by an author, listen to a book on tape, or listen to a short story reading on a local radio station, to learn storytelling techniques. Then tell the story to your group.

3. Most performers experience stage fright at some point. Many learn how to transform that nervous energy into creative energy! Interview or read about two or three performers, and identify and write about three techniques they use to overcome stage fright. Try one out as a public speaker or performer.

4. Join your local choir, chorus, band, dance, or theater group. Rehearse and perform for others as a part of this group.

5. Give a solo performance! Sing, dance, act, or play a solo on an instrument in front of a group of people. Practice your solo for at least two weeks before your debut. Keep a journal. Ask yourself questions. For example, "Do you prefer performing solo or with a group? Why?" "Is the preparation for a solo different? In what way?"

Technology

1. More and more performers are incorporating technology into their presentations. Observe a production and list all the technology used in it. Include the obvious workings of technology (lights, sound, fog, etc) and the less obvious (acoustical materials, turn-tables, etc)

2. Visit a concert hall, auditorium, or theater with a friend or a group, and practice speaking without a microphone. Find out if there are audience sections where the sound carries better, and why.

3. Floors used for professional dance are specially constructed to protect dancers from injury and allow them to perform at their best. Talk with a dance instructor in your unit
(or via the Internet), or do library research and learn how floors are built. What sorts of injuries do they or don't they prevent?

4. Find out about different ways of recording performances (for example, audiotapes and videotapes). Watch two or three recorded performances and observe what techniques were used. What are the advantages/disadvantages of a recorded performance rather than one that is live? What is lost or gained?

5. Find out how technology has shaped music over the last 20 years. Talk with performers or knowledgeable people at music stores or through Web sites. Or read about audio and media technology in trade magazines. Or do library research on the history of the music industry.

Service Projects

1. Participate in a read-a-thon at your local library. Choose your selection carefully. Look for something interesting, entertaining, and age-appropriate.

2. Introduce younger Girl Scouts to the performing arts. They can either perform or be observers, but plan on taking at least two or three trips to concert halls, theaters, or arts centers.

3. Work with a troop or group to create a performance based upon a "message" such as how to resolve conflicts or how to contribute to a communit

y. Perform your play for an audience.

4. Sing, dance, play, or act at a local senior citizen's center. Your audience may have vision and/or hearing impairments that need to be considered in your presentation.

5. Participate in a performance that helps the communit

y: a dedication of a park or new school, a summer parks program, a multicultural awareness day, as a clown for the children's ward of a hospital, etc.

Career Exploration

1. Read, watch, or listen to a biography/autobiography of a famous performer. How did she or he succeed? Could you succeed in the same manner now? Why or why not? What obstacles did she or he overcome?

2. How much do teachers and performers have in common? Talk with teachers at three different grade levels and find out if and how they use performance techniques throughout their day. For instance, do they use dramatic role-playing in history class?

3. What qualities does a good speaker need to be in command of an audience? Make a chart or poster that illustrates three to five skills, such as having a good ear or animated speech. Are these qualities you possess or would like to develop?

4. Interview two or three professional, amateur, or "behind the scenes" performers or workers, such as a production assistant, a stage manager, a lighting or costume designer, or a musician who plays in a stage orchestra. Ask about their training, the challenges they have encountered, the availability of work, and any advice they can give to a young person starting out.

Pets

          Skill Builders

1. Prepare a care chart for a particular pet (yours or someone else's) that a pet-sitter, boarding kennel, or family could use to raise and maintain that animal in a healthy and happy manner. Be sure to include information on diet, exercise, training, grooming, activity preferences, medical history and care, and emergency information.

2. Become an expert on some aspect of a particular type of animal or species: its evolution, history, or anatomy. Where did it originally come from? Is it related to any species of wild animals? Is this animal known for  specific use or characteristic?

3. Learn how to train and socialize a specific animal. Learn the reasonable behaviors to expect, and the appropriate types of exercise and discipline for that animal. Put these skills to work with a specific animal.

4. Talk with a veterinarian, breeder, or animal supply distributor about special diets for a specific type of animal. What health conditions are affected by diet? How do dietary needs change as the animal gets older? Share this information with a fellow animal lover or your troop or group.

5. Discover the types of laws that your communit

y has to protect animals (licensing, leash laws, health laws, anti-cruelty laws, etc). Find out which animals are legal to keep as pets and which are not. Create a booklet or poster to illustrate the legal information you have found.

Technology

1. Talk to a veterinarian about the types of illnesses to which a  particular animal might be susceptible. Ask about vaccines and ongoing health maintenance for that animal. Learn the symptoms of three specific illnesses and the treatment for them.

2. Talk to a veterinarian about the environmental hazards for a particular type of pet. Be sure to ask about both people-produced as well as natural hazards. Learn how to identify and prevent three to five hazards. Create a char, a photo display, a video, or a poster campaign to educate others about these hazards.

3. Investigate the types of animal-containment devices that are available for a specific type of pet. What types of fences, cages, and carriers are on the market today? Talk with an animal trainer, staff at a boarding facility, transportation company employee, and/or veterinarian to learn the pros and cons of two different devices.

4. All animals need exercise to be healthy. talk to an animal breeder, animal supply distributor, or animal trainer about two or three devices available for safely exercising your pet. What technological changes have there been in these devices in the last 5-10 years?

5. Locating lost or stolen animals can be difficult. However, there are now a number of organizations and devices available that make locating animals easier. Learn about these devices or design a new one. Or write an ad about one of these devices.

Service Projects

1. Volunteer at a kennel, animal shelter, or veterinarian's office for several hours a week over the course of a month. Be sure to get training by the organization or the veterinarian before you start your service.

2. Volunteer to provide exercise, grooming or transportation to a veterinarian for the pet of a homebound person. Provide the service at least once a week for a month.

3. Volunteer to raise an animal such as a seeing-eye dog for a service organization. You and your family should be aware that this may involve a one- or two-year commitment.

4. Work with an agency or organization dedicated to animal care and protection. Determine how you can help, and volunteer to serve the agency or organization for at least one day.

5. Work with a humane society, an animal shelter or clinic, or a veterinarian to help find homes for homeless animals.

6. Organize a pet visiting day for people who are in institutional settings such as a nursing home or a rehabilitation center.

Career Exploration

1. Learn about the training and job responsibilities of a police department's canine team. What types of crimes are these dogs used for? Why? How are they used? Are certain breeds required in some fields? Why? Take what you've learned and create a comic book, coloring book, story, essay, or article to teach others about this field.

2. Interview a professional animal-care worker such as a local veterinarian or assistant, a kennel owner, or a zoo worker about the training and education she has had to complete to do her job. Find out about the essentials of animal care. If you do not know a professional in this field, contact local professional organizations like the American Boarding Kennel Association, the American Animal Hospital Association, or the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and ask for a local contact. Or go online and join a discussion group that focuses on animal care. many times professionals contribute to these discussion groups. Write an article for your communit

y or school paper using the information you have learned.

3.  Learn about the field of animal-assisted therapy. In these therapy, companion animals assist the blind or people with specific disabilities with functional tasks. Read articles, participate in online discussions, or interview people who are trained in the field. What is the history or this field? Why did it develop? What kind of training/certifications is required to practice in this field? What benefits do people get from this therapy? Why?

4. Learn about three different types of animal handlers, people who care for and groom animals at competition sites, circuses, zoos, boarding kennels, etc.

5. Interview the owner or an employee of a local pet-supply store. What training, if any, did she have to go through? How have pet products changed over the years?

Photography

Bring your camera to record whatever you like.  For instance, focus on the nature worlds of All About Birds, From Shore to Sea, Plant Life and Wildlife.
So get ready to create your lasting impressions.  Who knows, the image of a fleeting moment that you capture on film may be your claim to fame.

 Skill Builders

1. Visit a camera store or talk to an experienced photographer about the different kinds of cameras on the market.  Ask about point and shoot cameras, 35 mm cameras,  and cameras for underwater photography.  Also, inquire about different types of lenses, like telephoto, wide angle and zoom lenses that are used to create special effects.  With your own or a borrowed camera, take pictures of a favorite subject.  Experiment with different lenses and angles.

2. Learn the basics of using a 35 mm camera from an amateur photographer or from a book.  Be sure to find out how to load and unload the camera, when to change the shutter speed and the f-stop and how to focus.  Experiment by shooting a couple of rolls of film and recording the settings of each picture for future reference.

3. There is a wide range of accessories to use with all kinds of cameras, including tripods, lamps and filters.  Make a list of the ones you will need for two of the following:  close-up photography, portraits, nature shots.  Next, go to two or three stores to compare prices on all the cameras and equipment on your list.

4. Talk to an amateur photographer about the basics of composition, including background, depth of field and lighting.

5.  Take a series of pictures based on an interesting theme or idea, such as circles and squares, children at play or reflections.  Put them together in a scrapbook or framed display.

Technology
1. Try your hand at black and white or color developing and printing by taking a photography course.  Your school may have a darkroom you can use.  Work with an experienced photographer or mentor.

2.  Photographers use different film speeds for various types of lighting (indoor, bright light, clouds).  Over a period of time, shoot the same subject under different conditions.  Which lighting achieves the most dramatic or artistic effect?  Use the best pictures for a display or to create note cards for your troop or group.

3.  The treasured photograph of a beloved relative, friend or pet has cracked and is missing a piece.  Is all hope lost?  Don’t despair - it can be fixed!  Find out how computer technology can be used to restore damaged photographs.

4.  Digital photography is gaining in popularity both because of the speed with which you can obtain an image and even manipulate it.  Regular cameras use film that has been coated with silver halide crystals that are physically transformed by light.  This film then has to be developed.  Digital cameras capture images by electronically recording the light that enters into it – no chemicals, no darkroom, no waiting!  Discover how your local newspaper or advertising firm is using this technology to create images and give them a special look.  Large photocopy centers and photo labs are using this technology too, so they may be a good source of information.  You can also speak to a photographer or go to the library to find out more about digital photography.

5. Find out how digital cameras record and manipulate images.  Speak with one or more of the following:  a photographer, a librarian, someone at a local newspaper or advertising firm, or an employee at a large photocopy center or photo lab.

Service Projects
1.  Create an album or troop or group events for your council’s archives.

2. Offer to photograph a holiday or special event for younger children or senior citizens.

3. Compile a list of communit

y resources in the field of photography for your council.  Include professional photographers, stores, labs, courses, photography galleries, etc.

4.  Photograph a communit

y event and send it to the chamber of commerce.  Suggest its inclusion in a brochure.

5.  Organize a troop or council wide one-day photo shoot on a particular theme:  unusual architecture, train depots, recreation, bodies of water, or maybe even a “day in the life of our town.”  Collaborate with other organizations in publicizing the event.  Ask professional photographs for help.

2. Photography is used in a number of fields – advertising, public relations, journalism, travel, police work, law, medicine, etc.  Read the “Photographer” Career Focus on page 113 in the Cadette Girl Scout Handbook.  Help organize a career fair and invite professionals to show and discuss their work, their training requirements and job benefits.

3.  Get a part time or summer job in a camera store or take a basic or advanced photography course to learn new skills.

4.  Study the careers of some famous female photographers such as Bernice Abbott, Dorothea Lange, Margaret Bourke-White and Diane Arbus.  What obstacles did they have to overcome to achieve success?  What was their training?

5.  Join the school newspaper or take photographs of troop or council events to become adept at fast action shooting.

6.  Offer to take “head shots” (portraits from the neck up) for a friend.

7. Become an intern at a photographic lab, portrait studio, or other business that deals with photography.  Or job-shadow someone working in one of these places. Keep a photo diary and written diary of your experience.

Planet Power

          Skill Builders

1. Conduct an energy audit of your home or troop or group meeting place. Check the windows and doors for drafts, which cause loss of hot or cool air. make a check-list of inefficient uses of energy. your local fuel or electric company can provide a consumer brochure that you can use as a guide. Recommend improvements. Carry out at least one of your suggestions.

2. Go to a building supply store to learn about insulating materials. Find out the meaning of the term "R-values". Learn what the recommended R-values are for ceilings, outside walls, and floors in your unit
. Try to find out what type of insulation is used in your home or school. If possible, watch insulation being installed or help to insulate a house, apartment, or building.

3. Create a game that shows how energy moves within a particular habitat such as deciduous forest. Are there more producers than consumers? Why or why not?

4. Figure out how much electricity each of the appliances you use at home consumes. First, look on your family's electric bill or call your local utility company for the current charge per kilowatts hour (this is how energy use is measured). Next, use the formula below to calculate how much electricity each of your electrical appliances uses.
Involve your family in making a list of things it pledges to do to conserve energy consumption for a week. Find out if your family successfully conserved energy by checking your meter, utility bill, or using the formula below.

5. Arrange to visit your local electric company or one of its power plants. Ask about the problems that utility companies face today in having to provide energy to more and more people. Is the company using any alternative energy sources? 

Technology

1. Search via the library or Internet for names of solar energy information services and companies. Then proceed with an activity from the list below:

• Build a solar cooker and cook at least part of a meal in it

• Build a model solar water heater that works and demonstrate its use to your troop or group or camp director

• Design your own solar energy collector and explain how it works

• Visit a building that uses solar energy and find out how it works

2. Review at least three source of energy, including nuclear power, and hold a debate in your troop or group over which source is the most environmentally sound, safe, efficient, and cost-effective.

3. Suppose there is a severe oil (petroleum) shortage and the government requires you and your communit

y to cut back on the use of oil to conserve the available supply. Prepare a plan to help your family and communit

y respond to this emergency. Find out how oil is used in your daily life-for example, heating your home or running your school bus. Then decide how people can reduce oil usage.

4. Choose two of the following energy sources: oil, nuclear, hydroelectric, gas, solar, and coal, and determine steps involved in transporting this form of energy from its production site to the consumer. How does your chosen energy source impact the environment? For example, dams that generate electricity can cause flooding. Display your findings.

Service Projects

1. Visit a recycling center and consider:

• What options are available for recycling glass, paper, aluminum, plastic?

• Can food waster be recycled, and how?

• Can you avoid purchasing times that are over packaged? Devise a recycling project for your home or troop or group meeting place. Set it up and help keep it running. Or volunteer your services at a recycling center

2. Make plans for the possibility that your home might be without electricity for two days. How will you keep warm or cool, cook food and keep it fresh, and do your homework? Include plans for cooperation with neighbors.

3. Teach Brownie or Junior Girl Scouts how to make recycled paper out of newspaper or other discarded paper. (See the Artistic Crafts Interest project).

4. Put on a puppet show or skit for a group of younger Girl Scouts that shows the connection between recycling and energy conservation. Try to represent different points of view. Hold a questions-and-answer session at the end of each "show". Invite local officials to your presentations.

Career Exploration

1. Invite a panel of speakers - from representatives of traditional and alternative energy companies, to ecologists and dietitians - to discuss with your troop or group career options in the energy field. Encourage the audience to ask questions. Then, as a group, put together a pamphlet or report, such as "Careers in the Energy Fields". Distribute it to other troops or groups in your council.

2. Become an "expert" in one unit
of alternative energy. Compare its advantages and disadvantages. What careers would be open to you? contact an expert in the field for advice and information, or research it at your library.

3. Shadow an ecologist and see what an average workday is like for her. People in this career are interested in how energy is obtained by plants and then converted for use by animals. Ask questions you prepared, or about what you are observing.

4. Create a time line of events in the history of nuclear science that includes a few of the people mentioned below. Describe their key contributions:

                - Neils Bohr              - Hans Geiger                - Marie and Pierre Curie               - Otto Hahn
                - Albert Einstein       - Lise Meitner               - Enrico Fermi                                 - Wilhelm Roentgen
                - Paul-Ulrich Villard

Plant Life

          Skill Builders

1. In order for plants to absorb nutrients well, the soil has to have the proper pH, or acid/alkaline balance. Before you plant, figure out if your soil is acidic or alkaline by using a pH test kit. This kit can be found at garden centers. Find out how to adjust the soil if it is too acidic or too alkaline for the type of plants you wish to grow.

2. Rich soil that drains well is especially important to plants that grow in a confined space. Some plants, such as cacti, grow best in loose or sandy soil that drains quickly, while others, such as geraniums, need richer soil that will hold onto water a little longer. Determine how well your soil drains water and what you need to do to improve the soil if it becomes waterlogged or loses water too quickly.

3. Plan and plan a garden with at least three kinds of food crops (vegetable, fruits, and herbs). If you can only plant indoors, improvise by using pots, hanging baskets, or other containers. prepare the soil before planting to ensure proper pH and adequate drainage. Arrange your garden "plot" for maximum sunlight or partial shade, depending on what your crop needs. Follow a garden maintenance schedule that includes watering, fertilizing, weeding, and pest control, using organic methods when possible.

4. Visit a supermarket produce section or a local distributions point for fruits and vegetables. Find out where selected fruits and vegetables came from (sometimes they are stamped or labeled with the name of a state or country). Create a geography game or scavenger hunt for younger girls linked to the produce in a supermarket. For example, have them find fruits from at least three different states or countries.

5. Start three new plants without using seeds. Consult with a gardener or use a basic gardening manual to learn about tubers, runners, "eyes", rhizomes, spores, grafting, layering, and cuttings.

6. Compare traditional chemical pest control methods with natural ones. What are the advantages and disadvantages of growing things organically? If possible, interview a gardener or farmer who uses each method. Or contact your local cooperative extension agent and ask for information about integrated pest management, a program that combines chemical and natural pest control methods.

Technology

1. To do any job right, you need the proper tools and materials. Make a list of gardening tools and material that you will need to grow your own plants. Find out what these tools and material are used for, what each is made of, and why.

2. Visit a Web site, library, or botanical garden for information on growing plants hydroponically (in water). Grow a plant hydroponically at home or at school.

3. It used to be that you could only find tofu (soybean curd), juice, and milk cartons in the refrigerated section of your grocery store. Now, you can find these items sitting right on the shelf. How can this be? Discover the technology used to keep items packaged in aseptic (germ-free) containers from spoiling.

4. Learn about different kinds of watering tools and equipment. Find out which methods and equipment waste the least amount of water. Learn about different kinds of drip irrigation that work best for the amateur gardener.

5. Scientists are trying to "improve" on nature all the time through genetic engineering, the manipulation of plant or animal genes to produce a desired result. Find out how plants are genetically altered. Select three fruits or vegetables and find out why they have undergone genetic engineering. If possible, buy one of these food plants and compare its taste to the regular kind. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of producing food plants that have been genetically engineered.

Service Projects

1. Help turn a vacant lot or other public space into an "oasis" by volunteering to landscape it. Or help start or maintain a communit

y vegetable garden.

2. With a partner, or your troop or group, plant an unit
with native vegetation that will provide food or shelter for birds.

3. Plant a communit

y butterfly garden. Find out which flowers attract different species of butterflies and plan a garden that will bloom over an extended period of time.

4. Grow or help harvest food for a communit

y food bank. Or organize local gardeners to contribute their surplus produce to a communit

y food bank.

5. In cooperation with your parks department, plant trees or plants to help prevent erosion. A state or federal agency, such as the U.S. Forest Service, or a nonprofit organization such as the National Arbor Day Foundation or Global Relief, may be able to provide you with free saplings.

Career Exploration

1. Find out about at least one career related to plants. Arrange to interview or shadow a person in that career. Careers to consider: groundskeeper, landscape architect, florist, green-house owner, botanist, forester, tree pruner, researcher, farmer, agricultural consultant, or botanical illustrator.

2. Visit a garden that was especially created for people with disabilities (for example, those with visual impairments). Find out what factors were considered in designing this space.

3. Have you ever admired the plant displays at office buildings and indoor shopping malls? They are taken care of by professionals in the plant maintenance busine.ss. To try your hand at this career, volunteer to take care of the plants in one or more of these places: a fiends'' or relative's home, a neighborhood business or medical office, your Girl Scout council office, or your place of worship. Find out the name of each plant and look up its water, light, soil, and feeding requirements. Make a portable plant maintenance kit to use "on the job" by placing a spray bottle, watering can, trowel or large spoon, sponge or wash cloth, etc, into a basket or plastic container.

4. Flower arrangements add a beautiful touch to any home or business. many professional flower arrangers got their start from making gifts for friends and family members. Look through home decorating magazines or books about flower arranging to get ideas and to find out what equipment you will need. Then try your hand at creating botanical art by making flower baskets, accessories, or special occasion gifts out of dried flowers.

5. More and more health-related facilities such as nursing homes and rehabilitation centers have developed horticultural therapy programs. Under the guidance of a trained adult, assist in a program of this type and find out how and why it works.

The Play's the Thing

          Skill Builders

1. Be an offstage star! Work as a stagehand or technician for a school or communit

y production. Plays, concerts, dance performances, and even school assemblies all need technical help. Receive training in woodworking, scenery painting, set construction, lighting design and operation, sound, costume design and creation, or making props for at least five days. Work the show, performance, or assemblies for another five days (this includes rehearsal). Keep a journal of your experiences, with names in it of people from who you can lean more in the future.

2. Actors bring a play to life. Select a monologue from a favorite play and perform it for an audience of friends. Try to convey feelings through your voice, stance, and movement. Have your friends critique your performance. Then recite your lines again. Or try this improvisational activity: Act out a situation from either the Cadette Girl Scout Handbook or A Resource Book for Senior Girl Scouts with some of your friends. Topics like "Communication," "Life Success Skills," "Peer pressure," and "Job Hunting" are perfect for such a role-play. Each girl should create a character for herself, including age, family background, and motivation. Change roles with the other girls and see what happens.

3. Write a short play to help other girls deal with a contemporary issue, such as peer pressure. have your friends read the first draft aloud,. Note what flows and seems natural, and what doesn't. Listen to their suggestions as actors/readers and make changes where appropriate. Then revise your play.

4. Direct or produce a play. Directors cast the show and work with the actors on their blocking (where they move on the stage) and the way they deliver their lines. Directors also decide what the set and lighting should look like, the time period in which the play takes place, and the types of costumes characters will wear. Producers locate and "book" a theater, hire a director, obtain the rights to a play, and arrange for the finances needed to put on the production. Keep a journal of your experiences as a director or producer. You might want to use it as the basis for your next show!

5. Become a seasoned theater critic. Attend at least three different types of plays, and write a review of each. If there isn't that much theater being performed in your communit

y, check the listings for any PBS productions or check your local video store for video-taped play performances. Try to get your reviews published in your school or local paper. Or publish them yourself on your own World Wide Web home page!

Technology

1. Learn about different types of stages: for example, a proscenium arch and round, three-quarter, and thrust stages. What are four strengths and challenges of working with each stage? Which would be better for a small cast? For a big musical comedy? For a slapstick comedy? For a drama? Why? Explain your reasons to at least two other members of your troop or group, club, etc.

2. Learn about stage lights by reading industry magazines and catalogs, or through library research. Consult a theater designer, if possible. Identify different types of stage lights. How does each work? Which lights are used for what type of effect? How does the crew operate them? What is the purpose of lighting "gels"?

3. Create a set design or lighting design for a particular play. Consult a theater designer, or use theater books and magazines to learn how to sketch the outline of the stage, as well as the types of symbols used to identify set pieces and/or lighting unit
s. Create a set or lighting design for two different scenes, including any special effects that you want to have. Get feedback from your players or director.

4. Fog suddenly roiling in! Snow falling! Bombs bursting! Lighting flashing! Grotesque aliens firing laser guns from landing spacecraft! Superhuman heroes flying through the air! No, this is not a story line form a comic book, but special effects that stage designers may use to make a play come alive. Pick three of these effects, or others you might prefer, and find out how each is done by speaking with the stage designer at your neighborhood playhouse, talking with a drama teacher, or reading a library book.

Service Projects

1. Volunteer as a gofer, ticket person, usher, or program writer for your local communit

y theater. Make a commitment of at least two weeks.

2. Volunteer to work with children in a day-care center or hospital. Introduce them to theatrical play: bring "dress-up" clothes (costumes), face-painting kits (makeup), and sorted props. Encourage them to create characters, interact as those characters, and change their characters through dress-up and makeup. Make at least a five-session commitment to these children.

3. Help your council with its theater camp by assisting with the administrative and/or creative end of things for a least one week.

4. Volunteer at your local Light-house or Guild for the Blind. Tape-record plays and books, or organize others to do the recordings. Or, if you're technically inclined, you might want to help the organization maintain its sound equipment.

Career Exploration

1. Read about or watch a televised biography about two famous actors, playwrights, lyricists, designers, or directors. Identify five things that they did in order to succeed in theater. Decide if those are things that you would want to do or be able to do.

2. Look through college catalogs and identify five schools with good drama programs. Compare the cost of each institution, as well as the entrance and graduation requirements. Create a resource for students in your school who might be interested in this field.

3. Talk with the teachers who design and direct the shows at your school. Find out about the training and experience needed. Then talk with communit

y theater directors and/or designers. Ask about their training and experience. Decide if, and plan how, you can go about making a living while aiming for the stars.

4. Create a story or a coloring picture or a picture book to teach younger girls about one of the following careers: actor, playwright, director, designer, or producer. Have three or four girls review your work, and make changes based on their comments. Be sure the material is interesting and appropriate for their age. Share the book with a troop or group.

Public Relations

          Skill Builders

1. As they go about their work, PR professionals use a language all their own. See the chart below. Test your knowledge of their jargon by correctly matching the terms on the left with the definitions on the right. If you need help, ask teacher, librarian, or other knowledgeable person. (This Skill Builder may be useful to you in completing other activities.

2. Create a press kit to publicize yourself! To find out what you should include in your kit, you cans ask a public relations professional for help, request that several businesses or organizations send you sample press kits, or look in your library for books on public relations or communications.

3. Public relations professionals must be adept at writing for the printed page and spoken word. Try your hand at completing one of the following writing assignments:

• A major food manufacturer hires you as a consultant to market its new line of low-calorie snacks. Write a sales pitch for supermarket managers to use to entice shoppers to buy a box of snacks.

• The chief executive officer (CEO) at a large corporation asks you, the communications director, to prepare a speech for her to deliver to 200 of the company's shareholders. She has bad news - profits have dropped, and, as a result, so have the shareholders' earning. What would you have the CEO say?

4. Public relations professionals must be able to relate to a wide range of people. Imagine being a spokesperson for your favorite cause. What would you say to your audience to get their support for your cause? Choose two of the following people or groups and role-play your pitches with some friends: a communit

y association, your peers, a potential funder, or someone who opposes what you stand for.
Ask one or two of your friends to observe the role-play and critique your presentation. Try the role-plays again, this time incorporating the suggestions of your friends on how to improve your sales pitch.

Technology

1. "image is everything," or so say those in the business of creating it. Host a roundtable discussion with your classmates, friends or troop or group members about how the media influences consumer behavior. Select a moderator to facilitate the discussion,  using the following questions as a guide:

• To what extent does image influence your decision to buy a product or support a cause? Would your loyalty to a product or brand name be compromised if you found out something unfavorable about its manufacturer?

• Brainstorm a list of celebrities for whom "bad" PR has been good. Do you think certain types of celebrities are more inclined to benefit from an unflattering public image? If so, which types and why?

2. What technology do PR professionals use to do their jobs? Find out how they track marketing trends.

3. PR professionals often use polls to find out how their target audience feels about a certain issue. Take a poll of your friends and neighbors to gauge their opinions about  a locally controversial issue. Share the results of the poll - without revealing names - in a communit

y newsletter or paper.

4. Every organization has a particular image it would like to project to the public. List five adjectives GSUSA and local councils use to convey messages about Girl Scouting. How do you think the public sees Girl Scouting? What misconceptions do you think people have about Girl Scouts? How would you go about clearing up those misconceptions if you were a Girl Scout public relations director? Create a poster, TV show, or radio ad or jingle to correct that misconception.

Service Projects

1. Volunteer to help a local organization develop a PR campaign to publicize its services to the communit

y or to youth.

2. Write an article about the recent activities and projects of your Girl Scout troop or group. Try to have the article published in your school or communit

y newspaper.

3. Does your communit

y plan to sponsor an event, such as a play, recital, or food drive? Spread the word by designing fliers, posters, or invitations. Or come up with other creative ways to publicize the event.

4. Find out from your school counselor or troop or group leader which organizations serve the needs of people with particular disabilities. Volunteer to work on a PR committee.

Career Exploration

1. Interview public relations professionals in three different sectors, from businesses to non-profit organizations. Compare their approaches to publicizing their products and/or clients.

2. Public relations professionals have many different titles. Call several organizations, businesses, or colleges to find out what some of them are. Ask for the name and title of the person who handles public relations for that organization. Interview at least two of these professionals. Present your information to your troop or group.

3. What public relations skills would be useful to someone looking for a job? With a partner, create a job search plan and help each other find summer employment or an internship. Help each other develop skills in listening, interviewing, and resume writing.

4. Events planners organize events that are important for fund-raising and PR. Think about a special event you attended recently (a play or concert, for example). What tasks did the events planner or PR professional handle well to make the event a success?

Reading

          Skill Builders

1. Consider the following categories of books and decide which type is your favorite: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or drama. Prepare a creative project that illustrates why this is your favorite type of book. The project may be in the form of an oral presentation, illustrated panels, an "interview" with one of the characters, etc.

2. Learn the meaning of these literary terms, and find examples of at least five of them in your reading: allegory, alliteration, antagonist, blank verse, climax, conflict, comic relief, figurative language, flashback, gothic novel, haiku, irony, interior monologue, parable, proverb, protagonist, poetic justice, setting.

3. Have you ever read a book in which the author seems to be "reading your mind?" Think of a challenge or new event in your life, such as moving to a new home and changing schools, or trouble with a sibling. Find a book in the library that addresses a challenge like yours and read it. Analyze how the book's characters cope with their situations. What can you learn form them? Discuss the role of literature in enhancing life's experiences with your family or troop or group members.

4. Dramatize a scene from a book for an audience. For a biography, you might enact an event from the person's life. For a novel or short story, select a scene that provides good action or dialogue among the characters. Provide background information so that the audience understands the scene.

5. Form a book club with three or more people; family members can be included. All members should read the same book and come together at arranged times to share ideas and to exchange viewpoints.

6. Read literature form a culture different from your own. Compare the treatment of a common theme, such as coming-of-age for girls, by an American author with its treatment by a foreign author.

7. Read two or three magazines on any subject; for example, computers, gourmet cooking, car repair, fitness, nature, or health. Read each issue for at least two months, and discuss the most interesting articles with the girls in your troop or group.

Technology

1. What is electronic publishing? How does a manuscript become a book? How are illustrations, maps, and graphs inserted?

2. Use the Internet to find a discussion about a book or author. Or use the Internet to help you conduct research for a term paper or project.

3. Write a synopsis of a book or book review and place it on the Internet. Call for correspondence from those interested in your topic.

4. Try out some educational computer games in a computer store. On your computer, create a word game that relates to a book of your choice. Ask others to play your game and get some feedback.

5. Visit a bookstore or exhibit that features old or rare books. Find out from the shop owner, curator, or librarian how old books and manuscripts are preserved.

6. How were books made in the past? Trace the development of bookmaking. You might start with illuminated manuscripts in the late Middle Ages. If you can, visit exhibits of rare books in museums or rare book shops in your communit

y.

Service Projects

1.  Entertain young hospital patients with fairy tales. you and your friends can dress up as, or make puppets of, characters from favorite childhood stories and fairy tales, such as: "Cinderella," "The Three Pigs," and "Little Red Riding Hood". Involve your young audience in the action during or after a presentation of the story. For instance, have them play with or make puppets.

2. Donate some time each week to read to someone with impaired vision. For example, you could help a senior citizen read her mail or newspaper. Find out if there is a local organization for the blind, and how you can volunteer your services through its programs.

3. Offer to read or be a story-teller in a Head Start or in an after-school program. Read dramatically, using different voices for each character, or read to focus on a skill unit
, such as building a better vocabulary.

4. Hold a book drive to collect used books. Advertise the dates of the drive and recruit volunteers, including adults, to help you. Redistribute the books either through a library or an organization of your choice.

5. Design bookmarks or bookplates for holiday gifts. Give them to hospital patients along with a new book. During National Book Week or Library Week, give them to younger Girl Scouts or students.

6. Work with an organization that provides tapes to people with visual impairments or learning disabilities. Tape one or two stories.

7. Organize a paperback book exchange in your communit

y or school.

8. Find out more about local or national literacy efforts through your Girl Scout council. Become involved in a project or event in your unit
, such as serving as a reading tutor once a week to a younger student. 

Career Exploration

1. Hold an event such as an author's tea, at which the author reads from her book and discusses it with the audience. Ask well-prepared questions about the author's writing process. Ask for any advice she can give to young people who like to write.

2. What are the roles of a book reviewer and a literary critic? Read at least three or four book reviews or essays of literary criticism. What skills and training do you think reviewers and critics need to have? Write one short book review.

3. Read a book that was made into a movie and then se the movie, or vice versa. What do you think the pros and cons would be for a writer who wrote the book and the screenplay? Which would you rather write? Why?

4. Learn about he career of a literary agent. What service do literary agents provide writers? How do they earn an income?

5. Investigate careers in library science. How has this field changed since computerized technology has replaced the card catalog system in many libraries? What work is handled at the Library of Congress? Try to shadow a librarian for several hours.

Rolling Along

          Skill Builders

** The first Skill Builder activity is required before completing any of the other activities in this interest project. **

* 1.  Before you start any sport in Rolling Along, do at least five different stretches to prepare the muscles you will be using. Hold each stretch for at least 15 seconds, and keep breathing throughout the stretch. The idea is to slowly and gently expand your range within the stretch, not to force it and pull a muscle.

2. Create your own bicycling workout plan and bike at least three times a week for a couple of months. Make a personalized list of rules to follow based on the climate and terrain you will encounter. Start with these: Always wear a helmet, make sure that your brakes are aligned and in good repair, and check the tire pressure on both wheels. Always ride with the traffic on the far right-hand side of the street, unless you are preparing to make a left-hand turn. Always signal your stopping and turns, so that drivers can anticipate your actions. Teach these safety rules to others, including any partners who may wish to bike with you.

3. Demonstrate your ability to do the following:

• Know, understand, and comply with the vehicle codes for the state in which you will cycle.

• know and demonstrate hand signals. Contact the police department or local bicycle clubs to help you with these.

• Know how to execute basic bide maneuvers such as braking and turns to avoid an obstacle.

4. Plan a bike trip with others. Map out a route that avoids heavily trafficked unit
s or pavements unsuitable to biking. Have someone use a car odometer to track your route. Or you can use a pedometer to measure your distance. Start with 20 - 25 minutes and then work up to one or two hours (with breaks as needed).

5. Learn safety rules for in-line skating and teach them to two others. For instance: Always wear a helmet and protective gear (writs guards, elbow pads, and kneepads). Wearing long sleeves and pants will also help protect you if you fall. Learn to brake properly by having someone knowledgeable demonstrate the technique or by following directions given at a sports center, skating supply store, or skating class. Find out about the best type of braking system, front stoppers, back stoppers, etc. Create and follow an in-line skating plan for a one-month period.

6. Master the sport of skate-boarding. Learn and follow safety rules; create and follow a workout plan for one month.

7. Become an expert! If you already know how to skate, skate-board, or bike, advance your sills and learn something new. For instance, learn how to skate backward or do jumps and stunts on your in-line skates or skateboard. Or take a two-day bike trip, or try mountain biking.

Technology

1. Skating, biking, and skate-boarding require protective gear: for example, helmets, kneepads, and padded gloves. Visit a sports store, or look through catalogs and magazines to learn about the varieties of protective gear available. Learn about the maintenance and replacement schedule you should observe. Research and identify the next item of protective gear you will need.

2. Not so long ago, bicycles had only one gear, tennis shoes were used for cycling, and in-line skates didn't even exist! Compare the older and newer versions of there to five types of sports gear, and list three improvements in the new ones. Discuss your findings in your troop or group or club.

3. Learn how to maintain, repair, and upgrade your skates or board. Talk with a sports pro in your unit
or online and find out how to repair or replace parts. Once you've mastered the repairs, teach or help someone else do the same. Or demonstrate a thorough knowledge of bicycle repair, including repairs to the following: tires, braking system, wheels, spokes, hubs, derailleur, headset, stem, handlebars, seat, and power train. Or attend a clinic on cycle maintenance and repair. Demonstrate your ability to set up a maintenance schedule for your bicycle and stick to it. Demonstrate your ability to change a flat tire.

Service Projects

1. Offer help to a service organization that is running an event such as  a bike-a-thon or skate-a-thon. Assist with route planning, first aid (if you're certified), registration, or to set up, clean up, pack up, and assist participants.

2. Run a clinic to teach bike or skate repairs and maintenance.

3. Run a basic skills workshop to teach younger girls skills on wheels, from bikes to skates.

4. Work with a bike or sports store to organize or run a "bikes/skates for kids" program. Older equipment is donated by the communit

y, repaired by children and adults, and given to children in need. Remember that certain adaptations might be needed for children with disabilities.

5. Volunteer to be one of the guides or counselors for a bike trip lasting two or three days.

Career Exploration

1. List four careers other than professional athlete that relate to the design or use of sports-on-wheels equipment: a textile designer or product representative, for example. Find out and then discuss in your club or troop or group what the job requirements are.

2. Do you know a talented skater or cyclist? Ask her how she sees the sport affecting her life. Is she more productive at work? Less? What advice could she give an aspiring athlete about competition, conditioning, or the value of attaining a goal?

3. You are a sports gear or footwear designer called into the Olympics to design new in-line skates, footwear, etc, for the athletes. Draw your design, providing descriptions and rationales for the materials you choose. Also, specify how and on whom you will pilot-test your new product.

4. How could excellence in skateboarding, cycling, or in-line skating be put to use in working with children, including those with disabilities? Design a program specifying age, exercises, and goals. Find a local youth-serving organization or school where you can "try out" your program for at least two sessions. Or offer to assist in an existing program.

5. Interview a physical therapist about her work with people in wheelchairs, and also about how she uses skates/skating for people with certain kinds of disabilities. What was her training? What advice can she offer for  a young person considering a career in physical therapy and sports?

Smooth Sailing

          Skill Builders

** Activities # 1 and # 4 are required before doing any other activities in this section. **

** 1.  Show you know how to be safe on the water including:

• What to do to prevent and treat hypothermia, near-drowning, heatstroke and sunburn.

• How to prevent and respond to emergencies including falling overboard, capsizing, swamping and collisions.

• How to determine weather patterns and wind direction and follow safe weather rules

• How to choose, check and care for life jackets and other safety gear.

• How to use a check-board system and/or file a float plan

2. Learn the communication signals and language used by sailors. Show that you know the meaning of nautical terms including: port and starboard, bow and stern, fore and aft, mast and boom, sheet and halyard, cast off and make fast, jibe and tack, lift and luff, heel and trim, head up and fall off, leeward and windward.

3.  Show you "know the ropes"

• Tie and show the use of a figure-eight knot, bowline, cleat hitch, round turn and two half-hitches, and reef (square) knot.

• Practice handling line: making a coil, getting kinks out of a line, typing to a post, ring or rail; making fast to a cleat, throwing a line for docking or towing.

** 4. Show you can get underway and handle a boat:

• Show how to step aboard, sit and move around

• Rig or ready the boat and raise or lower sails

• Start, stop and use the safety position

• Go through an overboard recovery

• Pick up a mooring, come along-side, make a landing and/or anchor the boat

5. Master maneuvering. Show that you know how to trim sail; steer a steady course; tack and jibe; and "get out of irons". Identify the points of sail on upward, down-wind and crosswind courses.

Technology

1. Get the general forecast from the newspaper, weather channel, radio or World Wide Web. Using a barometer, radar, storm signals, and/or National Weather Service radio, predict local conditions:

• Use a tide table to figure the time of sunrise, sunset, tides, or currents that affect your sailing

• Tell wind direction and estimate wind speed from telltales, flags, and wind's effect on the boat, wave heights, and other water conditions

• Predict weather changes by clouds and wind shifts

2. Know how to tell where you are and how to get where you want to go. Do two of the following:

• Be able to tell directions by the sun and the stars

• Practice dead reckoning, taking bearings, fixing your position, and estimating time of arrival

• Figure the latitude and longitude of your home port

• Read chart symbols for aids to navigation and hazards on and under the water

• Plot courses for a day's run. Figure the true, magnetic, and compass courses.

3. Fine-tune your boat for racing under sail. As crew or skipper, show how to get the most speed out of the boat, figuring when and how much to adjust your weight, sails, lines, centerboard, and rig. Or compare and contrast three sail rigs and their suitability for day sailing, cruising, or racing on different waters.

4. Get good at electronic communication and navigation aids: Using proper protocol, monitor and communicate on marine radio. Work with the GPS, depth sounder, radar, and other devices.

Service Projects

1. Help organize or volunteer at a sailing event, such as a sailing clinic, a race, a regatta, or a parade of tall ships.

2. Help maintain sailboats for active use or winter storage.

3. Teach someone how to choose and put on a PFD and other basics of safe sailing. (Contact the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary or the boating law enforcement agency for your unit
).

4. Volunteer at a maritime museum, lighthouse, Coast Guard station, or naval site, or on an historic sailing ship.

5. Teach younger girls to tie knots, bends, and hitches used by sailors, and how to whip and splice a line. Make something useful like a ditty bag or heaving line.

Career Exploration

1. Interview someone whose job is sailing-related: a sailing instructor; a trip leader for an eco-adventure company; a boat builder; a sail maker; a yacht broker; a deck-hand; a ship's cook; a licensed captain. Find out what kind of training and experience are needed.

2. Identify a college or training program for two of the following: nautical archaeologist, marine architect, admiralty lawyer, marina resort manager, marine biologist, member of the Navy or Coast Guard, or maritime museum curator or historian.

3. Bring maritime heritage to life. Learn and enjoy a tradition related to sailing, such as scrimshaw, macramé, ship modeling, or chantey singing.

4. Find out about programs and membership in local sailing groups that are part of national organizations, such as U.S. Sailing, U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, or the American Sail Training Association.

Space Exploration

SKILL BUILDERS

1. Find out about at least four of the following astronomical phenomena: quasars, pulsars, novas, supernovas, black holes, dwarf stars, giant stars, proto-stars, neutron stars, variable stars, cosmic clouds, and globular clusters. Can you observe any of these with the naked eye?
2. Visit a museum, planetarium, observatory, or space center to learn about the history of space exploration, or visit the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) site on the Internet to find out about projects currently in progress. Make a file of your findings and develop a list of Web sites for others to explore.
3. Learn more about the sun and the moon and their relationship to earth. Do two of the following.
   • Mark your calendar with the phases of the moon for a month.
   • Learn to read an ocean tide chart.
   • Make a poster illustrating why and how seasons change.
   • Demonstrate what happens during a solar or lunar eclipse.
   • Identify a tale or superstition about the sun or the moon. Discuss whether or not this is a valid or even measurable belief.
4. With a group discuss "the case for space," addressing issues such as: Who owns space? Who owns the moon? Who should fund space travel or research? What are priorities for research in space? What happens if we find other life in space? Come up with chars and posters depicting your questions and answers.
5. Science fiction often predicts future developments. Read science fiction written in the 1960s or earlier, or view an old science fiction film from the sixties or earlier. How do they appear today in light of the new information people have about space? Or try your hand at writing science fiction. Incorporate technological or social changes brought about by space travel.
6. Develop your own space exploration activity. Here are some of the things you might do:
   • Explore what countries around the world are doing in space exploration.
   • Using a telescope, monitor an object in the night sky for a month.
   • Visa NASA and, if possible, view the launching of a space vehicle.
   • Develop a space exploration resource file. NASA has many educational materials available to the public.
   • Keep a scrapbook of news clippings on items related to astronomy and space exploration.

TECHNOLOGY

1. Find out about the capabilities of today's telescopes. If possible, visit an observatory or a site on the World Wide Web to learn more about these telescopes.
2. Investigate the role of mathematics and computer simulations in developing theories about the universe. Talk with someone knowledgeable in astronomy or physics, if possible.
3. Design a human space colony. Decide whether it is a station in space or one that will be set up on a planet in this solar system. Determine what conditions will need to be considered as well as the purpose of the vehicle/structure, living arrangements, special equipment, health and safety needs, and environmental protection or danger. Share and explain your design or model with others.
4. Build an accurate scale model of a space exploration vehicle. Find out about its design, function, and basic operation. Be able to help others learn about your vehicle.
5. Construct a "flying object" - something that is capable of flight. Be able to explain the scientific principles that governed your design. Determine which actual flight vehicles operate on the same principles.

SERVICE PROJECTS

1. Help sponsor an event, such as a space exploration activity day or science career day. Incorporate hands-on and creative activities, such as acting in a play about women who have studied or explored space in some way.
2. Develop a booklet or display that highlights women who have played an important role in the history of flight and space exploration.
3. Help Brownie and Junior Girl Scouts learn about space exploration. Do two of the following: Conduct a night-sky exploration, put on a play about life on a space station, tell a story about a woman astronaut, including her training and achievements, or share stories from different cultures about the night sky.
4. Design a library exhibit about space and astronomy for your school, library. Or town recreation center. Include books, an activity box, and a list of resources in your display.
5. Using glow-in-the-dark paint, stars, or reflector tape, make an accurate constellation map on a ceiling. The map should include a minimum of twelve constellations in any season. Create a guided tour of the ceiling.

CAREER EXPLORATION

1. Check out at least two of the following careers and show how they are linked to the space program: biomedical engineering, meteorology, ceramics, chemistry, industrial engineering, materials science, metallurgy, optical engineering, physiology, and photography.
2. Plan to attend a "space camp" or astronomy camp to get more hands-one experiences.
3. Contact two science societies for professional women related to astronomy or space exploration. Find out what careers are related to space exploration. Also, find out what benefits members of the society receive and whether they have any special programs for young people.
4. List five way that you can maintain you interest in space and/or astronomy. Investigate and list space-related places to visit or activities to pursue in your communit
   
   y or on the Internet.

Sports for Life

          Skill Builders

** You must complete activitiy #1 as a prerequiste for the other Skill Builder activities. **

* 1. Before you start any sport you should gently stretch and strengthen the muscles you will be using. Talk to your gym teacher, coach, athletic trainer, dance teacher, or other professional for guidance to find out what stretches and exercises are appropriate for your sport.

2. A good pair of running shoes, a nice day, and a route are all you need to start walking, jogging, or running. Your physical education teacher or coach, an athlete, or a family member can help you to learn the proper techniques. Start out covering an easy distance. As your stamina improves, increase the distance. Keep safety in mind when planning your course. Avoid unit
s near heavy traffic or across rough or uneven surfaces. At the end of your run you don't want to find yourself far from home as well as tired, out of breath, and thirsty, so end your course right were you started. remember to stretch your muscle before you've begun and after you're finished. Begin your regimen with a three-day-a-week frequency. Rest on the other days to allow muscles to recuperate and adjust to their new workout. If you are running or jogging and you feel stress in your knees, shins, or back, slow down to a walk!

3. Cold weather offers a great opportunit

y for downhill or cross-country skiing, ice-skating, and snow boarding. Learn how to get started, stop, make turns, and get up from a fall. Practice with a friend for safety and security reasons. Falling in any of these sports can cause injury, so take a lesson from a certified trainer before you go out on your own!

4. Weight lifting and body conditioning can strengthen muscles and improve performance. you need loose, comfortable clothing, a pair of supportive sneakers, and a set of weights. Identify four or five muscle groups you want to tone and develop. learn how to stretch and strengthen each muscle group, and how to do two exercises for each muscle. Increase your difficulty level through repetitions before increasing the weights. To ensure that you get the most form your workout, ask a knowledgeable friend to watch your form.

5. Investigate at lest two types of marital arts: for example, tae kwon do, karate, yoga, judo, tai chi learn some basic moves or take a class in the sport you have chosen. Observe how mental attitude influences your physical performance. Demonstrate some of the exercises you've learned to the girls in your troop or group, or to others.

Technology

1. Clothing for outdoor sports is designed to keep you dry and comfortable. If your body is too cold, the potential for injury or hypothermia increases. The thermometer doesn't have to dip below freezing for these to be a threat. Too much heat can also be a problem. It can cause heat exhaustion and dehydration. Read a sports catalog or magazine or visit a sports hop and make a list of the different types of clothing items and fabrics that protect athlete s in the outdoors. Make a list of what you need to consider for the sport of your choice.

2. Sportswear now features reflective fabrics, so that an oncoming driver or athlete can more easily see you. Look at a variety of reflective sportswear. evaluate the effectiveness of reflective wear. Are the reflective portions placed in easily visible unit
s? Improve upon or design your own reflective sportswear and equipment.

3. Many sports have protective gear. learn about the materials and design used in the protective gear for your sport. How have they changed over the years? How might they change in the future?

4. As technology improves, more and more people who were once excluded from sports because of a disability or an injury can now play. Find out about two different adaptive/therapeutic devices, such as knee braces, orthotics, inhalers, an dprosthetics. how do they compensate for a disability? Talk with a sprots physician, a physical therapist, a sprots association member, a supplier/manufacturer of the devices, or a salesperson for information.

5. While some sports have been played for many years, in some cases the quality of the equipment has improved. Runners used to wear plain tennis shoes, not the sophisticated footwear you see today. Learn about the equipment for the sport(s) you are most interested in. Learn how to maintain and reapair your sports equipment.

Service Projects

1. Create a listing of local sports facilities accessible to people with disabilities, both as participants and spectators. Provide copies to your local changer of commerce and to the facilities mentioned in the listing.

2. Volunteer to assist an athletic trainer or recreational therapist.

3. Volunteer to help children in your communiyt become involved in sports. You could host a sprots evetn that enables youngsters to learn new skills. Use Girl-Sports Basics with a younger troop. Ask sports stores or organizations to donate the use of their equiepment, or arrange with the school to use their facilities. Or assist in an event such as a Special Olympics.

4. Volunteer to work with professionals in your communit

y to adapt an existing sports faciltiy so that it is accesible to peopel with disabilities, both as spectators and participatns.

5. Become an assistant coach for a season on a local girls' track and field team.

Career Exploration

1. Sports medicine involves a wide variety of professionals: for example, orthopedic surgeons, chiropractors, physical therapist, licensed massage therapists, psychologists, athletic trainers, medical supply manufacturers, and medical technicians. Investigate one of these careers. interview a professional in the field of sports medicine. If possible, observe her at work. make a record of your experience or write an article for your school paper.

2. Contact your local sports facilities and schools to find athletic trainers whom you can observe at work. Ask them about their qualifications and special unit
s of interest, such as aerobics or weight training.

3. Find out what colleges offer sports programs in unit
s of interest to you. See if they offer scholarships for athletes in those sports. Compile a list of these colleges for future reference.

4. Offer younger girls information about a sports career. For example, put together a photo essay or create a video.

5. Recreational therapists provide services to children and adults who have suffered some sort of trauma. They work at nursing homes, hospitals, and residential institutions. Ask if you can observe or interview a recreational therapist in order to learn about her work.

Textile Arts

          Skill Builders

1. Collect samples of wools, cottons, linens, and silks, as well as several synthetic fibers, such as polyester, nylon, and microfiber. Find a variety of textures and thicknesses. (The type of craft you choose may determine the kinds of materials you use.) Make a folder or notebook of your samples and note their special qualities, instructions for care, and the types of clothing or decorative items that each would be used for. Refer to this folder when completing a design.

2. Until synthetic dyes were developed in the nineteenth century, people used natural materials for putting colors in their fabrics. indigo dye from plants was used to make denim and other fabrics blue, while yellow could be made from such natural sources as onion skins, marigolds, and goldenrods. Experiment with some of these natural dyes  or others of your choosing. Be sure to wear protective clothing while working. make sure the utensils and containers that you choose won't be used later for food preparation or storage. Stainless steel, plastic, or shatter-proof glass items work best. Test your dyes on cotton, linen, or other natural fabrics and complete a project with your dyes.

3. Different handwork techniques such as knitting, crocheting, lace-making, embroidery, and stitching are used to adorn clothing, linens, and other household items. Learn one of the techniques and use it to decorate something for yourself or a friend.

4. Some forms of weaving, such as card weaving and finger weaving, do not require a special loom. Investigate three kinds of loomless weaving and prepare a simple project using a technique of your choice. Teach this technique to a group of younger Girl Scouts or children.

5. Quilting is a craft that has a long history and is enjoying a revival. One reason for this is that technology has made quilting so much easier. Just a few decades ago, it might have taken several women weeks or even months to make one quilt. Today, one woman can finish a quilt in a few days or a few weeks by using a rotary cutter and mat, a sewing machine, and a quilting pin gun. Find out how these tools are used. What advantages do they offer over the traditional hand methods? Make a quilt piece using either simple hand tools or the new sewing technology.

Technology

1. Weaving is one of the oldest and most enduring crafts, having spanned centuries and crossed many cultures. Simple weaving can be done on a loom you make yourself. Make a cardboard, wood-frame, inkle, backstrap, or other simple loom and carry out one of the projects listed below. Experiment with two of these techniques - plain weave, tapestry, or rya knots. Remember, use of color can make a simple project more exciting.

• On a cardboard or wood-frame loom, make a pillow or wall hanging

• On an inkle loom, make a belt, a guitar strap, or a bell pull

• On a backstrap loom, make a belt

2. Computer programs offer a way to design a textile project before cutting, dyeing, sewing, or otherwise committing to a project. By trying out your ideas beforehand, you get a sense of what the finished product will be. Use one of these programs to coordinate colors, design a quilt, enlarge a design, or whatever you choose. Show someone else how this flexibility can help you plan your craft project.

3. Visit a local crafts dealer to find out ways technology has transformed craft making. For example, items such as glue guns, iron-on-bond, and sergers can speed up the process in some crafts.

4. Select a craft or skill that involves textiles and find out more about production methods or tools.

Service Projects

1. Make sure your meeting room and home are stocked with durable crafts supplies. They don't have to be expensive. Sometimes merchants will donate or place on sale many crafts items, such as beads, buttons, yarn, and fabric.

2. With your troop or group, compile directions for making some of your favorite textile craft projects. Make activity cards or a booklet to share with other troops and groups in your council, or suggest that some of the activities be included in your council newsletter.

3. Invite members of a senior citizens' group to join your troop or group in sharing craft ideas. Find out what some of their favorite crafts are and how they compare with yours. Together, plan a crafts exhibit and teaching event for your council or communit

y.

4. With your troop or group, organize an event surrounding demonstrations of textile-related crafts from the past and the present. Invite adults of all ages to assist you in demonstrating these crafts, which may include quilting, darning, tatting, fabric painting, and stitchery, among others. Give participants an opportunit

y to make some of the crafts themselves.

Career Exploration

1.Plan your own small-scale, money-making project by yourself or with a friend. here are some suggestions: gift baskets, toys for young children, decorated clothing, decorative containers (boxes, baskets, etc), simple jewelry, decorative frames, or photo albums.

2. A number of occupations revolve around the design, care, and use of textiles. Find out about the requirements for at least two of the following careers and how these careers relate to the fiber and textile industries: weaver, pattern maker, seamstress, chemist, engineer, designer, historian, and preservationist.

3.  Some interior designers specialize in textile-related design elements. Collect information from books and magazines, and try at least one of the following projects in home decoration:

• Find out about two or three decorating techniques using fabric or sheets

• Try making a simple window treatment by draping fabric through holders or on rods, or cover a valance and install it.

• Use scraps of fabric, lace, and old buttons to design pillows for various rooms in the house

• Try stenciling, weaving, or embroidery to make place mats, napkins, or table runners

4. Visit at least three craftsperson's in your unit
and find out how they went about learning their craft. How much training did they need? How did they begin selling their crafts? How do they sell their crafts - through a studio, craft shows, or some other way? Ask them for suggestions on developing a portfolio of crafts.

Travel

          Skill Builders

1. Sample two modes of travel that are unfamiliar to you, or that you'd like to learn more about. Consider a ferry, mountain bike, horse-drawn wagon, sleigh, canoe, or horseback riding. Photograph your adventures and share them with your troop or group.

2. Plan and take a day or week-end trip to any U.S. city. Read pages 132-134 in A Resource Book for Senior Girl Scouts, and answer the questions on pages 133- 134. With the help of a travel agent, tour guide, or other adult, research transportation options and fares, accommodations, restaurants, activities, and tourist attractions. Check on special and seasonal events. What type of clothing is appropriate and what other gear might you need? Get a reasonable estimate of costs. Keep a trip diary and write in it for at least 10 minutes a day.

3. Which country, state, or city captures your fancy? Read travel guides, magazines, and travel sections of newspapers, Contact chambers of commerce, tourist boards, information centers, and travel agencies. Talk to experience travelers. keep a file and plan that trip for sometime in your future!

4. Getting away from it all starts with organizations. Create a master luggage list so you can pack effectively. Prepare a "Before Leaving Home" checklist that includes making arrangements for mail and newspaper delivery, plant and pet care, phone messages, and bill paying.

5. Find out how to say hello and good-bye in 10 different languages. Find a way to use this information in an activity with a younger group of girls, such as during an international flag cermony conducted in your troop or gorup, at a wider opportunit

y, or at a council-sponsored evetn.

6. With your troop or group, produce a simulated talk radio show on a particular travel subject, like the solo traveler, winter getaways, the student traveler. You may first want to listen to similar shows on the air. Invite a travel agent, a travel write, a hotel or restaurant manager, or a few experience travelers to be on your show.

7. Read about Girl Scout wider opportunit

ies in the Cadette Girl Scout Handbook or A Resource Book for Senior Girl Scouts. Find out what events are going on this year. Which ones might you want to apply for? Send away for an application, and start the process going!

Technology

1.Check out your local computer store and locat software on geogrpahy or travel. Make a list or resources for your troop or group.

2. Collaborate with your local cable compnay, historical society, museum, library, or chamber of commerce in making a video or crochure that descrbies your communit

y or town.

3. Find three list servers or Web sties for travlers or travel writers. What type of informaiton is on them?

4. Learn to read two of the following: a topographical map, nautical chart, subway guide, street map, road map, or CD-ROM map.

5. Find out about recent technologicla advance in airpport security. What mechanisms are in place now to help ensure safety?

Service Projects

1. With a communit

y group or organization that helps people with disabilities, volunteer to assist a person with special needs take a short day trip. Find out about special facilities she may need, such as moving walkways or wheelchair ramps. Ask about travel agencies or organizations that cater to individuals who have disabilities.

2. Enjoy a travel adventure with someone who finds it difficult to travel on her own. Discuss her needs and concerns ahead of time. Ask what she would like to do and work together to arrange for transportation, dietary needs, and additional help, if needed.

3. volunteer for about five hours with a group that works to help people who have recently arrived in your communit

y.

4. Plan a neighborhood walk or tour for a younger Girl Scout troop. Include interesting places like a bakery or toy sore. Ask a local merchant or restaurant if you can see the behind-the-scenes operation.

5. Bring a faraway place to those who cannot travel long distances. For example, organize a slide show with music to give nursing home or rehabilitation center residents a chance for armchair travel to a distant land.

Career Exploration

1. Explore careers in the travel industry by organizing a travel fair. Choose from travel agents, tour guides, hotel managers, travel writers, restaurant personnel, airline employees, car rental agents, social directors, and ship officers. Ask them to set up booths and be willing to give short talks about the nature of their jobs, education and training requirements, and financial and other rewards.

2. Invite a travel writer or photographer to speak to your troop or group. how does she come up with story or picture ideas? What research and travel are involved? Can a writer or photographer use material form her own vacations? What are the benefits and demands of being a travel writer or photographer? Look at her work samples.

3. Find out about careers in two other countries, including educational requirements, working conditions and salaries.

4. Write a piece about  a recent interesting trip you've taken or about a fantasy vacation, and send your article or story to a suitable travel magazine.

5. Compile a list of jobs in travel and tourism: for example, tour operator or guide, pilot, flight attendant, interpreter, cruise ship activity planner, hotel musician. what types of skills, such as speaking several languages, would you need? Make a presentation or visual display for a career night event.

Understanding Yourself and Others

          Skill Builders

1. You can learn a lot about people by watching them - in school, in a public place, at a party. Observe body language (gestures, facial expressions, posture, etc) and listen to what people say. share at least five observations in a troop or group meeting.

2. Set a personal goal that you can reasonably accomplish in one month. For help, review the Cadette Girl Scout Handbook, especially chapter 5, "Skills for Life", or A Resource Book for Senior Girl Scouts, chapter 5, "Skills for Living - The Amazing Balancing Act". Both books offer tips for managing your money, time, etc.

3. Every culture develops social norms or ways of interacting with people (such as how close to stand to another person). Observe what happens when you break these norms. Do one of the activities that follows:

• Go to a public place, and sit right next to a person at a relatively empty table.

• During conversation with a friend, stand closer to her than you usually do.

• Ride an elevator facing the back instead of the front.

• Treat someone whom you're usually friendly with in a formal manner.

How difficult was it for you to do the activity? How did the other person react? Why?

As an alternative, act out one of your choices with a friend if that would make you feel more comfortable. Afterward discuss how you think you and the other person would have reacted in a real situation.

4. Write your autobiography. Interview your relatives for help in remembering events from when you were younger, or look at  a family photo album to help recollect them. How have these events from the past shaped who your today? Draw pictures or use photos to illustrate your autobiography.

5. With friends, or in your troop or group, role-play at least two of the following situations:

• A girl is being pressured by her friends to try drugs at a party

• A girl makes a prejudiced remark about a classmate who is not there

• A girls' parents tell her she can't go to the school dance

After your role-play, share any new insights you have gained from this activity. 

Technology

1. With the help of friends or other members of your troop or group, create a video or presentation that focuses on building self-esteem or awareness about a particular issue that affects teens. Topics to consider: violence prevention, substance abuse, or pressure to be successful.

2. Some people, perhaps your older relatives, did not grow up using computers. As a result, they may feel intimidated by all the new technology. Create a plan to introduce these beginners to a computer system or other technology.

3. Accidents are often caused by "human error" (for example, pressing the wrong pedal in a car). If tools and machines were easier for people to operate, some of these mistakes could be avoided. Change the design of a tool or machine (such as a car, a commuter, or a garden tool) to make human errors less likely. Engineers who do this type of design work are called "human factors engineers." If you come up with a really good suggestion, send it to the manufacturer.

4. Find out how well television and other media represent the elderly, women, and people of color. For a one-week period, keep a record of three shows (including the commercials) that you watch regularly. Pay attention to what each character is doing (cooking dinner, working in a lab, etc); their personal attributes (intelligence and attractiveness, for example); their roles at work, in school, or within the family; and how each character is treated by others. Share your observations and conclusions with others.

Service Projects

1. Design and carry out a project  to change attitudes, and hopefully behavior, about an important issue, such as drunk driving, the use of seat belts, or racial or religious prejudice. Remember, attitudes are often emotional and deeply ingrained. Presenting a good, logical argument may not be enough to change people's attitudes. What else could you do?

2. Peer pressure can be a powerful influence in a girl's life. With some friends, put on a play for younger girls that demonstrates both the benefits and harmful effects of peer pressure.

3. Teenagers often say, "Nobody understands me". Put together a booklet to help parents, teachers, and other adults gain a better understanding of what it means to be a teenager today. Use cartoons, photographs, poems, stories, etc to get your points across. Share your booklet with adults close to you!

4. How do you feel and act when you wear different types of clothing: for example, a fancy dress or your Girl Scout uniform? Do the people you know or strangers treat you differently? Keep a record of reactions as you change your style of clothing during a two-week period. Also keep track of how you react to people wearing unusual clothing.

Career Exploration

1.In many instances, people get hired for jobs because o their "people skills." Employees also get fired because of personality conflicts with others. Observe different types of people at work. What personal characteristics make them good (or bad) at what they do?

2. Psychologists work in a huge number of professions and settings. Compile a list of 8 - 10 possible jobs for someone with a psychology background; gather in-depth information about two of them.

3. Everyone plays many roles. You're a student, a Girl Scout, a friend, and so on. Create a list of your roles. Do the same for an adult you know. Spend a day with that adult and see how she plays out her various roles: for example, bank manager, mother, and so on.

4. Design a dream job of the future based on your interpersonal skills. For instance, if you have a "good ear" for listening to your friends problems, you might succeed in the field of counseling. Describe the responsibilities of your dream job, and the training necessary for it. Ask an adult you know in a related career for help.

5. Sports psychology is a growing field. Find out about some of the techniques that are used and try out a couple of them.

Visual Arts

          Skill Builders

1. Design a "home studio." It can be as simple as a table in the corner of your bedroom, the living room, or the family room. Stock it with construction paper, scissors, tape, glue, crayons, markers, colored pencils and any other drawing materials.

2. Work with a local artist or craftsperson in her studio. Decide together what your responsibilities and time commitment will be.

3. Create a painting, drawing, or sculpture that expresses something you feel deeply. Show the artwork to others.

4. Visit a museum, gallery, or shop that sells postcards of paintings. Do an art activity based on paintings you especially liked. For example, arrange to sketch the inside of a diner or restaurant that reminds you of an Edward Hopper painting of an urban scene.

5. Take a walking tour with friends and stop at points where art objects may be seen. Look for sculptures or murals in public spaces, mosaic tile art on floors or walls of buildings, posters inside stores, and department store window displays.

6. What skills do you need to become a fine artist? Learn about and practice at least two of the following skills in  a class at school, by attending a museum course, by reading a book, or from an art mentor:

• Perspective

• Composition

• Color and Design

• Light and shadow

Technology

1. Create an original work of art in any two-dimension medium. For example, work on a painting, a woodblock, a lithograph, a pen-and-ink drawing, or a silk-screen. Learn the procedures and try individual ways of handling your chosen medium. Learn about the chemicals, solvents, and tools used in your medium. Make sure that you choose nontoxic products and use a  work space with adequate ventilation.

2. Find out about etching or another printing method by reading about it or visiting a museum or gallery. Create your own plate or block from which to print. To learn about he craft of printing, visit a professional printmaker's studio, speak with an art teacher, or attend a print-making class.

3. How are fabric designs created? How are fabrics designed for permanency (permitting the fabric to be washed or dry-cleaned)? Ask a textile designer or teacher for answers to these questions, then create a design for fabrics you would like to see in stores.

4. Make a sculpture of a human figure using an armature, a wire frame upon which you apply pieces of clay. Use self-draying clay that can dry indoors or in the sun.

Service Projects

1. Help to design and paint a mural depicting a scene that stresses cultural appreciation. Display your work in your meeting place, the lobby of a public library, at your school, or in your Girl Scout council office.

2. Use recyclable materials to create a sculpture that shows the need to reuse materials to protect the environment and the benefits or recycling.

3. With a group of younger girls use popsicle sticks, clay, colored paper, and any other materials to create a 3-D model of an ideal playground structure that could be used in a park in your communit

y.

4. Become an expert in one visual art technique and volunteer to help a group of seniors use this skill in a project. For example, you might teach them about drawing cartoons, sketching portraits, or painting with watercolors.

Career Exploration

1. Interview or shadow for a day an artiest in your communit

y to determine her special qualities and skills.

2. Art therapists help people analyze their behaviors and feelings through the use of drawing and painting. Visit or call a hospital, rehabilitation center, or college that has an art therapy program. Ask a therapist about the rewards and challenges of her job. Find out from her about the employment prospects in her profession.

3. Arrange to interview two art teachers working at different age levels (perhaps one at a middle school and another at the college level). Ask them how they arrange their schedules so that they can both teach and create their art. What are the challenges of their lifestyles? Ask them for any advice they can offer a young artist starting out.

4. Meet with or read about an artist who works in a craft such as pottery, photography, weaving, silk-screening, jewelry making, or quilting. What steps did she take to develop her career? What does she think is the most interesting aspect of her career?

5. Become a docent, or tour guide, at an art museum.

6. Visit an art museum to view the work of a favorite artist. Read about the life and work of this artist. Find out:

• What kind of childhood the artist had. (For instance, the well-known children's author/illustrator Beatrix Potter drew from nature as a young girl).

• What the artists' early career was like.

• What challenges were overcome.

• How her style changed over time.

Water Sports

          Skill Builders

1. Demonstrate basic self-rescue in the water and without a PFD. Complete a swimming, emergency water safety, lifeguarding, or boating safety course to advance your skills in water safety.

2. Identify how exposure to the sun, wind, and water can be harmful, and which strategies will avoid these harmful effects. Learn how to recognize and administer basic first aid for sunburn, heat stroke, heat cramps, heat exhaustion, hypothermia, frostbite, and seasickness. know when to seek a doctor's help.

3. Demonstrate proper technique in at least three basic swimming strokes. measure your endurance and set a goal to improve it. Or participate in one of the following ways" competitive, synchronized, therapeutic, or lap swimming.

4. Attend a water aerobics class for at least six sessions. Learn proper warm-up and stretching exercises, aerobic exercises, body sculpting exercises, and cool-down exercise.

5. This activity is for very accomplished swimmers only. Learn to use a snorkel, mask, and swim fins in a pool, lake, or ocean, under the guidance of an experienced person. Know what to look for in a mask, snorkel, and fins, and how to they should fit you. Practice defogging the mask and clearing the snorkel, as well as how to avoid ear problems with increased water pressure. Practice entering and leaving the water, surface swimming, and dives. Discuss basic safety and what you should know about the water environment before entering. Take care to leave under-water life and habitats undisturbed.

6. If you are an accomplished ocean swimmer, learn to surf. With an experience instructor or advanced surfer, discuss your knowledge of ocean conditions such as bottom, tides, currents, and wave action. In surf that matches your ability, demonstrate ways to avoid falling off your board, and ways of falling or diving from the board safely. Discuss and demonstrate ways of controlling the board. Be sure to do warm-up exercises and cool-down stretches for legs, arms, and back.

Technology

1. Visit a university or water sports training center. learn what kinds of equipment and technology are employed to analyze and improve swim strokes or other water sports techniques. If possible, use some of this sports equipment under the guidance of a qualified expert.

2. Visit a sporting goods store, review after sports magazines, view a video, or speak to someone who uses the equipment to find out about the latest advances in equipment for a water sports of your choice. Consider snorkeling, scuba diving, windsurfing, water skiing, or surfing.

3. Use the Internet or World Wide Web to find out what is happening around the world in water sports. Do  a key word search and keep a log of the resources you find. Are there any organizations, magazines, or chat groups of interest? Find out if your state or communit

y has an online directory of water sports unit
s.

4. Learn how to monitor the water quality of a swimming are. Find out which tests are needed for the water in which you will swim. what is done when the conditions are not within safety guidelines? What tests are performed to test for water quality in public unit
s? What happens if water quality in a lake or public beach does not meet these standards? Find out about specific laws governing water testing in public swimming unit
s, and who monitors the testing.

5. Learn how to use a shortwave radio, CB radio, or other communications systems on a water-craft. Learn how to navigate by radio signals, landmarks, or the stars.

Service Projects

1.Take part in or organize a waterfront or shoreline cleanup. Use proper safety gear (such as gloves, goggles, flotation devices). Or help address the root of the problem by assisting with a public education program aimed at stopping shoreline littering and pollution.

2. Volunteer to work with an organization sponsoring a swimming meet, regatta, or sailing event. Help in both the planning and implementation stages.

3. Assist in or lead a water aerobics class. Use exercise routines that work all parts of the body. Consult with someone with expertise in this unit
.

4. Help promote a backyard pool safety program or water safety program in your communit

y. Learn local laws and water safety tips and find a way to help users become more aware of water safety.

5. Attend a hearing or do a project concerned with use or preservation of waterfront property. Are there landfills or ecological hazards affecting bodies of water in your unit
? Research and prepare a report of your findings. Include drawings or photos, if you wish.

6. Create a swimming relay game or water game for young swimmers. Use several different strokes and plan activities with balls, inner tubes, rafts, and ropes. See the chapter "Wide Games and Special Events" in the Girl Scout resource Games for Girl Scouts.

Career Exploration

1. Visit or shadow an aquatics director at a Girl Scout camp, communit

y center, or other recreation facility. Find out what part-time or full-time opportunit

ies are available in aquatic sports facilities as an instructor, coach, manager, massage therapist, or dietitian. Explore education, training, and certification requirements for three of these positions.

2. Volunteer or work as a life-guard for several Girl Scout events or an ongoing program. Or assist in a swimming instruction program for younger girls. In order to do this activity, you must meet all the necessary requirements outlines in Safety-Wise.

3. Hydrotherapy, or water therapy, is useful to both people and animals. Investigate the medical, educational, or engineering fields that provide the therapies and/or design the equipment for hydrotherapy by interviewing two professionals in the field. Learn how hydrotherapy helps people or animals.

4. Combine a curiosity for science and a love of water to find out about jobs in oceanography, marine biology, fish and wildlife, aquarium management, or research. Visit or talk to someone by phone or online at a university marine biology or fisheries program, a fish hatchery, an aquarium or sea park, or a water wildlife preserve to find out how her job combines field work, management, and research.

5. Observe a YMCA or Red Cross baby or toddler swim class. Learn what safety methods are recommended for small children around polls. Discover ways to introduce small children to water so that they enjoy and respect it.

Why in the World?

          Skill Builders

1. Why does the weather often change from day to day and from one season to the next? What makes a "Bad hair day"? Investigate weather patterns by talking with a meteorologist, visiting a meteorological Web site, or watching a television weather station. Find out what happens when a warm front meets a cold front, a cold front meets a warm front, or the jest stream shifts north or south in the winter or summer. What is El Nino and how does it affect weather? What causes global warming and holes in the ozone? Learn to read three weather instruments as well as the weather map in your local newspaper.

2. Have you ever asked yourself how something works? To find out, start by observing an item while it is in use; for example, a radio, a telephone, or a bicycle. Identify its purpose, its parts, and its energy source. Using resources found in the library, a science museum, or on the World Wide Wed, draw a diagram to show how it works, or make a model of it.

3. Visit a science museum, rock shop, or the gem and mineral collection at the Smithsonian Web site to learn more about gems and minerals. Learn how to identify at least 10 minerals. Start a collection of common rocks and minerals found in your unit
.

4. Investigate how new synthetic materials play an important role in two or more of the following: clothing, cars, homes, toys, sports equipment, media equipment, and medicine. What materials were previously used? What are the advantages of the new materials?

5. Find out about modern techniques used in food production, processing, or preservation. Select one unit
and identify some of the key issues relevant in your communit

y. For example, does the use of pesticides need to be more carefully monitored? Hold a debate on the pros and cons of the issue. Share the results of your debate.

6. Be  a creative cook. Learn the chemical properties of carbohydrates (sugar, starch), microbes (yeast), acids and bases (lemon juice, baking soda, and baking powder), oils, proteins (eggs, gelatin, meat and milk), and other substances. Create a recipe from scratch that involves a chemical reaction, using at least two items from the above list. Share your tasty creation with others.

Technology

1. Ergonomics is a growing field of study that analyzes the human body in relation to physical space. The objective is to create suitable work, products, and work environments for people. Investigate the design that is best for an office. How can computers be set up to prevent back, eye, and wrist strain for the users? What is the best kind of chair for long periods of use? Evaluate your own study unit
. Make two "ergonomically correct" changes in the position of your desk and other study-related furnishings and equipment: for example, is your chair at the correct height for your desk? Share this information with others.

2. Tour a manufacturing or food processing plant. How are different machines used to make and assemble a product, from start to finish? What are the roles of workers in the production process? Are robots used? What kinds of laws govern the manufacturing process to ensure quality and safety? How was this product produced 50 years ago? Share your information at a meeting, club, or career fair. If possible, show slides, photographs, or diagrams of your findings.

3. How have science and technology affected the arts? Talk with a musician, sculptor, actor, photographer, or other artist. What new materials and tools do they use? What new art forms are being created that use advances in technology? Experiment with one of these new art forms.

4. Name the manufactured parts that can be implanted in the human body. Consult with a biomedical engineer or surgeon, and look at medical textbook illustrations. Discuss reasons that body parts may need to be replaced or strengthened. Then draw an outline of the body. Label the parts that can be replaced now. What materials are used to create these artificial body parts, and why? What are the scientific challenges and the ethical considerations in this field?

5. Take a common household appliance such as a refrigerator, stove, TV, CD player, or telephone and think forward 20 years. How will it look? What might it be able to do? Will it be the same appliance or will it be combined with something else? Draw or design and display a model of an appliance of the future. Or read a magazine or find a Web site that predicts new developments in science and technology. Present your findings through a creative medium: for example:  paint a mural, make a poster, or write a poem. Share it with others.

Service Projects

1. Help organize a school or Girl Scout science fair that encourages participation by girls.

2. Help a Brownie or Junior Girl Scout troop or group earn a science Try-It or badge and/or use activities from the National Science Partnership science kits. Or develop a series of science and health activities for girls in a homeless shelter or after-school program.

3. Volunteer in an ongoing program to educate others about breast cancer or osteoporosis, or other diseases that affect many more women than men.

4. Work with an organization to inform other teens about sexually transmitted diseases(STDs), drug use, smoking, anorexia, or bulimia.

5. Host a forum to generate greater interest among girls in science and math. Invite teachers and women scientists to participate.

Career Exploration

1. How do women get involved in science? Interview at least two women in science fields. Find out how they got started. Did they have mentors? While in high school, did they have to contend with negative stereotypes about girls who like science or girls who are smart? How do they feel about the future for women in science?

2. Identify at least three women scientists who have won the Nobel Prize and report on or write about their contributions in your club, science class, or troop or group meeting.

3. Participate in a scientist pen pal program through an established mentor project or through a professional organization. Ask your librarian or guidance counselor for assistance.

4. Volunteer as a demonstrator at a science exhibit, science museum, or nature center.

Wildlife

          Skill Builders

      You will find the Girl Scout book Exploring Wildlife Communit

ies with Children very helpful as you work on the following activities.

1. Find a natural unit
such as a forested park, a meadow, or a pond that you can use as a field ecology study site. Visit the site and take time to conduct some observations. What did you see, hear, smell or feel? Record the date, time of day, temperature, and weather conditions.

2. Identify as many of the flowers, shrubs, and trees at a field ecology study site as you can. Sketch some of them in a field notebook. Use a field guide to identify them; record their names alongside your sketches.

3. Identify and record the names of animals you see, or find signs of, at a field ecology study site. Look carefully for and learn to recognize animal tracks. Be able to name at least three. Try to follow the trail of an animal in mud, sand, or snow and see if you can tell what it was doing (walking, running, etc). You may wish to photograph the tracks or make plaster casts so you can show them to younger girls. For help in identifying insects and their relatives, see page 19 of the Girl Scout book Fun and Easy Nature and Science Investigations.

4. Select a specific animal to observe at a field ecology study site. Record the date, time, location, and weather conditions at the time of your observation. Create an ethogram, a detailed record of animal behavior, by putting down categories of behavior on a chart: for example, walk, run, rest, play. Observe for about 20 minutes. Note when the behaviors occur at regular times (for example, 30 seconds or one minute). Also note how the animal interacts with others of its kinds and with other species of animals.

5. Put up several bird houses. Find out the box dimensions and entrance hole sizes for the species you wish to attract. You can either make them yourself or purchase them. Discover why it is beneficial to have birds living nearby.

6. Conduct an experiment to show how a plant reacts to its environment (either at a field ecology site or in your home). Think carefully about what environmental conditions you want to test. Record and/or illustrate what happens during your experiment. Be careful not to injure the plant.

Technology

1.Learn about how wildlife biologists study animals in the field. that types of equipment do they use and how? Is different equipment used for animals of the land, air, or water?

2. Choose three species from any of the following categories for in-depth study: birds, mammals, insects, reptiles, amphibians, fish, trees, herbaceous pants. use current computer technology (CD-ROM's, online encyclopedias, Web sites of wildlife organizations, etc) to help you answer the following questions: What are the species' habitat requirements? What is its life history? How does if fit into the food chain? Is it threatened or endangered? If so, why?

3. Research how documentaries about wildlife are produced. Discuss ethical and practical issues related to photographing, filming, or recording animals in their natural surroundings.

4. Find out who insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides travel through an ecosystem. Create a visual display that shows the hazards of using these chemicals for both wildlife and people. Investigate alternatives to these products and  suggest their use to family or friends who have a garden.

Service Projects

1. Teach the meaning of following italicized words to younger Girl Scouts by creating a game that used the words: predator, prey, plant life, herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, scavenger, decomposer, wildlife communit

y, food web.

2. Contact a local wildlife agency, bird club, or nature center to volunteer your services. You could participate in a project to restore a wildlife habitat by planting trees, erecting wood duck nest boxes, building dens, or cleaning a section of a stream or vacant lot. Involve other Girl Scouts in the project. Record your results as you carry out the project.

3. Help make a nature trail at your Girl Scout camp or local park accessible to more people. For example, design a set of trail markers with information about a plant, animal, or rock formation that can be easily read by someone in a wheelchair. Another idea is to produce an audiotape that a visually impaired person can use along the same nature trail to help inform her of the special feature each marker highlights.

4. Examine your own values and beliefs related to wildlife and the environment and evaluate possible actions you could take. With a group of Girl Scouts, discuss an environmental issue important in your are or a broader issue, such as hunting, acid rain, or the logging of forests.

5. With the cooperation of your Girl Scout council, survey one campsite. Inventory the property by listing the kinds of plants and animals found there. Highlight threatened or endangered species and the problems they face. Organize a group of Girl Scouts to create an endangered species bulleting board at the campsite to raise awareness among other Girl Scouts about the plight of the species on the property and elsewhere in the country or world. Read page 106 of the Cadette Girl Scout Handbook to find out about setting up a Lou Henry Hoover Memorial Sanctuary at your campsite.

Career Exploration

1. Brainstorm five career choices involving wildlife and the environment. Contact government agencies and other organizations that might employ people in such careers and interview one of them. How did she get into this field? What does she do on a daily basis?

2. Investigate what it means to be an ethno-botanist or cultural ecologist. Or explore another career that combines knowledge of wildlife and people. Arrange to interview someone and ask her what species she studies, what her background and training are, etc.

3. Arrange to shadow a wildlife biologist or naturalist for part of a day to learn about the job.

4. Investigate laws that protect wildlife around the world. How effective are these laws in regulating trade? Which group of people benefits from the sale of wildlife products? Pick an animal species affected by the trade in wildlife products (for example, the African elephant hunted for its ivory or the snow leopard hunted for its fur) and write a story or a play about it. Share it with or show it to younger Girl Scouts.

Women's Health

          Skill Builders

1. Evaluate the stress in your life. Stress isn't always negative. It can motivate, challenge, and propel you to achieve your visions and dreams. What are the positive stresses in your life? How do they keep you going? What are the negative stresses you might want to reduce? Read "Life Success Skills #2 Handling Stress," on pages 88 - 90 in the Cadette Girl Scout Handbook. Complete the Teenage Stress Scale. Look over the "Stress Reducers" on page 61 of A Resource Book for Senior Girl Scouts. Try some of the stress reducing activities.

2. Learn about the harmful effects of drugs, such as alcohol, caffeine, tobacco, amphetamines, marijuana, cocaine/crack, or steroids on the body. Become an expert on one substance and the consequences of using or abusing it. Then participate in a project to prevent substance abuse.

3. Investigate the importance of a healthy diet. Research major threats to good nutrition in females, including anorexia and other eating disorders and fad dieting. Design a poster or draw a story-board to depict your feelings.

4. Read the information on breast cancer awareness in A Resource Book for Senior Girl Scouts and other sources. help develop or promote a workshop that focuses on both prevention and education for peers.

5. Bones are the framework upon which your body is built. Find out what bones are made of, what part calcium plays in forming healthy bones, and what foods or nutritional supplements ensure bone health. Investigate the role or exercise in bone health. Osteoporosis is a disease that causes bones to become fragile and break easily. Share your findings on bone health.

6. With the help of experts, design an exercise program to promote cardiovascular fitness. Include vigorous aerobic activities, including warm-up and cool-down exercises. Incorporate monitoring the pulse rate of the participant before, during, and after the exercise program.

Technology

1. Visit a cardiac rehabilitation center. Find out about technology used to detect cardiac problems and promote cardiovascular fitness. Share this information with others.

2. Today the study of DNA has become central to medical research, and is dramatically changing the ways in which diseases are understood. Online or at a specialized medical library (try your hospital or university), research and discover what female health issues are related to genetic factors.

3. Find out how advances in technology have changed the detection of breast cancer and other diseases over the past 25 years.

4. At a gym, health club, or store, try out three types of fitness equipment. Which features help to maintain or increase your motivation? Teach a friend or family member how to use the equipment.

Service Projects

1. Create and monitor a health-care program for an older relative or neighbor. help her choose three goals to achieve over a two-month period, such as exercising three times per week, eating healthier foods, and attending a senior hobby group once a week. Be sure that the individual you are working with has her doctor's permission to follow your program.

2. After researching the effects of smoking, create an antismoking campaign for your school or communit

y. Contact local or national organizations for materials and information. Use various media, such as posters and films, to present your message.

3. Create a program for younger children (puppet show, game, coloring book, or other activity) to help them understand healthy habits, such as choosing good foods and handling stress.

4. Sleep is one of the components of health and fitness that people most often neglect. Yet inadequate sleep can adversely affect your whole day. Present a workshop on sleep to a Girl Scout troop or group. Issues to address might include how sleep can affect your ability to exercise; how exercise can impact on sleep; how lack of sleep can affect reaction time, memory, logical thinking, and the immune system. Include information about the sleep needs of adolescents.

5. Participate in a council wide "Be Your Best!" or sports-day event. For example, volunteer to coach younger Girl Scouts in a game.

Career Exploration

1. Volunteer at your local hospital or rehabilitation center. Record your experiences and feelings in a journal. Develop your own long-term and short-term goals concerning working in the medical and health-care fields.

2. Visit at least two training programs or schools in the health care field in person or online. Find out about entrance requirements, recommended courses, and career options. If possible, interview someone enrolled in one of the programs.

3. Investigate opportunit

ies and issues in scientific research in the unit
of women's' health. Visit a laboratory or online chat room, or attend a professional meeting of scientists so that you can talk with women doing research.

4. With a team, organize a panel discussion at school or in your Girl Scout troop or group on the topic of careers related to women's health concerns.

5. Read two biographies or autobiographies of women who have worked in a field related to women's health.

Women Through Time

          Skill Builders

1. Explore your personal history by finding out about the women in your family. Look back at least two generations by reading family records or by talking to relatives to find out about rites of passage, educational or work experiences, travels, illnesses, or major family events. How did those events reflect what was happening in the world at the time? Record interesting details about the women's lives, personalities, and traditions in a scrapbook, on audiotape, or on videotape.

2. Conduct an oral history interview with an older woman. Ask her what it was like growing up. What were the educational and work opportunit

ies? What are the major changes from her childhood to now? Ask about changes in technology, communication, travel, entertainment, social roles, and responsibilities.

3. Go to a library or a museum and look through magazines or newspapers form 20 ore more years ago. How were women written about? If possible, go back even further in time. Can you see changes in the roles of women from one period to the next? What are the differences and similarities between images then and now? Be creative and make a historical or artistic collage to illustrate your findings.

4. Explore the life of Juliette Gordon Low. Visit her birthplace in Savannah or read about her in historical materials. What events in her life gave her the strength and vision to inspire the Girl Scout movement? Write an essay or discuss your findings with your troop or group.

5. Read a diary, journal, or autobiography of a women who lived at least 25 years ago. Keep your own journal for at least a month.

6. Select an era in American history that interests you: for example, colonial America, the American frontier in the 1850's, the Roaring Twenties, or World War II. Find out what it was like to be a woman during that time period. Read a book, view a documentary, or visit a museum. Share your discoveries with your troop or group with a discussion, in an essay, or through illustrations.

Technology

1. After searching the Web for information on female leaders through history, develop an interactive game, videotape, or audiotape describing their accomplishments.

2. Find a way to share information and to celebrate the role of women in science and technology for National Women's History Week (March) or other appropriate celebration.

3. Put together a multimedia program that honors the contributions of women in a particular field; for example, the visual and performing arts or the sciences.

4. Learn a skill, domestic art, or craft practiced by women in earlier times but replaced by technology and busy lifestyles, such as home canning, quilting, knitting, soap making, weaving, or basket making. make something as a gift for someone.

Service Projects

1. Develop a display about women's' history or a women's issue for your local library or school: for example, women aviators or the suffragettes, who fought for the right of women to vote. Present the information to younger girls in a lively way.

2. Create a walking tour that addresses the historical contributions of women in your communit

y. Include streets and buildings named after women, historic residences, places of business, and historic events.

3. Help develop a brochure or hands-on activity for a historical museum that interprets the daily lives and times of girls and women. Or assist as a guide.

4. Become well-informed about an issue affecting women, such as breast cancer, domestic violence, elder care, or child care. Volunteer to help an organization that deals with the issue.

5. Organize or participate in an event to honor the contributions of women: for example, a women's history fair, a women's film festival, an awards program to honor the contributions of women in your communit

y, or an event honoring Girl Scouts.

Career Exploration

1. Interview someone who works in a field that deals with women's history; for example, a research librarian, an archivist, a costume maker, an author or journalist, or a women's studies teacher. Find out what she likes about her job and how she sees it as connecting the past with the present or future.

2. Research the changes in women's career opportunit

ies in professional sports over the past 30 years. Find out about eh lives of three or four women who have contributed to changes in this unit
. In a troop or group meeting, discuss the changes and what these women have envisioned as the future of women's professional sports.

3. Explore women's roles and opportunit

ies in the U.S. military service or in politics. Trace women's historical impact and present-day service. Interview a woman who has served in the military or in politics.

4. Read about  a woman who was a "pioneer" in a nontraditional career. Or interview a woman who works in a career such as engineering or aviation, in which there are few women. What obstacles did she face, if any? Did anyone serves s her mentor?

5. Investigate at least three different women's history or women's studies courses in schools of higher education. What unit
s are encompassed in women's studies and to which possible career options do they lead? If possible, interview someone who is a student or adviser in one of these programs.

A World of Understanding

          Skill Builders

1.  Plan what you would do to host a visitor from a different country. If you had the ability to transport this visitor across the continent, what would you show her that was typically "American" and that reflects the multiethnic nature of American society. Make a one-week itinerary for this visitor.

2. Choose a section of your town or your neighborhood and create a "walking tour." Identify the cultures of the people who originally settled in this unit
. Did any famous people live in the buildings? How has the unit
changed over the years? If possible, take a small group on the tour you have created.

3. Explore the cultural identity of your own family by tracing your roots. Create a family tree that includes at least your great-grand-parents. Make sure to include any significance like changes in names or religious. You might want to create a chart that you can distribute to other members of your family, who will surely find your project interesting.

4. The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to military leaders and pacifists, diplomats and philosophers, and activists who protect human rights. If you were on the committee today, who might you nominate? Learn about at least one woman who has received the Nobel Peace Prize by reading or viewing an account of her actions.

5. Participate in mediation training, a peer leadership program, or a guided role-play focusing on a world peace topic. What are the connections you can make about mediation between individuals and medication between groups or nations?

6. Plan and stage an event where each girl wears clothing representing a different country or ethnic group. Discuss what that clothing tells you about being female in that country or group. What roles and behaviors are expected of these women? How does their clothing affect everyday activities? Find out what clothing young women in a country of your choice wear to school, on the job, and on special holidays.

7. Pick a country and plan a trip to it. Use at least three different resources to find out about the country - such as the public library, a consulate, a travel agent, someone from that country, or special organizations that promote international understanding - and plan your travel itinerary.

Technology

1. Watch three different news shows that highlight world news. For each show, make a list of the topics and countries that are highlighted. What types of stories are selected to air about other countries? Discuss with a group of peers or your family what you have observed. How powerful a force has televisions become in shaping our impressions of and opinions about other countries? Can you list positive and negative aspects of this technology?

2. Search the Internet for information on a country or culture that intrigues you.

3. Learn about how computers are used for translating languages, especially those that use a different alphabet or characters.

4. Find out how technology is used to identify important information about artifacts from different cultures.

5. Use shortwave or ham radio to listen to broadcasts from abroad. Perhaps you can find someone in your neighborhood with this type of equipment.

Service Projects

1. Work with an organization, religious group, or program that helps immigrants new to the unit

ed States settle into their communit

ies.

2. Plan a dining experience with a foreign exchange student. Research restaurants in your communit

y that serve ethnic foods or foods your guest would like to try. At dinner, compare how this food is the same as or different from  the cuisine in the student's home country.

3. Volunteer with a local group or organization that teaches English as a second language or tutor someone in your school whose native language is not English. Exchanged cultural information with that person.

4. Help organize an exhibit or celebration for World Peace Day, November 17

5. Find out about a religious that differs from your own. You might choose to learn about the predominant religion of another country or about  a religion in this country. If possible, visit a house of worship of this religion in your communit

y and talk to someone of this faith. List adaptations you would make in living and eating habits if a person of this religion visited your home.

Career Exploration

1. Interview someone who has gone on an international wider opportunit

y through Girl Scouts or has been en exchange student in a foreign country. Find out what she did to prepare for the experience and what she learned about other cultures. Ask her if the experience she had while abroad will help her to choose a career.

2. Compare business customs in at least three different countries. If possible, interview someone who conducts business abroad and find out what customs they observe as a part of their job. How do these customs differ from those practiced in the unit

ed States?

3. Girl Scouting is dedicated to serving all girls. As a result, there are many people who do a variety of different jobs to ensure that diversity flourishes. Explore the careers within Girl Scouting, especially those that include responsibilities that deal with pluralism and diversity, cultural awareness, and international affairs.

4. Learn about the Peace Corps. Find out what kinds of qualifications are needed to join. If possible, speak with someone who has been a Peace Corps volunteer or arrange for a Peace Corps speaker to address your troop or group or students at your school.

5. Investigate at least two colleges that offer degrees in political science, international affairs, or other fields that might lead to a position in the diplomatic corps.

Writing For Real

          Skill Builders

1. Write a short article on a subject that really interests you, such as horses, sports, or environmental science.

• First explore the subject you are writing about. use the library, explore the internet, and talk to people who have knowledge related to your subject. Take notes and jot down your ideas based on your research.

• Develop an outline. make certain you have the main story points you want to cover. Then add the secondary items that will increase interest in your story.

• Designate a time and place to write. Establish a routine and stick to it. The discipline of a set schedule may help your writing the way physical exercise helps your body.

• When you have written a first draft, have someone read it. Are her comments and suggestions helpful? If so, use them.

2. Write a short biography of a famous person or someone you admire. Begin by preparing a time line of outstanding incidents and events in the person's life. Include colorful anecdotes as well as important facts about your subject's achievements.

3. Read the poems in either the Cadette Girl Scout Handbook or A Resource Book for Senior Girl Scouts. Share your favorite poems with two or three others. Talk about how the poems convey important messages. Try your hand at writing a poem about a real event.

4. Be a "publishing entrepreneur?" Working with a small group, plan and create a literary newsletter or magazine. Include video and book reviews, essays such as "If Kids Ran Their Schools," cartoons, editorials, sports articles, and photographs and drawings. Assign a team to help fund and distribute your newsletter or magazine.

5. Cover an interesting event in your school. For example, if you choose to follow a class election for your school newspaper, you need to interview the candidates. Discuss with them their political platforms and the results they hope to achieve if elected to office.

6. Be a medical or scientific journalist! Select a medical or scientific topic to write about. Look into the new AIDS research, environmental links to illness, the return of rabies in some unit
s of the country, medical breakthroughs, etc. Read several articles in scientific or medical journals as preparation for writing.

7. Write for the government! Did you know that the U.S. government is the largest single employer of writers in this country? Many of these writing occupations are related to the boom in technology and telecommunications. You can look up government writing jobs in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) at your library. Make a reference list of all the government organizations that use writers.

Technology

1. Compile a list of three to five online resources for writers. include discussion or news groups, Web pages, and e-mail mailing lists. You might want to evaluate or rate each site as well, using a number scale or adjectives, such as fair, good, etc. Summarize the content of each resource to share with friends who like to write.

2. Use a tape recorder or camcorder to prepare a local news story.

3. Start a nonfiction book discussion group at school, in your troop or group, or online in a "chat group". You can participate in chat groups on computers at school or at your library. Check with a librarian or information specialist on key words to use to access other reading lists. Or attend a demonstration on using the Internet at your library or elsewhere.

4. Modern technology brings real-life stories to a world audience almost instantly. Select one "major" news story and follow it for at least a week. Note any changes in the facts or details that unfold as more information becomes available. What do you think the impact is on an unfolding news event to have reporters and state-of-the-art telecommunications equipment on the scene? 

Service Projects

1. Help young people or adults who are not native English speakers to write or read in English.

2.Be an oral historian! Conduct interviews with senior citizens. Ask them where they were born, and what life was like when they were young, including favorite childhood games and songs. Use a taper recorder to record the interviews.

3. Can you write for real in many languages? Develop a multilingual news bureau for your school. Try to find students or writers who can write in diverse languages, such as Spanish, Japanese, Korean, French, Ukrainian. Suggest to your school administration that these translations be made available to parents or guardians who speak these languages.

4. Be a photojournalist! Hold an exhibition in your communit

y on a special these such as "Children Who Are Winners." Write a short text explaining the photos and display them at an opening.

Career Exploration

1. Find out in person or through interviews how journalists meet their daily, weekly, or monthly deadlines. What topics are newsworthy? What kinds of deadlines would you want as a journalist? Would you prefer longer "lead time" to write nonfiction articles, or the "rush" of daily newspaper deadlines?

2. Arrange to visit people at work in two of the following careers: Data entry, desktop publishing, graphics design, book or magazine publishing, advertising, or newspaper reporting. Shadow them for a day to learn about the responsibilities and realities of these positions.

3. Through your school, arrange an internship that will give you real on-the-job writing experience. note the tasks you enjoyed the most and the least on the job.

4. Reflect on ordinary life situations that can become the basis for hilarious stories. Turn a funny incident from your life into a news item or a cartoon for your school newspaper. Read the work of several cartoonists and analyze the topics they choose to address.

Your Best Defense

          Skill Builders

1.  Explore several philosophies of self-defense. Learn about several martial arts such as karate, tae kwon do, jujitsu, and akido. Participate in classes or interview a martial arts master.

2. Take a self-defense course designed for women and girls. Once you've completed the course, sponsor your own "mini" self-defense workshop for your friends and family, or for your Girl Scout troop or group.

3. Your body language and tone of voice can play a role in stopping a hostile or violent encounter from happening. Recite the following sentences - once with an angry voice and again in a gentle manner. Think about he effect each version would  have on the listener. How can you express your displeasure with someone without putting them on the defense?

• "shut the door now, please. I'm trying to study."

• "When are you going to return my sweater?"

• "I'm angry that you continue to lie to me."

Make up three more emotionally charged discussions and role-play them.

4. Increasing your self-confidence can increase your sense of personal safety. What can you do now to increase your self-confidence? Speak up more often in class? Learn a new sport? Stand up for your beliefs on an issue? Make your own list and select one or two times to begin working on today. Keep a journal of your feelings and experiences as you practice your new behavior.

5. Avoiding an attack sometimes means having to act unfriendly. Role-play two of the following situations with a partner:

• Walking home, you notice that a car going in your direction has slowed to match your pace. You feel uneasy. How would you feel about quickly turning to run in the other direction, or "making a scene"? Would you worry about what the driver thinks?

• You're in an apartment building elevator and a well-dressed man enters. He positions himself "too close for comfort" and begins to ask you very personal questions. Would you respond? Why or why not? How could you "defend" yourself from this stranger's approaches.

• Coming home on the bus, you realize you've traveled past your stop to an unfamiliar neighborhood. A passenger insists on walking you in the right direction. How would you decline her or his help?

Technology

1.How do images of women on television and in the movies influence the way you feel about your own personal safety? Over the next two weeks, record every aggressive act you see on television or film committed against women or girls and their responses. Arrange a discussion group to share your findings.

2. Many teen magazines give girls conflicting messages about interacting with boys. Take an inventory of several current issues of popular teen magazines. how many articles send mixed messages on issues such as date, rape, beauty, body image, and self-esteem? What about advertisements? Cut out and compile your examples in a booklet to share with your classmates or arrange to hold a "Messages in the Media" night at your troop or group meeting place.

3. Explore the pros and cons of pepper spay, stun guns, and other personal protection items. Research your stat's laws regarding the legality of carrying these and similar items. Ask a self-defense instructor for a lesson on everyday items that can be used to fend off an attack. Invite the instructor to speak at a meeting of your troop or group.

4. Guns, carried by teens for protection, are responsible for a staggering percentage of teenage deaths. Take a survey of your peers. Ask this question: "is carrying a gun for protection ever justifiable and, if so, when?" write an editorial for your local or school newspaper summarizing the results of your survey and giving your perspective on gun use among teens.

5. Watch your favorite police drama with a group of friends. Have the group select a violent scene from the drama. Role-play a new ending in which the perpetrator and victim avoid using violence to "solve" their conflict.

Service Projects

1. Invite a law-enforcement officer to speak to a group of your neighbors about crime patterns and threats to safety in your neighborhood. Discuss activities you and your neighbors can take to make your streets safe, then assist in implementing a neighborhood project to tackle one of your communit

y's biggest safety concerns.

2. Volunteer to teach a group of elementary school students skills for dealing with strangers, walking home alone, handling emergencies, and other personal safety issues. After your presentation, have them demonstrate what they have learned using role-plays.

3. Offer to be of service in a place for victims of violence - a battered women shelter, for example. Perhaps you can arrange a recreational activity or assist in tutoring. Or help with a communit

y "hotline" that offers assistance to victims of violence.

4. Develop a directory of helpful resources for women and girls who are the victims of violence. Provide copies for local libraries, religious institutions, communit

y centers, and businesses.

Career Exploration

1. Our society needs professionals who physically and emotionally "repair" victims of violence. Interview at least one of the following professionals or another of your choosing: social worker, therapist, health-care provider, police officer, counselor, volunteer in a battered shelter, 911 operator. Try to find out:

• What training and certification they received

• How they help victims

• How they handle the stress brought on by continually helping others in crisis

2. Interview an employee or volunteer who develops projects related to domestic abuse. Find out how you can implement a project in your communit

y.

3. Job-shadow or interview a police officer (at her or his headquarters or precinct, not on the beat) or a social worker. Interview the person about the skills needed in relating to people in crisis and in dealing impartially with victims and offenders.

4. Find out and discuss the laws and policies that exist to protect children, women, and elderly victims of domestic abuse. In what capacity would you best work with victims of crime? Why? What skills do you have - both technical and interpersonal - that make you suitable for such work?

Your Own Business

          Skill Builders

1.  Analyze several advertisements in magazines and newspapers, as well as radio and television commercials for the same product. What do you like or dislike about these advertisements? Do they make you want to buy the product? With a friend, brainstorm an advertising campaign for an imaginary or real product.

2. Market research is used to check consumer responses to a new product. Invent a new product and conduct your own informal market research. Interview five potential customers. Do they like your product? Why or why not? How might they improve it? Redesign your product using information from your market research.

3. Visit your library, chamber of commerce, or other service organization to research what support and resources exist at the city, state, and federal agency levels for small-business owners. How do you join an association for business owners? Are there associations for women or special-interest groups? Compile a list and save it for future reference.

4. Do you know anyone who runs her own business? What qualities make her a good businessperson? Interview her or invite her to speak at your troop or group. Ask her for tips on getting started, how to deal with customers, what kinds of business practices can ensure a degree of success, and the types of marketing techniques that work best.

5. Develop and implement a plan to turn a hobby into a business venture. For instance, design and sell
      greeting cards, or jewelry, or start a dog-walking service.

Technology

1. Find out how technology has changed the face and pace of business. Interview three people who are self-employed and find out which technological advances have benefited them.

2. Draw “before and after” posters depicting a few of the changes in business practices, equipment, or technology over the last few decades. Can you predict any future changes in the workplace?

3. Investigate new techniques for presenting products. Find out about holograms and computer art and virtual reality. Design a three-dimensional ad or draw a two-dimensional ad.

4. Survey several small businesses in your communit

y to find out about the equipment and technology considered most essential in their fields.

Service Projects

1. Help develop a proposal that will explain to businesses in the communit

y the importance of contributing to a special project or a worthy cause.

2. Create a project to help parents educate their children to be knowledgeable consumers. Emphasize critical thinking skills that children can use when being bombarded with advertisements.

3. Arrange for “women in business” to be the theme for a meeting of your troop or group. Invite female entrepreneurs and ask questions about the challenges and rewards of their work.

4. Develop and implement a marketing plan to obtain volunteers for a Girl Scout council or communit

y project (such as a camping trip for younger girls).

Career Exploration

1. Create a brochure to market your talents and skills as a consultant to a prospective client. Ask your friends and families for their suggestions. Look at sample business brochures before writing your own.

2. Consult a professional and learn how to prepare yourself for a job interview. What do you wear?
    Should you bring samples of your work? What questions should you ask? Then role-play an interview
   with that person.

3. Organize a career fair for your class. Invite representatives from the business and professional communit

ies to discuss careers in marketing, public relations, journalism, and the law.

4. Shadow a business owner for a day. Learn about the skills she needs in her field. What personal qualities, such as patience and humor, and special abilities are needed on the job?

5. Explore the careers of 3 women who began with small businesses and became millionaires. What qualities do these women share? What qualities would be useful to you if you were an entrepreneur?