LEGO Night

We spend the first week of April rounding our Design Space and Engineering activities with a LEGO Night!

We brought in the supply of LEGO that I have from when my brother and I were younger as we had plenty to go around! Guides could work alone or in groups and build whatever they were inspired to - as long as they shared the supplies. There was lots of creativity and the end results were all unique. This was super easy to prepare and was very popular with the Guides - they were reluctant to put the LEGO away at the end of the night!

Build! Create! Invent!

After March Break, we spent two weeks working on a variety of activities for the Design Space Theme. 

Make Your Own Spinner
We had purchased kits to make spinners from the 20th UK 2020 Independent Trip Unit for Engineering Month (see instructions below) and brought them out tonight. Each Guide had a design template, cardboard and a bearing to make her spinner. Each design was unique!

Spaghetti Structures
Earlier in the year, we had a request to the do 'spaghetti and marshmallow building', which fit in well with our theme. Teams worked with raw spaghetti and mini marshmallows to build different structures. 


Bridge Building
To test our engineering skills further, we had a Bridge Building contest! Bridges were made from a strip of paper attached with masking tape between two tables 12 inches apart. We had to be creative with the weights, and used the scissors, rules and glue sticks from the supply box to test each bridge!


Design Your Own Invention  
Week Two was devoted to all things inventing. We started out by learning about the inventors of things we are all familiar with, including Frank Epperson (Popsicles), George Nissen (Trampoline), Louis Braille (Braille), and Albert Sadacca (Christmas Lights) before turning our attention to creating our own inventions. Each Guide or group was asked to come up with a invention that a girl their age could use to make day-to-day things easier or the community a better place. They also had to think about what their invention would cost to make, design a blueprint, and build a prototype. We didn't quite make it to the prototype stage, but everyone had fun coming up with unique inventions, including:

• Self-Building Houses
• Infoggable Mirror
• Forever Hot Mug 
• Self-Cooling Computer 
• Magic Detangler 

Links:

• Spinner Activity Instructions (20th UK 2020 Independent Trip Unit)
• Invent It, Build It (PBS Kids Design Squad)
• Entrepreneurs and Inventions (Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City) 

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

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.

March & April with the Pathfinders & Rangers

March and April were busy months for the Pathfinders and Rangers! We took part in activities for National Engineering Month, visited Ripley's Aquarium, earned the Cookies Rising, Up Close and Personal With Nature, and Be a Model Citizen Modules, and had lots of fun along the way!

Engineering
March stated off with a meeting to celebrate National Engineering Month! Two Pathfinders took part in the NEM Crazy Contraptions program with the Guides. See the post here http://caledoniaguiding.blogspot.ca/2016/03/nem-2016-crazy-contraptions.html


Minute-To-Win-It Challenge!
The week before March Break, we decided to have some fun and spend an evening challenging ourselves with Minute-To-Win-It Challenges. All the necessary supplies were provided and the girls took turns drawing cards from a pile. To see the challenges we tried, download the PDF File.

Planning Meeting
Coming back from March Break, we turned to planning out our activities for the rest of the year. Our 3rd Year Pathfinder needs some specific Modules for her Canada Cord, and we are also looking forward to an Outdoors Night, taking part in the Great Canadian Shoreline Clean Up, and Camp in June.

Save the Banana!
March ended with a meeting devoted to bananas. The girls found out about Fair Trade Bananas, Organic Bananas, and the risk of the most commonly eaten bananas no longer existing. They were challenged to find out fast facts about bananas (did you know that more than 100 billion bananas are eaten every year worldwide?) and create a poster to share their new knowledge and inform younger girls. They also had to learn the words and actions to "Bananas of the World Unite" and sing it as a group, as well as sing any other banana-related songs they could think of, and create the 'best dressed banana'.

Cookies Rising
April started off with a Cookie meeting. The girls learned about the different types of cookiesGirl Guides have made and sold over the years. They then made a Fruit &
 Spice type cookie for everyone to try. While the cookies were baking, the group worked on budgeting for a Unit activity, creating a cookie selling plan and determining the roles needed for the cookie campaign and what skills could be applied to each task.

Girl Guide Cookies Through the Years

• The original 1927 cookie was a basic Sugar Cookie.
• In the 1930s, cookies were rich in fruits, nuts and spices. 
• In the 1940s and 1950s there were vanilla creme, maple cream, and shortbread cookies.
• Vanilla and chocolate sandwich cookies made their first appearance in 1953.
• 1960 saw the introduction of a sugar-topped cookie.
• We had peanut butter cookies for one year in 1988.
• Chocolatey mint cookies arrived in 1993.

Ripley's Aquarium

The Pathfinders and Rangers joined the Guides and groups from Brantford and Binbrook on a day trip to Ripley's Aquarium! See the post here http://caledoniaguiding.blogspot.ca/2016/04/ripleys-aquarium.html

Reporting
Two Pathfinders joined the Guides on their visit to the Grand River Sachem. See the post here http://caledoniaguiding.blogspot.ca/2016/04/be-reporter.html

Canadiana
Mid-April was spent working on the Be a Model Citizen Module and the Citizenship Certificate. A number of challenges were combined into a board game, with trivia questions and group challenges. Each player is a candidate in an upcoming election. They gain votes by correctly answer trivia questions in three categories - "Running the Country", "I Am Canadian", and "Exploring Canada". Election squares (red) allow players to move on extra spaces, or be sent back for following or forgetting about electoral processes. Group Challenges are added to cover larger activities. Download the game instructions, cards and information sheets in a PDF File.

Happy 50th Birthday Sangam!
April ended with a meeting to celebrate Sangam, held with the Guides. See the post here http://caledoniaguiding.blogspot.ca/2016/04/happy-50th-birthday-sangam.html

Bits & Pieces

To end off March, we had a meeting where girls could catch up on pieces of badge work they missed earlier in the year and work on indoor clauses for some outdoor badges.

We held our usual opening followed by an active game. The girls were then told they could choose any of the activities provided to work on. Each activity was written on an index card and these were placed around the room. Girls chose activities that interested them or that would help them complete badges.

Resources and materials were provided for the following activities:

Arts

• Create a work of art based on a dream or fantasy. (Art Production #1)
• Experiment with colour; mix colours and use them in a picture. (Art Production #3)
• Design a package for a product (i.e. a cereal box, DVD cover, toy package) (Art Production #5)
• Write a song or make up new lyrics to a well-known song. (Campfire Leading #4)
• Make a list of ideas for skits, mime, campfire games, etc. that you could use in a campfire program. Perform at least one of them. (Campfire Leading #5)
• Plan and lead a 15 minute campfire. (Campfire Leading #6 & 7)

Outdoors

• Share about a hike you have taken - when, where, why, with whom. (Hiking #2)
• Make a kit list of what to bring for a day spent in the outdoors, including cooking lunch. (Exploring #2)
• Use a street map to give directions. (Exploring #4)
• Design a simple first aid kit for a Guide to bring to an outdoor event. Explain why you have chosen each item. (Outdoor Adventures #2)

Personal Growth

•  Make a list of things you would like to do in Guiding. (One-By-One-By-One Challenge #9)
• Write a short formal letter. (Business Communications #2)
• Make a poster showing different types of communications (Business Communications #8)
• Create a flyer to advertise a Guide event. (Business Communications #4)
• Write a short news story about a Guide activity. (Business Communications #5)

STEM

• Make a Pinwheel. (Engineering Challenge) 
• Build a Raft using the materials provided. (Engineering Challenge)
• Make and fly a Hoop Glider. Make adjustments to your design as needed. (Engineering Challenge)

We ended with a 15 minute campfire planned and lead by two of the Guides to finish off their Campfire Leading Badge.

NEM 2016 - Crazy Contraptions

For our first meeting in March, the Guides and Pathfinders participated in the National Engineering Month Crazy Contraptions program. Unfortunately, they were not able to find facilitators for us, so we had to run the program ourselves.

The program organizers provided all the materials needed as well as crests for each participant.

We started out with our usual opening followed by an active game.

The first activity was called "Does/Is Your Engineer...".Each girl was given a card about an engineer. We all shared the name of our engineering and what they do before moving onto the questions. One side of the room was Yes and the other was No. With each question, the girls needed to decide if the statement applied to their engineer or not. This activity opened the girls eyes to the many types of engineering and also to the types of things that engineers do.

The main activity for the evening was building the Cam Toys. We divided the girls into small groups and had each group start by building one toy. They were given a kit, supplies and an instruction sheet. This took about half-an-hour or so with some frustration in getting things to stay together. Each group was then provided with enough kits to make a toy for each girl. This took the remainder of the meeting, but was not as straight-forward as it could be and led to some frustrations. Younger girls would have needed much more Guider intervention to complete this activity.

We ran into a number of challenges doing this activity, however, the girls were all involved and engaged for the entire evening.

Tips for This Activity

• Make a sample before hand so that you know how to put things together.
• Ensure you have lots of alternate methods of 'sticking' things together - i.e. clear tape, masking tape, duct tape, white glue, hot glue guns.
• Encourage the girls to experiment - there is really only one way to put it together in the end, but the girls should reach that conclusion themselves.
• Have an extra activity available for those who finish early. Girls/Groups will take different amounts of time. 

Explorations in STEM - Engingeering Badge (Part 2)

Our final meeting of November was split into two parts, the first spent working on a craft brought by the grandmother of one of our Guides and the second finishing up the Engineering Badge and working towards completing the BC Engineering Challenge.

As the girls arrived, they collected dues and complete their patrol jobs for the week. We opened with our horseshoe, followed by an active game chosen by our Active Living patrol for the week.

The first half of the meeting was spend working on an angel craft brought by a former Guider, and grandmother to one of our Guides. The angel is made out of paper doilies, with a styrofoam ball for the head. The girls enjoyed the craft and had fun doing it!

After cleaning up the craft supplies, we continued with our Engineering activities. Each patrol was challenged to built a raft that would float and support weight (coins). They were provided with the following supplies: a piece of tinfoil, 2 plastic spoons, 3 pipe cleaners, 4 Q-tips, 10 straws, a piece of string, masking tape and scissors. All of the patrols were successful in building a floating raft that could support 27 coins without sinking. Two rafts were beginning to take on water at this point, but the third was still high and dry.

Our final activity for the evening was making the Hoop Gliders (from the BC Engineering Challenge). We flew the gliders around our meeting space before closing with reminders for Friday night and next week followed by Taps.

Explorations in STEM - Engingeering Badge (Part 1)

Our November 17th meeting was spent exploring Engineering and design. As the girls arrived, each had to work together to complete a matching quiz to identify the different jobs involved in building construction.

We opened our meeting with our usual horseshoe, followed by an active game (Everybody's It Tag) led by the Active Living patrol for the evening.

After the game, we took up the Job Match Quiz and discussed the different jobs and skills needed to build a house. The contents of this quiz come from Go For It! Construction (Girlguiding UK):

• A. Carpenter and Joiner = 5. Positioning and fixing timber materials and components. This will include roofs, doors and stairs.
• B. Roof Slater and Tiler = 8. To do this job, you need to know ow to create waterproof coverings for buildings.
• C. Bricklayer = 1. Using bricks and blocks to build the inside and outside walls of buildings.
• D. Painter and Decorator = 12. Applying paint, inside and out.
• E. Plant Operator = 6. Could include driving cranes, excavators and forklift trucks or specialized earthmoving equipment.
• F. Scaffolder = 3. Putting up scaffolding or working platforms for workers to use, and making it safe so that people and objects don't fall off the side.
• G. Plumber = 4. Installing, maintaining and repairing water supplies. This includes drainage and heating systems in houses and buildings.
• H. Estimator = 10. This job requires you to calculate how much money a project will need.
• I. Site Engineer = 2. Making sure that technical aspects of construction projects are correct and that everything is built correctly and to the right standard.
• J. Geospatial Modeler = 7. Includes making 3D models of natural and built landscapes.
• K. Construction Manager = 11. Running a construction site or part of a big project.
• L. Landscape Architect = 9. Designing and managing outdoor spaces.

The girls were than challenges to design an Eco-friendly house.Some ideas included composting facilities, recycling centres, solar panels, and tree planting.

Our final activity, which wound up taking nearly an hour (other planned activities have been postponed until next week!), was a patrol challenge: "Your Patrol has been shipwrecked on a desert island. You have managed to send an SOS message, but there is a big storm moving in so you can't be rescued until tomorrow morning. Can you build a shelter that will keep you all dry overnight?" Each patrol was given 5 newspapers, 4 metres of string, a garbage bag, scissors and masking tape, and the additional instruction that the shelter could not be secured to any furniture, walls, doors, etc.

After cleaning up, the girls shared their Eco-Houses with the group and the meeting ended with reminders for next week and Taps.



The activities done this week cover part of the BC STEM Challenge - Engineering - Job Match Quiz (Discover Engineering) and Shipwreck Shelter (Build a Shelter). We will finish this challenge next week.

Fall Frolic 2015 - STEM

On Saturday, October 3rd 6 Guides and 2 Guiders attended Fall Frolic 2015 at Camp Teka in Paris along with about 250 other Sparks, Brownies, Guides and their Guiders. Despite the cold, windy weather we had a great time and the rain held off until the final activity of the day and didn't become heavy until shortly before the parents arrived to pick up the girls.

After opening and flag raising, we headed to our first station - Compass Games. The girls learned about the 8 main points of the compass and played a number of different games. They started off with a game where if they had the item that was called out (i.e. blue eyes, a brother, like pizza) they had to run to a given point. Next they had a choice of different games. The ones chosen were Foxlease Ball, where the girls form a tight circle and have to move a ball from North to South (or any other set of directions) using only their feet. If the ball goes outside of their circle, they have to return to their starting point. Another game was to make as many words as possible using the letters in the word COMPASS, and the last game was compass drawings.

Our second stop was a craft. We talked about DNA and what it does, and then each girl made a beaded double helix of her own.

After a snack and a drink, we headed onto our third session - Wide Games. Here the girls were challenged to gather the supplies necessary to recreate a molecule to save the world! Lots of teamwork was needed in order to put gain all the items and put the molecule together correctly.

After lunch, we moved onto a Games session where the girls took part in a relay race to complete various challenges and earn puzzle pieces. Once they had gathered all the puzzle pieces, they had to work as a team to put it together.

Our next stop was the Music session, where we sang Tall Trees, McDonald's, My Name is Flo, and played the Norwegian Number game - linking each song to a part of STEM. The girls also made up a STEM yell.

We ended the day with the Science session where the girls completed experiments in Chemistry and Physics. The Chemistry activity was chemical reactions, and the girls used baking soda and vinegar to power film canister rockets. This was hugely popular and the girls tried many times to see who's rocket would go the highest. The Physics activity was on centripetal force, which the girls tested by swinging yogurt containers about 1/4 full of water around on strings - and seeing for themselves that the container could be upside down, but the water stayed inside!

The day ended with a brief closing where we sang Make New Friends and Daylight Taps. We then walked back to the High School for pickup and the girls played on the play structure while we waited for parents to arrive.