Girl Scouts add new STEM badges in robotics, coding, and racecar design

For all the ham radio dads and moms with daughters....

https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/25/16029718/girl-scouts-new-stem-badges-robotics-cars-programming

Today, the Girl Scouts of the USA introduced 23 new badges in the areas of science, technology, engineering, math, and the outdoors. This is the largest rollout of new badges for the organization in almost a decade, aiming its focus on encouraging interest in STEM and environmental conservation from an early age.

The new merit badges include Programming Robots, which requires Scouts to create simple programs that could be run by a robot and understand how machines use sensors, and Race Car Design Challenge, where Scouts have to design cars, tracks, and learn how to carry out “fair tests.” The organization created select badges with contributions from tech-related groups like Code.org, SciStarter, and GoldieBlox, and they join other Girl Scout STEM badges like Website Designer and Cybersecurity (which was announced this year and will be available in 2018).

The new merit badges include Programming Robots and Race Car Design Challenge
According to the organization’s announcement, Girl Scouts are “almost twice as likely as non–Girl Scouts to participate in STEM (60 percent versus 35 percent) and outdoor activities (76 percent versus 43 percent).” They also note that Girl Scouts are more likely to seek careers in STEM, law, and business — fields where women are traditionally underrepresented.

While these badge additions are a definite “yay!” moment, it’s worth noting there’s still severe discrepancies between available badges for Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. For example, the Girl Scouts have two meal-related badges — Dinner Party (how to be the hostess with the mostest) and Simple Meals (serve a meal for family and friends), while the Boy Scouts cooking badge has a list of requirements, including trail meals and food-related careers.

The new badges are indicative of where the Girl Scouts are going, though, and it’s frankly super cool to see them stepping up to give us our next generation of robot-programming, racecar-building women.

 

Thanks for sharing Troop 1808 Orlando,fl

 

I'm waiting for the badges in wireless/radio.

 

Our local 4-H group had some ham radio stuff at the county fair last time I was there. They also had tons of robotics projects.

Our daughter just turned 5 (the minimum age to start) and its co-ed. Good people and they encourage whatever area you are interested in. She doesn't seem very interested yet, but someday

 

Cool, good, this has to do with ham radio how?

 

The scout organisation and ham radio has always been closely linked together from very early radio indeed Baden powells scouts carried their heavey radio equipment on bamboo poles through the streets of London not to mention the close links with jamborees on the air. Getting Scout girls into STEM subjects might lead them to getting ham licences later on, just like a lot of "old men" got interested in CW and got a badge through the scout organisation and later got their ham licences.
They were given a spark by the scouts when young which has given them enjoyment in Ham radio through out their life.

That's what this has to do with ham radio

 

If you were in the UK and younger you would qualify for the communicators badge by holding a ham licence automatically.
https://members.scouts.org.uk/supportresources/4356/communicator-activity-badge/
Just need to be younger Old Man then you qualify for your badge.

 

Seriously, you can’t see the connection ? Unless you live under a rock, it’s pretty obvious the connection to most of us.

Aside the comments by others above, the American radio organization ARRL has struggled to find effective ways to engage youth and females and bring them into the Ham radio hobby. The entire high tech industry is struggling to find diverse and female engineers and programmers, scientists and Mathematicians.

The ARRL can look to the very same activities - robotics. Makers. Etc. As a place to begin engaging / recruiting new hams.

Never understood why the airwaves weren’t filled with more women. Can remember my sisters chatting on the phone for hours about lots of nothing much like us hams. The creepy old dude factor is a lot higher today so that probably plays into things ... that and cellphones don’t need external antennas...


Biggest threat to the hobby is ham radio is becoming irrelevant, with rapid aging of the ham populace, hams dying off, and then eventual loss of spectrtrum. Til now the league just keeps asking to lower the bar to get more hams on the bands - that can only go so long.

 

Yup. This thread is a prime example of why ham radio is really dying. It's not because the entry requirements need lowering or because the entry-level privileges are not good enough.

 

No,

The ARRL has recently asked for removing some of the material that comprises the question pool for the Tech license. In other words, less material to study. Why? Because some of it is outdated and not applicable.

The Tech is not 'dumbed down'. In 1966 the entry exam was the Novice, and there were 50 study questions. That's what I passed. The Tech is a factor of 10 more than that.

And I am no dummie

It is important that women understand wireless and engineering are viable career paths. If you don't get exposed to this at an early age, you don't know what's possible.

Girls doing merit badges in radio and wireless would be way cool.

 

Agreed, not really a dumbing down. But the point is that they seem to think that better privileges will somehow fix the problem of declining new entries into ham radio, when the real problem is declining interest in radio due to an abundance of new, interesting, "cool" tech hobbies to choose from.

 

No,

I am not convinced of that. The 'decline' happened already. I see things on the upswing, but our effort to showcase who we are is, to be polite, lacking.

You have to see where the world is heading: IoT in particular is going to produce the next and biggest wave of radio and wireless innovation, and if you don't expose the kids to playing with wireless here in the US, then you'll just have to make up for it with importing talent from PRC China and India (among others)--or importing the results rather than the talent. The latter is and was not acceptable IMO. It goes against the American character.

Not trying to be harsh to your comments, just pointing out that the talent comes from somewhere, why not HERE?

 

Wireless robots on bluetooth is one thing, the colostomy net on 75m is another. Why wouldn't they just skip ham radio and the license and go right to "Maker"? This is, in fact, what they're doing, and no new phone priviliges on HF are ever going to look interesting to them.

Speaking for myself, radio was a fascinating thing when I was a kid, and very high tech mysterious. It's just not like that anymore.

I applaud getting kids into STEM, but without something more interesting and modern than traffic nets on the repeater, ham radio is in the same catagory as analog cameras and landline phones... relics.

 

Boys, we in a heap o' trouble now.
( credit to Sheriff Buford T. Justice)