A Council Patch Program for Brownie, Junior and Older Girl Scouts

Brownie Girl Scouts must complete one option from each section; Junior Girl Scouts must complete 2 options from each section and Older Girl Scouts must complete 3 options from each section.  Each section represents a stage in the inventing process

1. Curiosity - Ever find yourself asking questions about how something works?  Every inventor starts by asking a lot of questions.  Explore these options to find out how something works.
1. Examine 4 kitchen or hardware gadgets or tools whose use you don’t know.  Figure out how they are used.
2. Talk with someone about his or her tools:  Ask how they are used, and how they have been organized on a workbench or in a toolbox.
3. With permission, uncover something and look inside.  Or take apart something that is no longer usable.
4. Examine carefully 2 things whose workings you don’t understand.  Write down questions you would ask someone to help you figure out how they words.

2. Finding Needs –
1. Choose a task that has 4 to 10 steps.  List all the steps in order.  Time how long it takes for you to do each step.  Time someone else.  If one person is faster, can you figure out why?  How else could you complete this task faster?
2. For two days, pay attention to all the problems people have inside your home or classroom.  Make a list.  Which things are hard to use?
3. Ask someone your age about her or his needs, and then talk to an adult about  theirs.  Discuss your findings with your troop.  Vote on what seems

      to be the worst problem.

4. Think of your own needs.  Invent a robot to solve them for you.  Draw

your robot in action.

3. Many Answer –
1. Change the ending of 2 nursery rhymes, fables or stories that you know. 

      Tell or act them out for others.

2. Think of as many ways as you can to answer 2 of these questions:

How could I carry an egg to China?

How could I spend a million dollars?

How would the world be different if everyone lived for 200 years?

How would the world be different if we couldn’t see colors?

3. Learn about 3 different ways to do one of the following:  Prepare food, store things or play a game.
4. Draw or write about how you would change something by changing one or more of the following: its power source, its number of parts or its size.

4. Creating

1.      Make 2 containers to protect and store glass holiday ornaments choose from the following:  folded paper, plastic, wire, wood.

2.      Create symbols for 4 different feelings.  Instead of words, use design, texture, shape, and color.

3.      Draw or make a cardboard model of an improved box for: carrying lunch, storing jewelry or collecting mail.

4.      Invent a new dessert. Give it a name and price.  Draw an ad for it that tells why it is different and special.

5.      Make a timeline of 100 inventions.  Include the name of the inventor and why you think the invention was valuable.

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