Girl Scouts Encourages Girls to Shoot for the Moon
Girl Scouts marvel that they can look directly at the sun from the observatory at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord, NH. The Discovery Center's Christy Roberts showed the Daisy and Brownie Girl Scouts how they could view the sun without hurting their eyes. (GSGWM/Alan Macrae photo, with thanks to the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center)
The following is a guest blog post from Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains.
Just as Christa McAuliffe and Alan Shepard reached for the stars, so do Girl Scouts! Girls are natural-born scientists who look at the world around them with inquisitive eyes, experiment and push boundaries, and learn as they go. Girl Scouting introduces girls of every age to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to help them see how they can actually improve the world – whether it’s discovering how a car’s engine runs, searching the heavens for a particular star, learning to manage finances, or caring for animals.
Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains, the council which supports troops in New Hampshire and Vermont, is working hard to ensure that the more than 10,000 girls we serve have access to our proven STEM and leadership programs not just through the traditional Girl Scout troop, but also through outreach troops, robotics teams, travel opportunities such as trips to the Space Camp in Alabama, “space troops,” and more. The council has teamed up with partners like NASA and the SETI Institute in its Reaching for the Stars program. We’ve even joined with ARMI/Biofab USA in Manchester, NH, to increase girls’ exposure to the field of organ and tissue manufacturing.
Girl Scouts of all ages enjoyed a visit to the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, where they could interact with the many displays. (GSGWM/Alan Macrae photo - with thanks to the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center)
This fall, we will unveil our new mobile STEM lab, a vehicle that will be outfitted with state-of-the-art technology including mobile broadband, a SmarTV monitor, Surface tablets, microscopes, and a 3D printer. There will be program space for 12 girls and a facilitator, bringing quality programming to the 80 percent of our membership who live in rural and hard-to-access areas of both states. This mobile STEM lab will make it possible for girls to see a future for themselves in STEM fields, opening up their career choices.
If you’ve been to the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, you are familiar with the Redstone rocket there, visible from the highway. That’s a replica rocket, but you can see a real Redstone in Warren, NH, on Saturday July 20, 2019, from 4 to 7 p.m., on the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s first steps on our Moon. Girl Scouts will host an afternoon of space flight and lunar science activities on the Warren town green that day. Everyone is invited! See more here.
Girl Scouts aren’t stuck in the past. Everything a Girl Scout does centers around the four pillars of STEM, outdoors, life skills, and entrepreneurship. To better reflect the interests of girls in the 21st century, many of our badges focus on science and technology. Whether she’s learning the physics of rocketry, coding her first app, or packing for her first hike, a Girl Scout has an exciting array of choices to suit her interests at every age. Girl Scouts unleashes the G.I.R.L. (Go-getter, Innovator, Risk-taker, Leader)™ in every girl, preparing her for a lifetime of leadership.
If you’re interested in learning more, visit www.girlscoutsgwm.org, call 888-474-9686, or email customercare@girlscoutsgwm.org. We’d love to hear from you!
