Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio, serving girls in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, along with Girl Scouts of the USA, recently announced 28 new badges focused on three areas — entrepreneurship, math in nature and digital leadership.
The Math in Nature badges, for girls in kindergarten through fifth grade, are sponsored by Johnson & Johnson. Math in Nature gets girls outdoors to explore and conserve the natural world as they learn math concepts. Activities include discovering shapes and patterns in natural objects, learning about symmetry and tessellation and mastering time and measurement theories. Girl Scouts then use this background to design nectar feeders, trail maps and other outdoor tools.
The new Cookie Business badges, for girls in kindergarten through 12th grade, help girls think like entrepreneurs as they run their own cookie businesses and incorporate online sales via the Digital Cookie or Smart Cookies platform. The badges progress from goal setting and effective sales-pitching in person and online to using market research, creating business plans and implementing digital marketing campaigns.
The Digital Leadership badges, for girls in kindergarten through 12th grade, are sponsored by Instagram. In the program, Girl Scouts explore what a leader is, both online and in their everyday lives.
They learn how to be online in a responsible and safe way, and topics include managing one’s well-being online, how to balance time online and offline and how to deal with issues such as misinformation, clickbait and biases in advertising. They also learn how people use technology to connect and lead, then use those skills to become digital activists.
“These new badge experiences are unique in the way Girl Scouts are able to build new skills, from learning latest tech-savvy business skills to exploring math in nature,” Cynthia Breunig, chief executive officer of Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio, said in a news release. “We’re excited for this new programming.”
In addition to the new badges, Girl Scouts of the USA has made free self-guided activities from select new and existing programming available online to the public, through Girl Scouts at Home. Members also have access to a suite of Girl Scout programming online through the Volunteer Toolkit, including troop meetingplans, tips for volunteer, and other resources to help girls earn badges and awards.
Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio serves more than 10,000 girls in Riverside and San Bernardino counties with the support of 3,000 adult volunteers. For information, to join or to volunteer, go to www.gssgc.org.
