Getting back in to it all

So now nearly a month has passed since my break ended and I haven’t got back into blogging (I haven’t blogged for so long everything has changed and it’s now taking me twice as long to do anything!). That’s not to say I’ve not been busy with my Queen’s Guide – I definitely have! My documents are now looking far neater, with a cohesive theme and properly filed. This makes me feel better! I’ve been busy planning my twenty hour project for service in Guiding, element 1 which I’m super excited about (and suspect those twenty hours will multiply…). Then I’ve been working on my personal skill, much more of which to come in the coming weeks!

I’m on a break

There is a reason behind the fact I have written nothing on here for months and months… I planned to take six months off from my Queen’s Guide to give me the opportunity to settle into university and get to know my new Guiding community. I’m very grateful to my very wise mentor for suggesting it – I was all for just ploughing straight on, but it has given me the chance to take a step back, engage in lots of different activities and I will return refreshed and revitalised! My six months are still going until March, but I am beginning to think about it again – I also have had the horrible realisation that all those drafted posts from the summer never got posted so that shall be happening in the coming weeks.

Revision periods are often times of Guiding inspiration for me. The mixture of being chained to a desk, with ample supplies of paper and coloured pens whilst getting very, very bored seems to have a strange effect! So this time I have decided my skill shall be knitting. I know I said I would do something sporty but I’m just never going to reach the hours. I had forgotten how incredibly short netball games are, so that shall have to just be for the good of my health! It has also led me to do lots of planning (I have a new Brownie unit – more of in another post), as there’s so many exciting things happening this term: the promise consultation, Thinking Day, Girls In Action (I’m excessively excited about this one!).

So I shall be posting far more frequently in the coming weeks (I know it’s not difficult), about both plans and actions, past and present!

River Festival

This weekend was our town’s biannual River Festival and  we’ve been busy getting sunburnt and eating ice cream. Oh, and doing a spot of recruitment!

We had a joint Scout and Guide stall this year, which led to much competition to reach the girls first! Ultimately, though we were keen to recruit more girls, it’s new leaders we’re really after, as we have long waiting lists for Rainbows and Brownies in our division (like some many). We may have managed a few more, but most people I spoke to turned out to be leaders in other parts of the country! I did speak to some Senior Section aged girls who would be interested in being Young Leaders, which is a start. A few years time and they could be leaders too!

Some More Community Action…

It has been such a long time since I’ve written a post about my community action, possibly because I’ve been very busy reading, analysing and doing lots of calculations! For example did you know that California has 42 science museums and the population of the District of Colombia has one science museum to roughly every one hundred thousand people!

Although I have been doing all of this I’m not going to tell you much more about it yet. Today I’m sharing with you a few photos from the practical project, as I have finally sorted out my camera software… It’s only taken me seven months!

This was the first day of the very popular edible DNA, and so I spent the first few minutes showing my fabulous helpers what to do before the masses (well we got about seven that day!) descended.

Formal or Informal?

That is the question I’m going to try and address through my research project. More specifically my question I have decided on is:

‘Informal science education and the media have an equal impact to formal science education on pupils’ interest in pursuing science at a higher level.’

It’s a very broad question and there is a huge wealth of information on the internet, in books, papers and magazines. It is almost quite daunting when I look at my file of odd notes and printed articles and reports! That’s not about to put me off though, I’m really interested in this topic and it will be particularly interesting to explore the differences between local, national and international attitudes. It is also a fabulous opportunity to do some properly independent research.

So if anyone (particularly in countries outside the UK) have an  opinion about this, do comment – I’d love to hear! I really want to include plenty of first hand experiences. What made you study (or not) science at a higher level?

Healthy Heart

Last week at Brownies we were working on their healthy heart badge. It is always interesting to see their different responses to healthy lifestyles and actually is quite encouraging that government campaigns to tackle obesity are getting the message across. The girls were all very well informed. Better than I would have been at their age probably having been a Brownie when turkey dinosaurs and potato smiles were de rigeur for lunch and tea, with maybe some peas if we were feeling really healthy!

I had been given the food allergy clause to do with them. It was a challenge to come up with an activity that would be different to the others and not just talking about it. I remembered a game about germs spreading in Guiding magazine last year so wondered if I could adapt that. Unfortunately allergies are a wee bit more complex than the spread of germs so it took some serious adaptation.

So it turned into an extremely involved version of stuck in the mud! Half the girls were one of the top four food allergies (milk, nuts, fish, eggs) and the other half were allergic to one of them. The allergens were then given four reaction cards that they could give to those they caught who were allergic to them. If caught those with an allergy then had to sit down and wait for someone else to bring them an appropriate medication card. We had moderate reactions (itching, rash) and severe reactions (difficulty breathing, throat and mouth swell), and antihistamine and adrenaline. The idea was that the best way to stay in the game was to avoid the allergen!

We did have quite a nice discussion at the beginning about allergies. I was really impressed by what they knew and how well they listened! I’m not always sure about how well I can keep control of them all at once when we’re talking, but it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. It also meant that they were all able to meet the badge clause because I wasn’t sure how much they would actually learn from the game, but it’s the sort of badge that can end up very discussion-y and ours aren’t quite ready for that yet!

It also let me bring in a bit more science, which is always a GOOD thing! I did manage to refrain from teaching them the bits in my A-level biology course, but I brought it down to a more basic level, with the idea of big blobby things stop you from getting ill, but sometimes they get a bit overenthusiastic and attack something that won’t make you ill. It’s not the best explanation but I think they sort of got it!

                                                                     

County Camp!

And a bit of science too.

Today was our county’s annual Training Day and Review, and it was fabulous. It’s the first where I’ve been to more than just the Review. When I got my Baden Powell I was invited to it along with everyone else who had achieved it in the last year. That was great, but this one was so much more fun.

I actually ended up doing bits towards both Service in Guiding and Community Action. I’m not actually going to tell you much about the Service in Guiding side. We were planning for County Camp in August, and I don’t want to spoil any potential surprises until I know they’re out there in Divisions! We have come up with the design of the necker (which sounds like it could become all singing all dancing), sort of the sub camp names, the opening and closing ceremonies and the organisation of the challenge day in quite vague terms at least. I’m SO excited! August seems like such a long time to wait.

Now for the science. I have discovered Anglia Region has a science resource, QUEST (http://www.girlguiding-anglia.org.uk/product.asp?id=272). It is very good, with some really interesting ideas for activities. The session was really useful to me, not so much for the science itself, as I was able to talk to other Guiders about doing science based activities in their units. Some came from science backgrounds (research, teaching) but weren’t supported by their other leaders to bring science to Guiding or didn’t know how to bring it down to an appropriate level. Others didn’t have science backgrounds and either didn’t know how to incorporate science into their programmes or didn’t realise what could constitute to science. It made me realise how lucky I am in that I have a level of knowledge that means I have some idea about science but not so much I can’t take it down to Brownie level, and that the other leaders are more than happy for me to do something science-y! It’s given me yet more ideas about what to look at with my research for my Community Action.

Beyond my Queen’s Guide, today was just really good fun! It’s energised and enthused me about Guiding. Any time I think I’m starting to flag, I now know what to do – go on a training. It was great to do something just for me, and to talk to leaders outside my own unit. Also speaking to older Senior Section members about what they’ve done was great. My next plan – Innovate!

Brownie Science

That’s not the science of making chocolate Brownies, but science with my Brownies. This happened now nearly three weeks ago, which shows how busy I’ve been. It worked really well, even with a few last minute changes. We had gone up to 26 Brownies the week before, cue me panicking because I really wanted them to work in smaller groups than their sixes, even more once two were now sevens… I needn’t have worried though as we only actually had 20 of them turn up.

We had 20 miniature forensic scientists, in teams of 5 named after famous scientists (Isaac Newton, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, and Charles Darwin), and they rotated around three investigation. In order to discover which leader had stolen the kitchen keys (incidentally we still haven’t found them) they had create edible DNA for each leader, produce chromatograms, and  test 6 substances with red cabbage indicator.

There was a leader attached to each investigation, and we had two lots of chromatograms going at once. The DNA and indicators took about 15 minutes each, and the chromatography about 7 or 8 minutes, so if you can have all groups doing the same activity at once I would.  The Brownies did get really into it but with the difference in timings I could have done with having an extra activity that could have gone with the chromatography.

For anyone who’d like to try it out with their Brownies (or any other group for that matter, although I think probably Guides/Scouts are a bit old because they’ll have done it all at school by then) I’ve put links to the sheets I used for the Brownies. They include basic instructions and a record sheet.

The Science Bit!

Chromatography is a technique used to separate dyes (amongst other things). The ink in pens will be made up of a number of different coloured dyes, unless they are primary colours in which case it will be just one colour. Black and brown tend to give the best results as they are made up of the most colours. By placing water (a solvent) on top of a splodge (to use the technical term) of ink it dissolves the different dyes (the solutes). Some dyes will dissolve better in the water and so will travel further through the paper. I recommend using coffee filter paper, although you can get away with blotting paper if you’re desperate!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cMHyqvPUsoXr6oU8Fxb5NsGiEKY_ajSO18vMHk9MB7c/edit?pli=1

An indicator is a substance that will change colour depending on how acidic or alkali the substance being tested is. Red cabbage is surprisingly good at this. When you boil red cabbage in water it turns the water purple, if boiled  in orange juice it would turn the orange juice bright pink… Rather than boiling everything with cabbage it is far easier just to boil it with water and add the cabbage water to whatever you want to test. I did it by chopping up the cabbage, and adding boiling water and cabbage to drinks bottles. Quick, easy and saves staining pans purple! There’s a list of colours on the document.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jwkIxJ1jZCbs7wTHu-nMpYTOan5LEIee0NB-A-9H0Wo/edit

DNA, it’s what makes us, us. Everyone’s, bar identical twins, DNA is individual to themselves. So ideally do this last because it soon becomes blindingly obvious ‘whodunnit’ unless you have identical twins amongst your suspects! DNA contains four bases (adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine), which pair up. Cytosine and guanine always pair up, and thymine and adenine pair up. You need to make up an example of the DNA found at the scene of the crime beforehand so they have something to compare it to. Unfortunately the key didn’t download properly…

We used gummy bears and cocktail sticks to make our DNA. Each base is allocated a colour of gummy bear. I made up a key of four sets of gummy bear colours per leader, which the Brownies then used to make them up in actual gummy bears. The key should have two columns of four, so the gummy bear colours match, like:

Cytosine      Guanine

Guanine       Cytosine

Adenine       Thymine

Guanine      Cytosine

Then attach the pairs with cocktail sticks through their tummies, and then heads to feet with the ones above and below. To make it into a double helix, take the top horizontal stick and the bottom horizontal stick and twist!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14hLrr_TrEsMx1Aele3I13bw4JUaMqGNiaXwKKHvlKx8/edit?pli=1

The final link is for the Brownie record sheet. Get them to observe colour changes for the indicators, the others are just yes or no as to whether it matches the sample. You could get them to stick the chromatograms on.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wAJESBU_LsZZjtYabaA9eS5Vt8U-eDTkcR7MP-QNotI/edit?pli=1

If anyone does try this, let me know how you get on, and if you’ve any questions, ask away!

It’s been a long time…

After my frantic posting during Science Week I’ve had a bit of a break as I haven’t done an awful lot on my Queen’s Guide since! Mainly I’ve been catching up with school work I fell behind on that week…

So today’s post isn’t actually about MY Queen’s Guide or even MY Brownies but about all the rubbish articles that have been written recently. I held my tongue over the Daily Mail (what do you expect), even the Telegraph, as then there was the Guardian article from David Mitchell, which succeeding in lowering my blood pressure. However then I saw the article from my much loved Lucy Mangan in Stylist, which finally pushed me over the edge!

I’m not about to start ranting and raving, as that just isn’t me, and actually I think it’s fairly counter productive. Instead I want to tell the world about how great Guiding really is. So my Queen’s Guide blog is being hijacked once again for me to ramble on for a bit. Today I’m going to tell you a story…

Are you’re sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.

10 years, 6 months and 25 days ago a scared, shy seven year old went along to her very first Brownie meeting. Today she is a Leader in Training at a different Brownie pack. How on Earth did that happen?

I have to admit I’m not entirely sure! Maybe the growing confidence began when I was made sixer and I realised that not everyone thought I was as uselessly shy as I thought. Maybe it was moving up to Guides and having to fight my corner in a patrol of much older girls who were close friends. Maybe it was achieving my Baden Powell Award and seeing just what I could do if I put my mind to it.

To me the pivotal moment was county camp in 2007 where I made the decision to join Rangers. I approached the leader myself. I accepted the challenge I had been shying away from for so long. It was my decision and I wasn’t being pushed into it. That marks it out as different as for once no-one was suggesting an idea for me or giving me a gentle shove in the right direction.

Those suggestions and shoves were just what I needed as a little Brownie and slightly bigger Guide, but I was allowed to come to the realisation myself that I was ready for a bigger challenge. I was given all the support I needed to gain in confidence and then I was given the opportunities to use it.

Rangers provided the chance to pick and chose what challenges I wanted to face and when. Duke of Edinburgh, Chief Guide’s, Commonwealth, and Queen’s Guide Awards have all challenged and stretched me into seeing what I can do. The biggest was undoubtedly becoming a Young Leader because ultimately I was still massively lacking in confidence. I did it though. I put myself in a situation where I was hugely uncomfortable week after week until it became the most natural thing in the world. Today I wouldn’t think twice about jumping up in front of people and organising them.

I’ve been given the world by Guiding; it only seems fair that I give it back.

I promised to do my best; I keep my promises.

As a Brownie I said I would do a good turn everyday; I still am.

Day Five

The grand finale…

It was a little quieter today mainly because I was fairly exhausted after a very busy week so couldn’t quite manage to get the energy to really go all out to advertise. Equally it was our assembly so we were very limited by time having only half an hour to set up, run the activities and tidy away. We had 7 or 8 people come up and build towers out of spaghetti and marshmallows which was good fun although really quite difficult as we had very thin spaghetti so it just kept snapping!

Once again thanks for everyone’s help who was involved, but particularly Merlin, Flora, Luke, Rafaella and Riyaz who did everything they said they would and then more.

We’re having our evaluation on Monday so I’ll be posting more about what went well and what we would change if we were to do it again at some point next week. If you haven’t voted on my poll of what word best describes science scroll down about 6 posts.