Woodworker Badge

1. Swing a hammer.
Make a design with nails on wood:
I made a smile face of nails on wood!

2. Keep it level.
Do a survey:
I checked five different spots around the house and garage to see if they were level and plumb. I discovered that the shed wasn't level!

3. Use a screwdriver.
Fix loose screws.
I tightened a lot of pot handles that were loose!

4. Saw some wood.
Square it off:
I used the miter box and handsaw - the handsaw was harder to keep straight!

5. Build something yourself.
Build with your expert:
I built a birdhouse with the help of my woodworking expert - Dad!

aMAZE Journey: Let Peace Begin With You

Our seventh aMAZE journey meeting was about "Surfing Through Cyber-Relationships" and the section called "Let Peace Begin With You." We covered pages 96-119 in the girl book, read and did activities about netiquette, cyber-bullying, safety in cyberspace, choosing communication tools, live vs. virtual, and the internet safety pledge. We also read and talked about how relationship skills impact the world, leadership, and moving toward peace. Today we started thinking about the take action project and brainstorming possible project ideas, which we will continue in the next journey meeting.

Science of Happiness Badge

1. Make yourself happier (did for two weeks or more):

Get into a state of "flow."
I have been getting into flow through using the app "Paint Joy" which allows you to create masterpieces on your phone. It sparks my creative interest and allows me to paint things that I've never painted before. Some of the projects I worked on using the Paint Joy app were creating a bonnet, the moon, and a winter scene.

Another thing that gets me into a state of flow is playing my double French horn. When I play, the time goes by quickly because it is so much fun! I found that I have the most flow when I played the music for summer band camp.

2. Think differently for happiness (did for two weeks or more):

Be happy for others.
We celebrated with Dad for his drum corps anniversary and told him how how awesome that was! We even went to the reunion and celebration.

A younger Girl Scout troop was bridging and we attended and participated in their ceremony, and celebrated with the girls afterward. I congratulated them and talked with them about what they are looking forward to in the next level of Girl Scouting.

We visited our cousins and heard all about some of the activities that they are involved in such as Boy Scouts, music camp, and sports teams. We asked them more about the activities and paid attention to what they were saying. We told them how awesome that sounded and celebrated with a pizza dinner.

3. Get happy through others:

Make something meaningful.
I made a painting to give to a veteran. It said thank you for serving our country, and had the symbols of the armed forces on it. I made it because I am grateful to the men and women of the military for all that they do to protect our country and keep us safe, and for helping others overseas.

4. Do a helpful happiness experiment:

Focus on one friend.
I talked to my friend who was sad because she lost her special bracelet. I gave her a hug and told her that she would find it soon, and then we did an activity that got her mind off of it. She said that made her feel better! I used my signature strengths of hope, humor, kindness, and love. It was amazing because it made me feel happy to help her that way.

5. Create a happiness action plan:

Create a bliss box.
We made a bliss box decorated from an old coffee can and put happy things inside such as happy moments from my journal, happy activities, reasons to be thankful, something a friend said, and some of my strengths.

aMAZE Journey: Caution: Bullies Straight Ahead

We began the section called "Caution: Bullies Straight Ahead" during out sixth aMAZE Journey meeting.
We read through and discussed pages 74-95 in the girl book and did activities about identifying bullying behavior, scenarios of bullying behavior, positive ways to help deal with bullying, bully-target-witness, differences between joking, teasing, and bullying, remembering that bullying is a temporary situation, being confident and responding to disarm a bully, and how to shift behavior to prevent relationship roadblocks.

aMAZE Journey: Cliques and Conflicts

During our fifth meeting for the aMAZE journey, we talked about cliques and conflicts. We played a game where we had to stand on a number on masking tape to show where we would stand when using our values to decide if a situation was okay or not. We also discussed what cliques are, gossip, healing wounds, making and keeping friends, and using "I-statements" instead of "You statements."

100 Years of Science Event Conference

Today we attended the 100 Years of Science Event Conference at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ. The conference was hosted by the Girl Scout Councils of New Jersey and The Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education, and sponsored by the PSE&G Foundation.

We worked with student volunteers from Stevens' Society of Women Engineers as well as Girl Scout volunteers on alternative energy experiments which included photovoltaic systems, solar water heaters, and wind turbines. There was also a panel of Stevens' women students who shared some of their experiences and answered some of our questions.

The 100 Years of Science Event Conference's keynote speaker was Dr. Pamela Conrad, astrobiologist and mineralogist in the Planetary Environments Laboratory of the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. We were honored to hear that she flew in from California last night and woke up at 3:30 a.m. this morning to drive up to Stevens to give the keynote! Dr. Conrad's presentation included stories of when she was a Girl Scout, and how she got two music degrees before deciding that she loved science also and followed that path later in her career. She encouraged us to follow our passions, no matter when in life the idea occurs to us. Dr. Conrad also spoke passionately about her expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica, and deep-sea exploration in a submersible. She is currently working with the Curiosity Mars Rover, and showed us very cool pictures which helped explain some of the discoveries.

Girl Scout National Headquarters, NYC

We took a trip to the Girl Scout National Headquarters in New York City. It is located at 420 Fifth Avenue, but the entrance is on 37th Street. The Girl Scouts of the USA are on several floors in this building.

The morning was filled with meeting people in different departments such as Older Girl Awards, where we discussed my Bronze Award and my visions for the Silver and Gold Awards. The woman in charge showed us the GSUSA website where they have Map-It, an online map that pinpoints award winners and a description of their projects. This online resource will come in handy when Silver Award planning time arrives.

We spent time in the Global department, where we discussed Girl Scouts Overseas and Global Girl Scouting.

We talked about the four World Centers, Destinations, Girl Scouts Overseas, and Girl Guides in other countries. We also examined gifts from visitors from other countries - there were so many! I also got to pick out a swap - a Girl Guide patch from Australia.

The Executive Offices were next, including a tour of the President's office and the office of the CEO Anna Maria Chavez. The offices were beautiful, especially the CEO's office! I received patches from both the CEO and President, and learned that the CEO's nickname is "Eagle 1," which she also uses on Twitter!

We also saw the first Girl Scout Banner

and the Girl Scout National Archives, which stays at a constant 64 degrees F in order to preserve the papers. This section is accessible by the public, and many use it for research.

The Girl Scout National Archives is in part of the Girl Scout Museum, which was opened in 1987, and contains materials, equipment, uniforms, and other memorabilia from the early years to present day.

We also spent time in Marketing and Product Development, looking at presentations of new packaging for nut containers and cookie boxes, and participated in a focus group about developing GS branded clothing and jewelry products. We also saw braille versions of The Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting, ate lunch in the cafeteria, and spent time (and money) in the GS shop. It was great to meet so many people and tour GSUSA - a fun trip!