Design Space: McMaster's Engineering Meeting (virtual)

 

Experiment and Create: Design Space

We signed up for the McMaster University Virtual Girl Guide Workshop: Sustainable Energy. When I signed up in September, I thought it would be a back pocket meeting for if we had a storm -- not realizing we'd be virtual again for another couple of months!

The video is basically the whole meeting. I asked the Guides' families to set up a Scratch account before the meeting so we weren't dealing with that during the meeting. We watched the whole video through first, then went back to the coding section and watched it again with the Guides building their programs. 

The older Guides did better with it -- the Grade 6s are using Scratch at school. We had about 18 Guides when we started. 2-3 of the Guides were frustrated and didn't get it all. 3-4 of them would ask us to pause the video to catch up, which I would do for 10-15 seconds. And 10-12 of them got through it and got it to work. 

After the meeting, I sent home the video and my completed program so the Guides who didn't get it and understand it could either go through the video by themselves or just play the game without finishing the program. 

I had added our Land Acknowledgement for Halifax and a link to the SDGs, but we didn't have time to discuss either after the video so I'll plan to bring them forward to another meeting. 

Google Slide Show

Design Space - Analog Coding (Virtual)

 

Experiment and Create: Design Space

We're planning to do the McMaster Engineering meeting next week and the majority of it uses Scatch, a simplified coding program for kids. So I thought it would be a good idea to introduce the concept of coding before jumping into it. 

Note: We had a porch pick-up this week for craft supplies and some printouts of the different cipher decoders. 

• Science Scavenger Hunt: I found a list of ideas from this website and picked out 10 or so that would be fun and mostly related to physics/design.

• Exact Instructions Challenge: We've done this before but I had no idea it was an internet challenge now! We discussed where we find instructions, watched the PB&J video and then created instructions of our own on how to brush your teeth. 

• Morse Code necklaces: I couldn't decide what kind of beads/cords to use, but then I found instructions for perler beads and I thought it would fit great. I sent home 80 beads each -- 4 colours, half flattened for dots and half left whole for dashes. They flatten in a 400°F oven for 3 minutes but it takes a bit of work to stand 1100 perler beads on end! I'm quite happy with how they turned out. Then we used one set to make our names and another set to a special word. 

   

• Decoding Riddles: These are from an activity I made for Pathfinders/Rangers about 5 years. One part was decoding riddles so I repurposed them, not knowing if we'd get through them all or not. I sent home the code instructions for the different codes. They were able to figure out the first riddle and then I just gave them the other riddles to guess at, without decoding them. 

Slideshow: Design Space - Analog Coding

Mighty Minds (Virtual)

Be Well: 

Mighty Minds

 

Virtual meetings look a little different. I like to make Slideshows of our activities, to give the Guides a visual as we go along. 

In this meeting, we

• talked about fun things we did over the break
• Self appreciation check-in (from WAGGGS Positivity Patrol ideas from GGC)
• We All Have Mental Health video (from YouTube)
• Staying Positive (from WAGGGS Positivity Patrol ideas from GGC)
• Destressing Kim's Game

Google Drive Slideshow

Oceans Sleepover

For our sleepover, we chose the OCEAN CHALLENGE from WAGGGS, to further our learning about SDG#14: Life Below Water. 

FRIDAY 

7:00-7:30 Arrival 

7:30-7:45 Orientation 

7:45-8:00 Ice Breaker: Evolution. We adapted it to be sea creatures. Everyone starts out as Plankton. You play Rock/Paper/Scissors and if you win you move up a level and if you lose, you move down a level. (Though as Plankton to start, you stay at Plankton until you win). You can only play R/P/S against someone who is at the same level as you.

Level 1: Plankton—hands make one eye in front of face (say "Karen", Plankton's wife from Spongebob Squarepants)) 

Level 2: Minnow—crouch down to walk around (Say "Gilligan"--the ship on Gilligan's Island was called the SS Minnow)

Level 3: Catfish—Make fists for ears and meowing sounds 

Level 4: Seal—clap hands with straight arms and bark like a seal

Level 5: Shark—Make a fin above head and dun dun sounds (from Jaws)

This was hilarious to watch!

8:00-8:20 Learn about oceans (A.01, A.10) 

We printed off a large map of the world to show where the world's oceans are and gave each girl a worksheet we found on the internet to fill in and label the oceans.
Worksheet to fill out ocean locations 

8:20-8:30 Brainstorm types of life (flora/fauna) in the ocean (B.01) 
We just had the girls come up with as many different types of ocean life as they could!

8:30-8:45 Talk about favourite seaside activities (C.01) 
Everyone got a chance to talk about what they like to do at oceans and lakes.

8:45-9:15 Mug up 

Fish and chips—goldfish crackers and potato chips, water 

9:15-9:45 Build a story (C.02) 

Start by talking about what a fisher does during the day. Think of plot points we can include. Then each girl adds a sentence to create the story. This was a lot of fun and the girls had a great time doing it. (What's Your Fish Story) (DY2#5)

9:45-10:00 Campfire singalong 

10:00-10:30 Get ready for bed 

10:30 Lights out 

SATURDAY 

7:00-8:00 Get up and pack up. Dress for a hike 

8:00-9:00 Hike with breakfast. There's a Cowboy Farm across the street from where we have our sleepover. We call ahead to ask permission to hike on their trails and it's a great start to the day (plus we get to see the horses and animals from their petting zoo.) We pack a paper bag breakfast to take with us and eat on the way. 

Unfortunately, it was really cold out that morning. We didn't cancel the hike--we just made sure everyone was dressed properly--with snow pants and hats and hoods and mittens) and we had our breakfast when we got back so they didn't have to take their mittens off to eat. 

Mini bagels, squeeze apple sauce, water bottles 

9:00-9:25 Round Robin 1

9:30-9:55 Round Robin 2

10:00-10:25 Round Robin 3

10:30-10:45 Snack Fish and Chips trail mix (Swedish fish, banana chips, chocolate chips and whatever else you want to put into your trail mix)

10:45-11:15 Round Robin 4

Round Robin activities

#1: Underwater Scope craft (A.08)

Materials: Yogurt containers, saran wrap, duct tape, aquarium/basin, rocks, shells, toys 
(DY2#6)

#2: Coral Reef (D.08) 

Background information: P56, P78

Materials: Plasticine

I am always blown away by how creative the girls are (you'd think I'd expect it at this point!) The coral reefs were so intricate and delicate and they did a great job replicating the polluted reefs.
(DY2#6, Art Production #2)

#3: Build a boat (C.06) 

Materials: Aluminum foil, basin, beans, various items

The girls were just given aluminum foil and told to make a boat! Once they had their designs, they tested them to see how much weight they could hold.
(BY3#4)

#4: Bean Count (E.06) 

Simulate how fish tagging works

Materials: bowl/jar, beans, markers

This was my activity and it turned out so cool. We had a large bin of beans. For each group that came through, I explained how tagging works and had them decide how many beans they wanted to tag and each girl got a chance to mark them. Once they marked all their beans, they mixed them back in and then each girl took a handful out and counted how many they had removed and how many of those were tagged. Using a formula, we could determine how many the group thought there were total.

The more beans each girl and group tagged, the closer they were to the number. The more beans each girl and group pulled, the closer they were to the number. 

While they were eating lunch, we counted up the actual number of beans. When averaging each group together so we have 14 samples, our estimate was 1566. The total number was 1577! Even though I know math and science work, it is so cool to see math and science work! (BY3#4)
(Link to activity: Counting Fish)

We had some time to fill at the end of my activity, so I challenged them to create one sea creature with their bodies (Be-a-Shark pantomimes). This turned out cool too. (DY2#6)

Top left: Octopus, Top Right: Lobster
Bottome Left: Shark, Bottom Right: Seal

   


11:30-12:15 Ocean Pollution skits

Background info: P53, P55, P57, P61, P64, P77-79

After a discussion about what causes ocean pollution, they came up with skits to show how pollution is bad and what changes can be made to prevent it. They always love doing skits!

12:30-1:00 Lunch Fish and Chips. There is a local fish and chips shop 5 minutes from our sleepover so we ordered in for lunch! The girls all loved the fish and chips!

1:00-1:30 We shared the bean results, we shared the pantomimes with everyone,  and then we played a game of Pass the Whale Charades (YaO2#2).

1:30-2:00 Closing

I'm still here!

My poor blog has been terribly neglected this year for a number of reasons (not just laziness!). We had some great, interesting meetings, outings, and camps, and I plan to update this summer all the program work, badges, and challenges we did. Water camp, Under the Sea sleepover, lots of outdoor badges and skills -- we had a lot of fun this year!

In the mean time, though, Dropbox has changed how it works and all of the links to my files are broken. I have reorganized my Dropbox and I will be working on updating the links as best I can. (1 post down, 125 to go!). If there is anything you are looking for, comment on this post and I will get the updated link to you.

Meeting #1 Welcome to Guides

Discovering You: Understand How to Be Responsible (DY4)

6:30-6:55 Arrival--Nametag craft.  We made shrinky dink nametags. The girls wrote their names on a piece of paper so they could trace it backwards onto the shrinky dink. Then they coloured and decorated the shrinky dink. Luckily, we have an oven in our meeting space so they baked while we moved onto the next activity.

6:55-7:10 Ice breaker game--We all went around the circle and said our names and then something we like to do. Then we added a stuffed animal to throw and had to say the name of the person who threw it to you, then your own name, and then the name of person you were throwing it to. That way everyone got to hear everyone's name multiple times.

7:10-7:20 Overview of the Guide program. Explain badges vs program squares, talk about patrols and patrol leaders, LBP Award, confirm Guiding Years.

7:20-7:30 - Planning (DY4#3)

We had some decisions to make about upcoming activities so we discussed them here. 

1. Hiking--Do we want to do as much hiking this year as last year? The answer was YES!

2. Remembrance Day--Did they like doing the Postcards for Peace or would they rather do Valentine's for Vets? Valentine's for Vets was the chosen activity for this.

3. IWK service project--are the girls interested in learning how to crochet/knit? They said yes so we are going to look into how feasible this will be. 

7:20-8:15 Global Goals (DY4#3)

In an effort to help the girls be more globally aware, we decided to learn about the Global Goals and incorporate them into our planning and service projects this year. We couldn't possibly cover all 17 in one year, so once we learned about them, we had the girls vote on which 3 we would concentrate for the year.

Talk about what Sustainable Development Goals and United Nations mean.

There are a few videos that explain what the Global Goals are and how we can make a difference in the world.

After we watched the video, we talked about what each global goal means. Then we had 16 "posters" (8.5x11 sheets) around the room with each Global Goal. Girls got 3 stickers to vote on which Global Goal they want to concentrate on this year. They walked around the room and voted with their stickers.

Our 3 Global Goals for this year are:

#2 Zero Hunger

#5 Gender Equality

#14 Life Below Water

Then we brainstormed activities we can do that are related to these goals.

We also watched this video:

And then we went around the room and asked each girl what they "really really want" for gender equality.

8:25--Closing

First Aid Badge

You and Others: Learn About Safety (YaO4)

Beyond You: Discover Your Community (BY1)

First Aid badge (FA)

Our sister Guide unit contacted us about how to complete the First Aid badge. We brainstormed together and came up with a 2 meeting plan--one night at our meeting space on Tuesday and then the second meeting at their meeting space on Monday. It all came together quite nicely!

Meeting #1:
With 40 Guides expected, we needed a bigger room to fit everyone, so we requested a room change at our school and were in the gym instead of the Family Studies room.

6:30-6:50--Since we were going to be sitting and listening, we thought a good opening game that could be joined in progress would be Hospital Tag. Everyone is IT and when you get tagged, you cover the spot you were tagged with your hand. When you get tagged a second time, you cover it with your second hand. When you get tagged a third time, you sit down. We played with a variation that if you're sitting down, someone (anyone) can run around you twice to "cure" you.

Be Prepared Kits from the Guide Handbook

6:50-7:00--We had a huge horseshoe! We had them line up in their patrols, so we did Horseshoe with 8 Patrols! They did well.

7:00-7:45--One of our leaders is a Dietician, so she recruited 2 nurse friends of hers to come present. They covered all of the requirements of the badge, except the first aid kit. (FA#1, FA#2, FA#3, FA#4, FA#5, FA#6, FA#7, FA#9, FA#10)

7:45-8:30--We moved to the cafeteria, after the Sparks had left, because  we wanted tables to make our Be Prepared kits. We call them Be Prepared instead of First Aid because we add more than just basic first aid things.

We used plastic containers from the Dollar Store and filled it with lots of good things. The book has a good starting point for what to put into a Be Prepared kit. (FA#8, YaO4#2)

MEETING #2
6:30-7:00 For our arrival activity, we had them use their Be Prepared kits to play Kim's game. They laid all the elements out on the table and everyone got a chance to study it. Then they covered it and tried to remember everything that was in it. Once they did this, we suggested that they have one person remove an item and everyone else had to try to figure out what was missing.

7:00-7:45--This was a great bridging meeting! The Pathfinders meet in the same building and they planned this portion of the meeting for us. They worked in groups and presented various First Aid scenarios for the Guides to try to help them with. They had 5 different scenarios for the Guides to cycle through. (YaO4#1)

7:45-8:15--Building Audit: The International Day of Persons with Disabilities Instant Meeting had an accessibility audit with pre-made forms to fill out. We had 8 groups so we sent 2 groups to each location and had them audit the locations. Then we got back together and each group reported their findings. This went fairly well and the girls had some great thoughts on what was provided and what would be needed to improve. (BY1#4)

It was better for us to use their building for the audit--we meet in a school that was built in the last 20 or so years, so it is quite accessible. The other Guide unit meets in an old church hall, with lots of stairs. It is partially accessible but it has lots of things you can think and talk about with regards to accessibility.