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Girl Guides Do Science!
It’s Monday night and I’ve just gone and asked my Girl Guides what they think of when they hear the words “science” or “scientists”. We go around the circle as they free associate, somewhat harshly: “Potions and bubbles,” “White jackets,” “Mixing chemicals,” “No fun,” “People with glasses.” “Hair tied back and lab coats,” “Purple, and grey hair”.
“Ugly people, and people with glasses” says Victoria. “Thick glasses”, someone clarifies. Suddenly, Dalia remembers about science class at school, and the girls list heat, condensation, optics, gas (“farts”, I hear someone whisper before the group dissolves into giggles), electricity, liquids, and methane.
“Did you know that you are sitting with two scientists right now”? I ask. Victoria covers her mouth with her hands and looks distressed. “I wouldn’t have said ugly if I knew that”.
Girl Guides of Canada have offered increasing numbers of science-related badges over its history: a conservation badge was established by 1959, a weather badge was introduced in 1968, the ecologist badge made its way into the program in 1975, and an endangered species badge showed up in the 1990s. Still, most of the badges added to the program since the 1930s focus on biology - the physical sciences were neglected when it came to the medallions of embroidery on our sashes.
That all changed a couple years ago with the introduction of the physics, chemistry, and engineering badges, as well as the first badge ever to be called simply, “science”. Needless to say my not-so-inner science nerd was giddy at this discovery. Before you could say “Paracelsus”, my nine to 11 year-old Guides had earned the new chemistry badge by solving a “mystery” using coffee-filter chromatography, invisible lemon-juice ink, and some pH strips I wrangled from a postdoctoral chemist friend. The quest for the physics badge was next.
The Science Girl Guides Did Way Back When
I wonder if the new badges signified a switch in the organization’s enthusiasm for doing science with the girls. When I first contact Catherine Miller, who runs the archives at Guides Canada’s National Office, she isn’t sure of the science content of the early program. But she’s eager to help me find out, digging out all the resources that have been available to Canadian girl guides since the organization came to Canada around 1910.
At the archives, I’m having trouble figuring out which parts of the early program fall under the rubric of “science”. A 1912 book called How Girls can help to build up the Empire the Handbook for Girl Guides, includes sections on “animals, nature and plants, as well as observation of signs, spooring…”, and “sanitation, nursing, invalid foods, and stoorkeeping”. The book, which was written by the sibling founders of Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, Lord Baden-Powell and his sister, Agnes, is organized into chapters titled “Finding the Injured” and “Tending the Injured”, but it’s clear that girls would have to understand biology, physiology, and math.
A 1920 publication called Girl Guide Badges and How to Win them compiled by Mrs. Janson Potts, Director of Camps includes over 75 badges. It’s a fascinating compilation of seemingly random skills – girls could earn badges called Bell-ringer, Cobbler, Commonwealth Knowledge, or Gymnast. Then there is the laundry list of traditional womanly badges: Embroideress, Lace maker, Hostess, Homemaker, and Domestic Service.
But there’s also an Air Mechanic’s badge which requires girls to have an elementary knowledge of the principles upon which an aeroplane engine operates, and an Astronomer’s badge which required girls to understand the nature and movement of stars, identify six principle constellations, find the north star using stars other than the pole star, tell the hour of the night using stars and moon, and understand the relative positions and movement of earth, sun and moon.
To earn the Electrician’s badge girls had to be able to make a simple electro-magnet, repair broken connections, know methods of rescue and resuscitation of persons suffering from shock, and understand the action of simple cells and bells.
The Geology badge required knowledge of the periods in the formation of the earth’s crust, and what is meant by stratification, dip, and faults. They also had to be able to identify twenty different minerals in their natural state, identify twenty different fossils, and the period to which they belonged, and collect six specimens of minerals or rocks, or six fossils.
Needless to say, the early science badges seem strict and extensive culminating in an overall impression of hardcore that is rare today. Miller shows me an early copy of the Guide promise and law indicating that one of the four “signposts” of Guiding is “Intelligence through progressive tests” (the others were handcraft, health, and service). By the 1990s, the program was focused on ”Fun, Friendship and Adventure” and the newest book for the girls is called “Guides on the Go!” “The aims of the organization have changed,” points out Miller.
Girl Guide Science Badges Nowadays: More Diverse & More Fun
A close comparison reveals that although the geology and electrician badges have vanished, astronomy and air mechanics still exist, as does a naturalist badge that was introduced in the 1930s. The basic requirements hadn’t changed much since they were introduced despite rapid changes in society. Nowadays countless activities compete for girls’ time and so various media compete for their attention (hence the “Guides on the Go!” perhaps). I wondered if my girls could remain focused for long enough to complete the type of badge work that used to be required.
Lucky for me, science sometimes works like a magic trick. One night I set out a milk bottle, some paper, and a hard-boiled egg. I light the paper on fire and stick it into the bottle. “Ooohh, smoke!!” I place the egg on top. The girls are all squished in as close to the jar as they can get: “It’s stretching!” “NO it’s not,” “I don’t see anything.”
For a moment I think the experiment isn’t going to work. Then, with an audible Pop! the egg slides into the bottle. The amazement in the room is palpable. I sense that in the girls’ opinion, this is one of the best things I have ever shown them. What just happened, I ask them.
“It’s like sweat”, says Victoria, “like the egg is sweating from the heat and it gets slippery and slides into the bottle”.
“Heat”, says Dalia.
“It’s because of the smoke”, they all say.
I’d love to know how many Canadian Guides are doing the science badges. At the Toronto Area store, I’m told that most badges are sold in about equal amounts, and I feel confident that most other leaders I’ve met would be at ease explaining friction. So why do I still stereotype my organization as being full of older women who are more comfortable making scrapbooks than möbius strips? It’s not as if doing things the hard way stopped Guide leaders in the past – after all, Guides was created after a group of adventurous girls demanded entry to the adventurous boys-only Scouting program in 1909. Today, many Guiders are young women who would not have felt out of place in their science classes.
Plus many basic science experiments didn’t take much. An experiment about surface tension took three ingredients: take a dish of milk, add food colouring, followed by detergent. “Can we drink the milk afterwards?” asks Victoria.
Although the instructions call for a couple of drops, Magda squirts in a stream of detergent. The colours immediately vanish into thin lines at the edge of the dish. Victoria reads out the explanation of what’s happening and complains that their colours are not “zooming and swirling” like the description says. The girls stare at it for about eight seconds before asking if they can add more detergent. Soon Dalia has found a bit of leftover cardboard and is stirring. I remind myself that this is all experimentation; they’re learning and they are interested in what will happen.
What happens is a horrible uniform green colour. “It looks like vomit”, says Dalia. I make a face, and say, “My vomit is not that colour”. She says, “Neither is mine. It looks like old man vomit. Can we play a game?”
The opportunity to do science may not strike my girls as being anything special. After all, we now live in an age of apparent equal rights for women and rapid technological advances. But they love doing experiments – and in this girls-only environment, they clearly feel comfortable enough to say what they want and participate fully.
The girls in Stephanie’s Girl Guide unit recently completed the requirements for the physics badge.
Links of interest:
Girl Guides of Canada – Guides du Canada
Way fun science experiments you can do at home:
The Edible/Inedible Experiments Archive
The Amazing Physics of Everyday Objects
Physics Experiments from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
Annnnnd the best silly putty recipe ever:
Dissolve 1 tablespoon of borax in ½ cup of water. Put 1 tablespoon of white glue and 1 tablespoon of water into a plastic cup and stir. When the glue and water are mixed well, add 1 tablespoon of the borax solution and stir.
