Tech & Nature Challenge

This week we started the Canada 150 Challenge during Patrol Time and worked on the Quebec Tech & Nature Challenge for the remainder of the meeting.

We started off with 30 minutes of Patrol Time where each Patrol worked on their first set of chosen activities for the Canada 150 Challenge:

• Daffodil - Planned to start off with Beadwork (making beaded Canadian Flag Pins) but an incident with the beads ended this activity early; they then moved on to Puzzles & Quizzes (wordsearches, crosswords, mazes and fill-in puzzles about Canada)
• Trillium - Planned to start off with Beadwork (making beaded Canadian Flag Pins) but an incident with the beads ended this activity early; they then moved on to Canada-themed Games Great-Grandmother Played (Patrol games from the 1920s and 1930s)
• Pansy - Started out with Hockey Night in Canada (making sticks and a puck from paper and playing hockey with them), and then moved on to Northern Games (a series of Inuit games)
• Rose - Started with the 150 Challenge (getting active with 150), followed by the Trivia Challenge (Canadian trivia quizzes)

After cleaning up, we had our usual opening, followed by a game - Squirt.

Our first activity was Starburst Geology. Each Patrol was given 9 Starburst candies, tinfoil and wax paper and had to make up three packages of candies, numbered 1, 2 and 3. Package 1 was squished with their hands, package 2 was heated for 3 minutes and then squished, and package 3 was cooked for 10 minutes and left to cool until the end of the meeting.

We attempted to do a round-robin for the remaining four activities, but were unable to complete everything. The activities we worked on were:

Balloon Rockets (Physics)

For this activity, girls work in pairs. The straw is threaded onto the string. One girl holds one end of the string. The other girl brings the straw to her end of the string and inflates the balloon and tapes it onto the straw. When she lets it go, the force of the air moving out of the balloon will shoot the rocket along the string to the other end! The more you blow up the balloon, the faster and further it will go.

Floating Ball (Air Pressure)

Each girl cuts out a circle of paper and tapes it onto the short bendy end of a straw in a cone shape. Place a ball of foil inside the cone. Blow through the straw and watch the ball float!

Calculator Fun (Math/Technology)

We provided the girls with calculators, and they tried the Birth Date Detector and the Numbers to Words Flow Chart.

The Great Cookie Extraction (Mining)

This activity came from BC, and asked the girls to mine for chocolate chips while learning about resource extraction. 

We ended by unwrapping the Starburst rocks and talking briefly about how different types of rocks are formed. Package 1 represented sedimentary rocks (created by pressure), package 2 represented metamorphic rocks (created by pressure and heat), and package 3 represented igneous rocks (created through extreme heat).

To finish the meeting, the girls played a game with a bouncing ball, followed by reminders for Friday and Taps.

Downloads:

• Quebec Tech & Nature Challenge (GGC Quebec Council)
• Calculator Fun Sheet
• Cookie Mining Activity