Samsung STEM Challenge

This year I have joined the Girl Scouts Toastmasters club, press corps and robotics team.  As a member of the robotics team, all of us were encouraged to participate in the GSCTX Samsung STEM challenge.

The Lady Cans, GSCTX Austin Robotics Team sponsored 5 teams for this years Samsung STEM challenge, 3 Cadette and 2 older girl teams.  Lady Cans, CEO, Stephanie Waugh, Senior from Westwood High spoke at the event about the importance of STEM in Girl Scouts and how her joining the Lady Cans changed everything and that this contest helped her narrow her Engineering focus to Civil Engineering.  Lady Cans teams took 1^st and 2^nd in the Senior/Ambassador division and 1^st in the Cadette division.  Girls who are part of the Lady Cans come from troops around the Austin area. 

 

If you are looking for ways to get your daughter involved in STEM, make sure to explore the GSCTX calendar for events.  Middle and High School girls are welcome to contact the robotics volunteers about team opportunities.  There are seven First Lego League Robotics teams sponsored by council for elementary school and middle school students as well.

 

Giving Sylvia A. - Tour of the Edge

Today, I got to give the Interim CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA a tour of our councils Tech Lab.  The lab and program have been called "The Edge" since it started in 1999.

Welcome to “The Edge” lab.  In 1999, Girl Scouts Lone Star Council met with a group of older girls and asked them WHY they wanted to learn about computers.  One of the girls responded that it would give them “the edge” in school and in life.  From that day forward “The Edge” was the name of our technology programs and computer lab.

I am excited to have been a part of the FLL team here for 2 years, a Samsung STEM participant and IBM Watson camp participant. 

When our first computer lab opened in 2000 we were lucky to have Dell, Microsoft and National Instruments as early partners.  Quickly we had Intel.  We offered programs to all the girls in our council including the Girls Beyond Bars troops and the outreach program troops. The growth of the program was supported by IBM when we launched the Edge Express – our first “on demand” programs where we would go out to troops meeting locations, set up a small network and teach girls and leaders how to build websites and make digital scrapbooks.

By 2001 we had introduced over 600 girls to lego robotics thru the Expanding Your Horizons events, dad and me robotics day and more.  This meant continued support from the Kodoskys and National Instruments as we expanded our robotics programs to First Lego League teams and as FIRST grew so did our opportunities for girls. 

Currently, “The Edge-Austin”-one of our 5 lab locations, is also home to the world qualifying Lady Cans, FRC team, 1 of 2 in our council and we went from 2 First Lego League teams to sponsoring 7 this year.   

Our volunteers and staff have offered various national pilot programs and first experiences keeping Girl Scouts on “The Edge”.  Including Intels Fair Play, Techbridge, Dells Video Game Designer, Google Made with Code and local programs including Samsung STEM challenge, Coder Girls, Daisy STEM patch series and our Outdoor STEM journey.

The homeschool STEM club is starting its 4^th year.  We have explored green building, engineering, aviation, scratch, CAD and 3D printing.  This semester was inspired by you – we are exploring Rocket Science and rocketry.

Graduates of “The Edge” have gone on to be graphic designers,  robot builders for NASA and NASA engineers.

Juliette Circle - Sharing my story

When Marianne asked if I was available tonight to talk – I asked what does she want me to talk about.  The response was a great Girl Scout experience.  I anticipate my best memory being next summer when Girl Scouts of Central Texas girls spend 2 weeks with Girl Guides in Cyprus. Seriously I thought.  I could talk to you for hours.  And then, I thought I could tell you about my Silver Award project – again this could be for hours.  And thanks to the Girl Scout toastmasters club – I really could talk to you for hours.

I am going to try and make it not an hour – but instead tell you why being a Girl Scout in Middle and High School is the best time to be a Girl Scout.  And I should know – I am a 4^th generation Girl Scout/Girl Guide.  You could say I bleed green. 

My older sister and mom have told me since I was a Daisy that the real fun doesn’t start until middle school.  I wasn’t sure I believed them because I was having so much fun as a Daisy, Brownie and Junior.  I got to do special events, parades, commercials, camping, service projects, plant trees, build robots, earn badges, learn to cook and go to camp.  What else could be better than a week a GS camp?

 Traveling! I head about older girl travel opportunities called destinatons.  I already traveled with my family a lot and didn’t really think I needed to participate.  But, my sister went to Ireland, Iceland, Virgin Islands, and Ghana.  My mom went on 6, including Iceland.  Other troop members when to scottland, italy, costa rica.  With such a large troop we always got to hear the stories of what the older girls did. I couldn’t wait until I was old enough. 

 

Last year, the 14 Cadettes in my troop decided that we would start with a trip to Houston and a NASA overnight.  We did it.  As soon as we got in the van to head back to Austin – we started talking about where did we want to go next and when. Our troop planned, earned money thru cookie sales and went to Savannah Georgia this summer.  Now, I had already been there once – but, it was so much fun going with my GS sisters.  For three of them it was their first time away from parents, 2 their first time on a plane and 6 of us their first time to Savannah.  I really think the best part for us was knowing that we earned the money ourselves to get there.  For some of us selling 1000 boxes wasn’t a challenge – however, 5 of our troop worked with their sisters and for the first time sold 1000 boxes 3x the amount previous years. 

 

And next summer, I am working towards the trip to Cyprus, Greece. (So if you need some cookies I can hook you up).  Older girls get to decide where, when and how they do what they do.  As our leaders allow us more decision making opportunities, we start to take ownership of the process.  We are developing into Girls with Courage, Confidence and Character.

I still did Girl Scout  “camp” this summer – it was so cool.  An entire week at IBM with Watson!  Every day we were challenged and we accepted it.  Girl Scouts and STEM go hand and hand as far as I am concerned.  I am part of the homeschool STEM club – this semester we are heading to Outer Space (Rockets, Mars and more), I spent the last 2 years on the council lego robotics team – Galaxy Girls, participated in coder girl programs, Microsoft classes and Samsungs STEM challenge the first year.

 I am sure that all of you are familiar with Girl Scout cookies. I LOVE to sell Girl Scout cookies – it is my business and I take it very seriously for 8-9 weeks.  I work hard so that I can play hard.  When I think back to the PSA I did as a brownie with Lolis “What can a cookie do” – I realize that it does so much more than I ever thought.  It allows our troop to cook dinner for first responders and bake treats on 9/11.   We can participate in International Peace Day, Veterans Day flag ceremonies, community parades, go camping, go to the zoo, visit national parks, earn badges – lots of badges.  And, it gives all 62 of us an opportunity to make new friends.

Because One is Silver and the Others Gold

Silver Award - Junior Ranger Program - Waco Mammoth

National parks

I have always loved the National parks.  When I was 10 years old,  I completed my first Junior Ranger program (that I remember) at Capulin Volcano in New Mexico.  It was on my first cross country road trip.   taking my sister to Wisconsin through Wyoming and South Dakota.  Because those states and national parks are “on the way”.  Two years later I am still doing Junior Ranger programs for my history and science classes as a homeschooler.

What is a Junior Ranger? According to the NPS or National park service a- Junior Ranger program is an activity based program conducted in almost all parks, and some Junior Ranger programs are national. Many national parks offer young visitors the opportunity to join the National Park Service "family" as Junior Rangers. Interested youth complete a series of activities during a park visit, share their answers with a park ranger, and receive an official Junior Ranger patch or badge and Junior Ranger certificate. Junior Ranger programs are my favorite thing to do on any vacation, I even went to four National parks on my trip to Disney World.

Junior Ranger programs can be done even when I am not at the site, because I can send them to the park and they will send me back my badge and certificate.

This year for my Girl Scout Silver Award, I created the Junior Ranger program for the newest Texas National Monument, WACO MAMMOTH NATIONAL MONUMENT.  The Silver Award is the highest award a Cadette Girl Scout can earn.  You earn it by creating a Take Action project with at least 50 hours of time.  By creating the Junior Ranger Program with Waco Mammoth National Monument, I hope to inspire kids to go to more national parks, to earn their Junior Ranger badges, To get outside and to learn more about nature and the National Park service.

There are many ways to protect the parks, and the biggest one is to know the history.  national parks started March 1, 1872 when Yellowstone National Park was founded by congress. New ones were founded but not all of them were treated the same way, because there were no rules at the time, that is when the National Park service was created, On August 25, 1916 (100 years ago), President Woodrow Wilson signed the act creating the National Park Service, a new federal Department of the Interior responsible for protecting the 35 national parks and monuments then managed by the department and those yet to be established.   Every site has their own history and it is great to learn how they became a part of the NPS system.  We have 16 in the state of Texas.

Waco Mammoth National Monument has tried to become a national park 2 times, once in 2010 once in 2012, but was never completed, to become a national park, seashore, forest or river, you have to go through a long progress of going through congress and the senate house and lots more, to become a national monument the acting president has to sign a form and agree, so on July 10, 2015, President Barack Obama made Waco Mammoth a national monument.

On a spring day in 1978, Paul Barron and Eddie Bufkin embarked on a search for arrowheads and fossils near the Bosque River. To their surprise, the men stumbled upon a large bone. Recognizing the unusual nature of the find, they removed the bone and took it to Baylor University's Strecker Museum for examination. Museum staff said the find was a femur bone from a Columbian mammoth . This now extinct species lived during the southern Ice Age. Between 1978 and 1990, the fossil remains of 16 Columbian mammoths were discovered. Their efforts uncovered a nursery herd that appears to have died together in a single flash flood. Between 1990 and 1997, six additional mammoths were found, including a large male. Crews also uncovered the remains of a Western camel, and the tooth of a juvenile saber-toothed cat, which was found next to an unidentified animal. They kept it private until they decided to make it a public park in 2009.

while working on my junior ranger program  I knew I wanted to promote the Scout Ranger Patch - so that more Girl and Boy Scout troops and families would get out and visit the parks.  These programs have been around - but, not everyone knows about them - even a lot of the parks didn’t know about them.  To earn the patch, complete 10 hours of education activities and/or volunteer service at one or several  national park, monument, historic site, sea shore or river.

I now want to be a Park Ranger when I grow up. Every Wednesday afternoon I visit Waco Mammoth and see what a ranger does when they are at work, they lead tours, sort stuff for the gift shop, teach school groups, and lots more.

Thank you for taking the time to listen, I am Marie Young a senior junior ranger with 48 junior rangers.