Girls Learn Science, Play "Survivor"

by Lisa Jendre

Wisconsin Section Member

Fresh air, sunshine, fun, camaraderie, and discovery all explain the experience when you mix 15 Milwaukee Girl Scouts, three camp leaders, and one engineer on a "Survivor" mission at the Girl Scouts' Camp Alice Chester located about 35 miles southwest of Milwaukee. Although the day began with a little rain, a smile quickly overcame me while driving east out of Madison when a rainbow formed out of the glistening sky just ahead of me; I knew it was going to be a great day.

When I arrived at camp, I was greeted by "Velma" who quickly directed me to the main hall of the camp where there were about fifty 12 to 15 year old girls eating breakfast. I was instructed to find "Buster" in this chaos. Not knowing who or what "Buster" was, I asked the nearby camp nurse to help me. She entered the mess hall with her arm raised to bring a calmness to the room and summoned "Buster". I quickly learned that all the camp leaders had camp aliases to preserve the "mystery of camp" (as it was explained to me). "Buster" and I quickly headed to one of the camp houses where we set up for the morning. The girls were going to learn the science behind making rock candy, creating simple series and parallel circuits, and working on an assembly line.

When the girls arrived, we gathered in a nearby field where I told the girls a little bit about myself and what chemical engineers do for a living. Upon arrival at the camp the day before, the girls were split into three tribes. They came ready to do battle all wearing "Survivor" bandanas and were asked to show off their tribal chants. They were very anxious to learn what activities were planned for the day so we quickly moved inside where we began talking about rock candy. With the help camp leaders "Frisky", "Bax", and "Buster", I taught the teams about supersaturated solutions, crystallization, evaporation, and other scientific terms related to making rock candy. We turned a seemingly simple boiling process into a scientific marvel.  While the hot solution cooled, we headed outside where we began talking about circuits.

Since flashlights are one of the most relied upon tools a Girl Scout uses, we asked the girls how flashlights work. They gave us the basic answers such as batteries and light bulbs; but we wanted more. We handed each team two wires, a battery and a light bulb and asked them to make the bulb light up. Within 30 seconds, each team had light. We went on to discuss the difference between series and parallel circuits and drew some great analogies between teamwork and circuits. The teams used breadboards to construct their circuits and were very excited when they finally were able to get light using both types of circuit paths. I actually re-leaned a thing or two in this session since I haven't working with circuits for a long time!

Finally, the teams were given an instructional booklet and pieces of a Lego car. They were instructed to have one member of the team build the car while the others gave instructions. The teams were able to complete the car in about three minutes. We then talked a little about assembly lines and where and why they are used. We then instructed the teams to use an assembly line methodology to construct the car. The teams cut the time to assemble the car in half! Again, we drew analogies between teamwork and assembly lines to drive home the point that each individual in a team needs to work well with all the other members in order to do the best for the team. The teams were able to construct their cars in under 40 seconds the last time we tried the exercise.

It was already 11 a.m. and time for the girls to head off to the lake for their swimming lessons and tests. I couldn't believe my time with the girls was already over and it was time for me to head back home. With a final good luck to the teams in their upcoming Survivor team challenges and tribal council later that day, I was off to wonder which team would prevail.

Know a Girl Scout?  Think she'd like engineering?

The Society of Women Engineers will host a Girl Scouts program at the 2004 National Conference in Milwaukee.  It's called "Engineering Your Future" and there's still room for scouts!

Aspire.  Advance.  Achieve.

The Society of Women Engineers stimulates women to achieve full potential as engineers and leaders, expands the image of the engineering profession, and demonstrates the value of diversity.

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