Girl Scouts Think Like Citizen Scientists

By Sharon Karasick Girl Scouts are encouraged to try all sorts of new things in their scouting experience, a commitment reflected in their new motto: ”When she's a Girl Scout, she’s also a G.I.R.L. (Go-getter, Innovator, Risk-taker, Leader)™. While many troops still embrace the traditional three c’s of crafts, camping, and cookies, Girl Scouts are also exploring new civic engagement opportunities through innovative STEM programming. On the surface, civic engagement might not seem to have much in common with STEM, an acronym that stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. But the Girl Scouts’ new partnership with SciStarter offers girls a unique opportunity to participate in authentic scientific research, to share that research with others, and to encourage the people in their communities to take action to help take better care of the world we live in. Girl Scouts of the USA is one of the largest leadership development organization for girls, preparing our nation’s female youth to become leaders and advocates for themselves and their communities.. Building on years of evidence-based research, they are expanding the scouting experience to include more experiential explorations in STEM. Defying gender normative “girl” stereotypes, Girl Scouts are going outside and collecting data that will help scientists answer big and pressing questions that require disperse data points from across the country and around the globe. Girl Scouts and SciStarter worked together to create the “Think Like a Citizen Scientist” Journey, a program that involves several troop meetings dedicated to showing girls how to participate in scientific research through their lifetimes, whether or not they become professional scientists.