Mountain Brook Girl Scouts earn engineering badges with LEGO

September 24, 2019 10:34 AM

Photo courtesy of Allie Hulcher.

Mountain Brook Girl Scouts were roller coaster engineers for a day, thanks to a collaboration between LEGO and Girl Scouts of the USA.

At the Build a Roller Coaster Adventure event at the Hoover LEGO store in mid-September, Girl Scout Daisies (kindergarteners and first graders) earned mechanical engineering badges. The Girl Scouts built cars out of LEGO pieces, then tested their prototypes on ramps of different heights to see if they rolled without falling off, and for how far.

Then they went back to the design table, perfecting their designs like real engineers and inventors. By the end of the event, the girls learned about engineering, motion and gravity and had earned their Daisy Roller Coaster Design Challenge badge. LEGO employees facilitated the event.

With this collaboration, Girl Scouts and LEGO hope to inspire the female STEM (science, technology, engineering and math)leaders of tomorrow. This pilot event focused on kindergarteners and first graders to pique their interest in STEM subjects at a critical time in their development.

According to Girl Scouts of the USA, research shows that girls are keenly interested in STEM and excel at it, yet for a variety of reasons, often don’t pursue STEM—starting as early as elementary school. But according to the Girl Scouts Research Institute,Girl Scouts are more likely than non-Girl Scouts to participate in a STEM activity and to pursue a career in STEM.

“At Girl Scouts, girls learn how they can use STEM to help their community, improve their world and build the future,” said Karen Peterlin, CEO of Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama. “And they do all this through hands-on learning in a girl-focused,girl-led environment.”

Just this summer, Girl Scouts released 30 new STEM-related badges. Now girls from kindergarten through senior year of high school can earn badges such as Robotics, Coding for Good and Cybersecurity, and can complete the Computer Science, Engineering and Outdoor STEM Journeys.

Submitted by Allie Hulcher.