Brownie Visit

March ended with a visit by the 2nd Year Brownies to see what Guides do.

The first 30 minutes of the meeting were Patrol Time, and each patrol worked on a different activity:

• Trillium Patrol - "Where Is It?" - outdoor scavenger hunt and puzzle game
• Rose Patrol - "Skipping" - did individual and group skipping, as well as other games using skipping ropes
• Pansy Patrol - "Camp On A Plate" - used natural objects, cardstock and paper to build campsites on Styrofoam plates
• Daffodil Patrol - "Don't Stress It" - discussed ways of dealing with stress and popped balloons to represent letting go of the things that cause them stress

The girls are beginning to learn that saying they are going to do something and actually making it happen aren't always the same thing!

The main part of our meeting started with our usual opening and an active game - Hotdog Tag. After this, we said good-bye to our 3rd Year Guides as they joined the Pathfinders and Rangers to do some planning for activities during the next three months.

Our activities for the 1st & 2nd Year Guides and the Brownies were based on the "How Girls Can Help" Challenge offered by the Agnes Baden-Powell Appreciation Society. The girls had to work in Patrols to complete a variety of activities. We had 8 activity cards, divided into four categories - Active, Arts, Service and World - and each Patrol was challenged to work on at least one card from each category.

Active (Yellow)

Activity #1 - Invent and play an active game with your Patrol. Write down the instructions. What equipment is needed? How many people can play? (Supplies: Paper, Pencils)

Activity #2 - You can probably tie a reef knot, but what about a sheet-bend, bowline or clove hitch? See if each person in your Patrol can learn two new knots. (Supplies: Knot Cards, Rope)

Arts (Pink)

Activity #1 - As a Patrol, create a skit, story or dance to perform at campfire.

Activity #2 - Is there a badge you think Guides should earn? Create a design for the badge and write down what you would need to do to earn it. (Supplies: Paper, Pencils, Markers)

Service (Green)

Activity #1 - Design a 'Be Prepared' Kit for camping. What will you put in it? When would you use it? How will it help you to stay safe? (Supplies: Paper, Pencils, Markers)

Activity #2 - What do you think should be in a First Aid Kit for Guides? Work together as a Patrol to make a list. (Supplies: Paper, Pencils, Markers)

World (Blue)

Activity #1 - Use your engineering skills to design a better paper airplane. See whose design will fly the furthest. (Supplies: Paper, Paperclips)

Activity #2 - Each part of the World Badge and World Flag has a special meaning. Find out what they are and create an activity or game to teach others what you have learned. (Supplies: Guide Handbook, Paper, Pencils, Markers)

We ended the evening by sharing skits and games, followed by Taps.

Physics Day @ Mac

On Saturday, March 25th, 7 Caledonia Guides and 1 Lone Guide joined Guides from across the region for the annual Engineering Day for Girl Guides at McMaster University in Hamilton. The focus for this years event was the Guide Physics Badge.


Our presenters for the day were Glenne, Tom, Veronika, Geoff and Natalie, who are all currently studying Engineering at McMaster. We started the day by learning a bit about the four types of science (math, chemistry, biology and physics) and 9 broad categories of engineering (electrical, mechanical, civil, biomedical, chemical, computer, software, physics and materials).


Session 1: Colours & Light
In our first session, we learned about Colours and Light and each girl built a periscope.

Properties of Light

• Reflection - light bouncing off surfaces
• Refraction - the bending of light as it passes through one thing to another
• Speed of Light - the fastest known speed, 300 million metres/second - light can travel around the world nearly 8 times in one second!
• Dispersion - separation of visible (white) light into its different colours

Light travels via waves, while air stays in one place but vibrates. Wavelengths are the distance between two vibration peaks. Where there is a large distance between peaks, light appears more red, where there is a small distance between peaks,  light appears more purple (opposite ends of the visible spectrum - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple). Amplitude refers to the height of the waves. The higher the wave, the brighter the light.

Periscopes allow a person to see around or over an object.


Session 2: Energy & Friction
Next, we learned about Newton's 3rd Law of Motion, Flight and Aerospace Engineering before building our own rockets!

Newton's 3rd Law of Motion: "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."

About Flight

• Flight is how objects move through the air.
• How do things fly? By making use of opposing forces - thrust and drag, lift and weight.
• Air has mass, pressure and temperature.
• Buoyant Flight - objects float through the air using a gas that is lighter than air (i.e. heated air in a hot air balloon)
• Aerodynamic Flight - objects use wings to fly through the air
• Rockets use (1) engines and (2) changes in air pressure (air is heated and used to propel the rocket upwards)
• There are no air particles in space, so less energy is needed once the rocket leaves the atmosphere.
• The first aircraft was flown by the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina on December 17, 1903. They traveled for 12 seconds, moving 120 feet.

Aerospace Engineers

• Study, design and test planes and rockets using their knowledge of math and physics
• Aeronautical Engineers design planes for use inside the Earth's atmosphere
• Astronautical Engineers design rockets for use in outer space.

Each girl then made their own elastic-propelled rocket!

After this session, we had a break for drinks and snacks, and the presenters played "Heads Up, Seven Up" with the girls.

Session 3: Forces 
Our final session of the day involved learning about Energy and building projectile launchers!

Energy

• There are two types of energy:
• Kinetic Energy - Energy that is in motion (i.e. water, wind)
• Potential Energy - Energy that is stored (i.e. spring, elastic band)
• Potential Energy can be further divided:
• Gravitational Potential Energy
• if an object is at an elevation, it has gravitational potential energy
• dropping the object results in kinetic energy
• the work done to create the potential energy is the act of raising the object
• Elastic Potential Energy
• usually converted into kinetic energy (i.e. when you stretch an elastic band)
• Chemical Potential Energy
• energy can be stored in different atoms and molecules
• atoms are building blocks, molecules are a chain of atoms stuck together
• energy comes from breaking down these molecules (i.e. batteries, human stomach, car engines)

This activity was the most challenging, but everyone managed to successfully make their own projectile launcher!
We ended the day by filling out evaluation and feedback forms and then headed home.

Downloads:

• Build a Periscope
• Build a Rocket
• Build a Projectile Launcher

"I Want To Be... (Career Awareness for Guides)

For our first meeting after March Break, we learned about careers and explored the skills needed for different types of jobs.

The first 30 minutes of the meeting were Patrol Time, and each patrol started working on the activities they had planned out before March Break.

• Trillium Patrol - "Rap Around the Clock" - made up raps and songs about safety
• Rose Patrol - "Running" - did timed sprints and blocks of running
• Pansy Patrol - "Time Travel" - looked at photographs from camps in the 1930s-60s and designed their own futuristic campsites
• Daffodil Patrol - "Scrunchies" - measured and cut out fabric to make scrunchies and started sewing

We then had our usual opening and moved into our program. Each girl was given a worksheet and had to complete 3 activities:

• I Could Be... - Girls explored 11 posters about different careers and choose two that interested them to learn more about. They also had the option of adding a different career, and had to explain why they were interested in that particular path. (Posters were created based on interests expressed by the Guides!)
• My Resume - Girls filled out a simplified resume to highlight their talents and abilities. 
• Getting the Job - Girls worked in pairs to answer sample interview questions.

They were then able to choose from a variety of different skill activities, grouped into 4 categories: Law, Arts, Animals and Working With People.

• Exploring ... the Law - Here the girls could choose to test their knowledge of the Law or create a short exercise routine.
• Exploring ... the Arts - This station offered a wide variety of activities grouped as Design, Drama & Dance, and Writing & Composing.
• Exploring ... Animals - At this station, the girls had a chose of three different activities - making field notes, creating an activity to teach others about animals, or testing their knowledge with the "Creature Quiz"
• Exploring ... Working With People - We had two options here, getting to know another Guide and learning some basic signs and finger spelling.

After cleaning up, girls were able to present their skits, posters and research. We then played an active game and closed with reminders for next week and Taps.

DOWNLOADS

• Career Awareness Worksheet
• Career Posters
• Exploring ... the Law
• Exploring ... the Arts
• Exploring ... Animals (The "Creature Quiz" can be found in GFI: Animal Active as "Know Your Animals")
• Exploring ... Working With People 

While the Guides were learning about Careers, our Pathfinders & Rangers cleaned out the supply cupboard - that hasn't been emptied in many years...

NEM: Super Engineers!

March is National Engineering Month and we celebrated this week by taking part in the Engspire "Super Engineers!" program. Engspire provided us with a complete meeting-in-a-box - all we had to add was scissors and pencils. We received a complete set of instructions, all supplies needed to complete the activities, and a crest for each girl.

As the girls arrived, they completed their Dues books and checked their Patrol Notebooks. Some Patrols were asked to finish their Patrol activity planning from last week, while others were asked to work on making birthday cards for the 30th Anniversary of Rainbows (5-7 year olds in the UK) for the birthday card exchange.

We had our usual opening ceremony and then moved right into our activities.

The Super Engineers program uses a story line about the group escaping from the lair of an evil genius to tie the activities together:

After an epic battle the evil genius has managed to take you and your team of Super Engineers captive and is keeping you in the dungeon of a castle, on a top secret island! How can you use your collective engineering skills to escape his evil clutches before he returns and feeds you all to his pet shark?

 Activity #1: Electrical Engineering

First things first, it's pretty dark down here in the dungeon; we could do with some light to see if we can find a way out! You feel around in the dark and find some lightbulbs, a car battery and some foam and plastic pieces. How can you use these items to create a light to find the door?

Each girl built their own working flashlight using an LED, CR2010 battery, foam sheet and card.  We learned the right way to connect an LED and how circuits work. 

Activity #2: Software Engineering

Success! Now we can see around the dungeon and discover that there's a single door at one end and it's not even locked! You're about to rush out when you get a funny feeling something's not right. Next to the door you see what looks like a map of the castle showing the way out! The only problem is that also on the map are some symbols showing obstacles which will definitely cause you to be caught, or worse. Before setting out you decide to figure out your route to make sure that your whole team stays safe and also decide that the instructions should be written in code just in case you're captured!

The girls were divided up into groups of 4 and given a code sheet. They had to follow the instructions and write out coded directions to make it through the room. 

Activity #3: Mechanical Engineering

You race outside of the cellar and escape from the castle only to find yourself looking out over an ocean. The lair is on an island. Off to one side you can see some land. You're just about to jump in and swim to safety when you see a fin sticking up out of the water - sharks! If you go in the water you're sure to be dinner! That means we have to go over. 

Strewn across the beach you find some driftwood and old ropes, how can you use this to get to safety before the evil genius discovers your escape?

Each girl was provided with a plastic spoon, 6 popsicle sticks and 5 elastic bands  and challenges to create a catapult to propel themselves (a large pompom) away from the island. A wide variety of catapults were created!

After cleaning up, we discussed the activities the girls had taken part in and learned about different types of engineering, We ended by handing out badges and closed with Taps.