SCOUTING GUIDE

ANIMAL OBSERVER

Step 1 – Be an animal observer: When scientists observe, they use their senses to learn things. They may use their eyes to watch. Ears to listen. Nose to smell. Hands to touch. In this step, put your senses to work as you observe animals! (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 3 – Focus on one animal: Find one animal to observe outdoors. (outdoor grounds exploration)

TRAIL ADVENTURE

Step 1 – Go on your adventure: It’s time for the best part—your outdoor adventure! (outdoor grounds exploration)

ECO LEARNER

Step 1 – Be prepared to protect nature before you go outdoors: Girl Scouts know it’s important to be prepared! When you go outdoors, take water and maybe a snack. Wear sunscreen and dress in layers. (That means you can take layers off if you are too hot or add them if you are too cold.) Find out what kind of plants and wildlife you may see and how to treat them. Be prepared to not only keep yourself safe, but keep nature safe, too! (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 2 – Keep living things safe when you walk in nature: Always stay on established dirt paths or sidewalks. Walking off the trail can easily crush delicate plants, flowers, and tiny insects. (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 3 – Learn how to protect nature from trash: Leave no trace! Always pack out what you pack in, use animal-proof bins, never leave food scraps, and sort waste. (outdoor grounds exploration)

OUTDOOR MAKER

Step 1 – See the colors of nature: You probably notice colors outside when they’re very bright, like when you see pink flowers or a red bird. If you look a little closer, though, you can see lots of different colors in nature! (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 2 – Hear the sounds of nature: When you hear the word “art,” what do you think? You might imagine a pretty picture on the wall or a painting in a museum. But did you know that music and dance are art, too? (outdoor grounds exploration)

DESIGN WITH NATURE

Step 1 – Count with birds: Have you ever looked at birds or listened to them? There are 10,000 different kinds of birds. Each has a different call. Depending on the kind of bird, it might eat insects, fruit, seeds, or other animals! You can learn a lot about birds by watching and listening to them. (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 2 – Identify parts of nature: How are clouds, flowers, and animals alike? They’re found in nature. They’re natural objects. There are also many kinds of clouds. There are many kinds of flowers. There are many kinds of animals, too. Clouds, flowers, and animals are all categories or groups of natural objects. So, how do you tell one flower from another? Is it the color? Is it the shape of the petal or the shape of the leaf? By looking at them carefully, you can identify what category of natural object you’re looking at! (outdoor grounds exploration)

BUGS

Step 3 – See bugs in action: Even though bugs don’t live very long lives, they are very busy! (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 5 – Take a bug field trip: The best place to view creepy critters is to go outside where they live! Take a trip to get up-close with your bug friends. (outdoor grounds exploration)

ECO FRIEND

Step 1 – Think of ways to help the outdoors: As a Girl Scout, you know it’s important to protect nature when you’re outdoors. If you remember to be respectful of the environment whenever you’re outside, you’ll be a friend to nature forever! (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 2 – Observe outdoor spaces: If you think of yourself as a guest in nature’s home, it’s easy to remember that objects in nature should stay where they are. When you visit a friend’s house, you wouldn’t pick up something you liked and take it home without permission. And everything in nature is there for a reason, too. In this step, you’ll buddy up with some friends and an adult, and go outside to a place where you can see things in nature like rocks, leaves, shells, and fallen branches. (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 4 – Take care of wildlife: If you’re an animal lover, this will be fun for you! Caring for wildlife is very different from caring for pets, but they can still use your help. Find out how you can help wild animals in this step. (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 5 – Practice being kind: It’s important to be kind everywhere you go, but especially in the outdoors. Practice your outdoor kindness skills in this step. (outdoor grounds exploration)

HIKER

Step 1 – Decide where to go: Find out where you can hike in your area. Some distances look short on a map, but they are actually quite long. Work with an adult to choose a hike that’s perfect for you. (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 2 – Try out a hiking skill: Get ready before you hit the trail. The more hiking skills you have, the more fun it will be. (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 3 – Pick the right gear: Just like you can’t play sports without the right equipment (playing soccer without a ball would be pretty tough!), you can’t hike without the right gear. By the end of this step, you should have your hiker backpack ready. (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 5: Go on your hike! You have your map, your backpack, and your new hiking skills. You’re ready to go! Now choose a game to play as you hike along—and maybe even learn a new song. (outdoor grounds exploration)

OUTDOOR ART CREATOR

Step 1 – Find art ideas outdoors: Art can be found everywhere—not just inside the four walls of a museum. Go outdoors to collect ideas for art! Find colors you can use in a drawing, a shape you want to copy, or a new way to be creative. (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 2 – Make something: Take a walk outside to look at things in nature you think are pretty. It could be a garden with bright, colorful flowers. A rock that has sparkling crystals in it. A colorful sunset. A bird’s feather. A rainbow. The stars in the sky. Get ideas to help you create something to give away or keep for yourself! (outdoor grounds exploration)

OUTDOOR ADVENTURER

Step 1 – Play outdoors in a new way: Start your adventure by finding a new way to get moving outside! Maybe set up a sprinkler and dance through it with friends. Climb a big hill and have a picnic at the top. It’s all up to you—just get outside and try something new! (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 2 – Explore nature: Nature is the hundreds of plants and insects you see when you hike a trail. It’s the puffy clouds in the sky. It’s the sound of frogs croaking. It’s the smell of flowers. It’s the way a worm feels slimy when you touch it. Nature is awesome. It’s surprising. Sometimes it’s even weird. Let’s explore it! (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 5 – Care for the outdoors: Find an outdoor space you love, and think about how to make it even better. Outdoor adventurers are champions of the world outside! (outdoor grounds exploration)

TRAIL ADVENTURE

Step 5 – Go on your outdoor adventure: Make your adventure an experience you’ll remember forever—add fun games, take videos, or keep a journal!  (outdoor grounds exploration)

NUMBERS IN NATURE

Step 1 – Tell time with nature: Clocks help us know what time it is. We have clocks in our homes, cars, and public buildings, like schools and airports. Many of these are modern clocks that need electricity to work. Other clocks use water, sand, weights and springs, or even the sun and moon. Sundials are one of the oldest tools used to tell time. They’re a circle with each hour of the day marked. As the sun travels across the daytime sky, a shadow is cast which marks the time. The shadow is like the hand on the clock. (outdoor grounds exploration; Three Sisters Garden)

Step 2 – Track the weather: Track nature’s clues. From animals and plants to changing seasons and even coming storms, you can track the weather just by looking around. Search for changes in plants, how animals act, or what is happening in the sky. Write down and tally what you see. Research what each clue might mean, make a guess of your own, and then wait to see what happens with the weather. Were you right? (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 3 – Explore the circumference of trees: Trees are nature’s superheroes! They take out pollution and carbon dioxide from the air we breathe and release oxygen. They keep our drinking water clean and protect our homes from the heat and cold. They protect soil and provide us fruit and nuts. They lower our stress, make us happy, and create space for wildlife to live, eat, and play. (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 4 – Search for shadows: Shadows are mysterious. They move, change, and disappear. A shadow is created, or cast, when something blocks light. If you understand how shadows change with the sun, you can tell time or figure out how tall a tree or an object is. (outdoor grounds exploration)

OUTDOOR ART EXPLORER

Step 3 – Find music in nature: For as long as musicians have been making music, they’ve been finding inspiration in the outdoors. Combine music and the outdoors in this step. (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 4 – Be a nature photographer: Photographers are artists who see the world through the lens of a camera. Head outside with a camera (a cell phone camera works, too—if you don’t have a cell phone, see if you can borrow one) and become a nature photographer! (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 5 – Design with nature: From sculptures to gardens, outdoor art changes the appearance of the environment. Work together with nature to design a piece of outdoor art.

PLAYING THE PAST

Step 1 – Decide who you are: Pick your time period and do a little research. What did girls do? What did they like? Then use one of the choices to come up with the details of your character’s life. (museum exploration)

Step 3 – Experience daily life: Immerse yourself in your character’s time period. Think about what her lifestyle would have been like, and live it out. This is your chance to spend a day seeing the world through your character’s eyes. (museum exploration)

Step 4 – Have some old-fashioned fun: Every girl has a favorite game. Find out what kinds of things girls in your chosen time period did for fun, then try out an activity yourself. (museum exploration)

Step 5 – Become your character: Now, act as your character, sharing one thing about your life. You could teach some friends a game you learned, share the food you made with your family, or tell anything else you can dream up to other Girl Scout Juniors or classmates at school. (museum exploration)

SHAPES IN NATURE

Step 1 – Identify symmetry in nature: What do hearts, snowflakes, and butterflies have in common? Symmetry! Symmetry is like a reflection or mirror image. When something is symmetrical, two or more parts of the object are identical after a flip or turn. Think of our faces, an acorn, or an apple. A line of symmetry is an imaginary line where you could make a fold and both sides would be identical. Some things, like butterflies, have just one line of symmetry. Others, like snowflakes, have more. (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 2 – Explore bilateral symmetry in nature: Imagine drawing a line from the head to the tail of a tiger, down the middle of a butterfly, or across some flowers—one line of symmetry would create two symmetrical sides. That’s called bilateral symmetry. Bi- means “two.” Lateral means “sides.” The line of symmetry divides the object in two. Some plants, animals, insects, and even people have bilateral symmetry. Other natural objects, like spiderwebs or snowflakes, have more than one line of symmetry.

Step 4 – Find fractals in nature: Have you ever seen a picture of a riverbank from above? Rivers are full of branching patterns. They kind of look like tree branches, lightning, and even cauliflower. These are all fractals you can find in nature. A fractal is a never-ending pattern. It’s repeated again and again in different sizes and scales. They’re all around you. They’re outdoors, in your home, and even inside of you. You’ve been seeing, and maybe even eating, them your entire life! Across nature, you can find fractals in the human body, plants, shells, rivers, mountains, clouds, and even waterfalls. (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 5 – Search for the Fibonacci sequence: A sequence is a list of things in order. The Fibonacci sequence forms a spiral. A spiral is a curve. It circles around a fixed point. Sometimes, it goes in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions. Counterclockwise is moving in the opposite direction to the hands on a clock. You can see the Fibonacci sequence and spiral in nature, art, and architecture. Find the Fibonacci sequence in flowers. You can find the Fibonacci spiral in flowers! Think of a dandelion or the inside of a sunflower. The petals and seeds are arranged in spiral after spiral. That’s Fibonacci! Look for plants and flowers that show the Fibonacci spiral. Choose one or two to draw or paint. (outdoor grounds exploration)

TRAIL ADVENTURE

Step 1 – Choose your outdoor adventure: What kind of adventure sparks your interest?  Do you want to go trail running? Or take day hikes with family or Girl Scout friends? It’s your choice— so get started by exploring both of your options. outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 2 – Plan and prepare: You decided on a trail-running or day-hiking adventure. Now, come up with a plan to make it happen! outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 5 – Go on your outdoor adventure: Make it a lifetime memory—add fun games to your adventure, take action videos, or keep a goal journal. outdoor grounds exploration)

ECO TRACKER

Step 1 – Learn how to make minimal impact on a trek: In Girl Scouting, you’ve pledged respect for nature by being considerate and caring and using resources wisely. Leave No Trace is a group aligned with those beliefs. They created Seven Principles that will help you leave minimal impact on the land. Let Leave No Trace be a lifelong guide in your relationship with nature.

Step 2 – Plan an eco trek with a purpose: Start by deciding where to spend your time in nature—do you have a park nearby? Trails you want to explore? Make sure to plan what you’ll eat and wear, depending on the weather and the amount of time you’ll be outdoors. Use the buddy system by trekking with others, never alone. Always let an adult know where you’ll be. (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 3 – Practice an eco skill on your trek: Before your trek, do the research and make a plan to practice an eco-skill. While on your trek, identify durable surfaces. One Leave No Trace principle is to travel and camp only on durable surfaces, like rock, gravel, dry grasses, or snow. A surface is durable when it can tolerate repeated trampling and scuffling. (You can read more in the box on this page.) Check the surface on your path—and off it—to identify the different properties. Bring a map and make notations of areas where the path might be compromised. (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 4 – Make a difference on your eco trek: Now is your chance to act as an environmentalist explorer. Select the issue that means something to you, whether water, land, or wildlife—and do research before your trek. On your trek, take notes, observe, and come up with possible solutions to help. You’ll put your ideas into action in the next step. (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 5 – Make a difference after your eco trek: You completed your eco trek—hooray! Now make a difference by creating awareness and inspiring others about your issue. (outdoor grounds exploration)

OUTDOOR ART APPRENTICE

Step 1 – Explore art outdoors: Art can be found everywhere, not just inside the four walls of a museum. Put on your artist’s cap and head outside to gather ideas that will spark your creativity. (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 2 – Make something: It’s always fun to make something you can wear or give away! Just make sure not to disturb growing things—only use fallen leaves, pine cones, plants, or flowers. (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 3 – Get to know—and create—sounds of nature: The sounds you hear outdoors are a powerful connection to nature. Think about how you feel when you hear rolling thunder, water flowing in a stream, or a bird chirping. Take your cues outdoors as you absorb the natural sounds of wind, water, wildlife, weather, plants, and trees, and make music! (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 4 – Be a nature photographer: Nature photographers take pictures not only because their subjects are beautiful but also to remind people to appreciate and respect the environment. When you portray nature through a different perspective, it opens up a new way of thinking. Explore nature and create your art through the lens of a camera. (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 5 – Design with nature: Bees create honeycomb—one of nature’s most modern-looking and functional designs—by depositing wax into hexagon shapes to help store their honey. Nature’s shapes and patterns have inspired architects for centuries, like the ancient Greeks and Romans who built columns fashioned after trees. Explore ideas for design by taking a close-up look at nature. (outdoor grounds exploration)

TRAIL ADVENTURE

Step 1 – Choose your outdoor adventure: Which adventure do you want to do to earn this badge? Do you want to plan and go on a long-distance trail run? Or would you rather take on a trail-hiking challenge? Before you make your choice, take this step to explore both of your options. outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 2 – Plan and Prepare: You decided on a long-distance trail-running or a trail-hiking challenge adventure. Now take this step to make it happen!

Step 3 – Gather your gear: Be prepared with the right gear for your adventure! Try to borrow gear from family or friends so you don’t need to buy it. (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 4 – Set a goal and train for your adventure: Get mentally and physically ready for your adventure. Set a goal and make sure to practice positive self-talk! (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 5 – Go on your outdoor adventure: You’ve planned and trained—now you’re ready for your outdoor adventure! Make it memorable by keeping an adventure journal, shooting videos of your experience, or trying a new activity along a trail. (outdoor grounds exploration)

TRAILBLAZING

Step 1 – Start planning your adventure: When you’re packing in and packing out all your gear, pay special attention to preparation. You can pick up maps and information from the front lobby before you begin your trek! (Angel Mounds Lobby and outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 2 – Get your body and your teamwork skills ready: Hiking can be hard work, so make sure you’re ready. Can you carry all your supplies over the distances and terrain you’ll travel? Can you work together with your trailblazing companions? Get your group in mental and physical shape for the trip. For at least one of the sessions, do your exercise with your pack fully loaded and in the shoes you plan to wear. (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 5 – Head out on the trail: Enjoy being away from it all and out in the natural world, using your skills and adventuring with friends. Practice Leave No Trace principles, and take time to bond and reflect on your experience. (outdoor grounds exploration)

TREES

Step 1 – Try some tree fun: What better way to get glad about trees than to spend some time with them? Head outside to enjoy the bounty, shade, and delicious fun of trees. (outdoor grounds exploration)

OUTDOOR ART EXPERT

Step 1 – Explore art outdoors: Creative inspiration can spring from the things you experience, so head outside to take in the sights and sounds of the great outdoors. Take a hike, observe a cloud, lie on a hammock, and write in your journal or draw sketches. The ideas you collect will become your guide as you create for each step. (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 3 – Create or share music inspired by nature: Throughout history, nature has played an important role in music—it influences the sounds and lyrics that artists create. Some artists also use music to communicate their desire to protect nature. Let the sounds of nature be your tool to compile—or make—your own music. (Museum exploration; outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 4 – Capture nature digitally: When nature photographers take pictures of plants, wildlife, and landscapes, it might mean sitting for hours to snap a blue jay taking flight or being on high alert during a storm in order to capture the instant lightning strikes. Nature photographers may experience daring adventure and exotic travel, but it starts with technical skills and an eye to shoot nature’s subjects. Try out a different technique for taking pictures outdoors. (outdoor grounds exploration)

TEXTILE ART

Step 1 – Choose your textile art: Find out about the many varieties of textiles, from intricate embroidery to colorful quilts to cozy knitted scarves. Through this step, you’ll choose one textile art to learn, so decide if certain materials appeal to you more than others, or if one art’s history inspires you to create today. (museum exploration)

OUTDOOR ART MASTER

Step 1 – Explore Outdoor Art: When people think of art, they often think of paintings hanging on the walls of museums first. Museums are one great place to view artwork, but from topiary sculptures to monuments in public parks, art is everywhere! Bring artwork and the outdoors together and see art in a new way. (museum exploration, outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 3 – Find music in nature: Visual art (like painting and sculpture) is just one type of art— music is art, too! Find your inner musician with this step. (museum exploration, outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 4 – Be a nature photographer: Photography and video are a great way to create outdoor art without disturbing the environment. Head outdoors with a camera (a cell phone camera will work just fine) and see nature in a new way. (outdoor grounds exploration)

PHOTOGRAPHER

Step 1 – Explore the power of photography: Your goal in this badge is to tell a story important to you through photos. So before you delve into the technicalities of your camera and learn basic skills, use this step to explore the stories that photography can tell. (museum exploration, outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 2 – Focus on composition: Shoot five landscapes: Now, it’s time to get into photo basics! Do a little research into the four elements of composition: the “rule of thirds,” framing, depth, and lead lines. When you photograph your landscapes, keep the composition guidelines in mind. (outdoor grounds exploration)

Step 3 – Focus on light: Shoot five portraits or still lifes: What features do you want to capture about a person: her fashion sense, her love of serenity? What features of an object do you want to showcase: a vase’s smooth surface, a cactus’s spiny texture? As you take five portraits or still-life scenes, experiment with light to see how it can help you emphasize the features you choose. Try flash, natural light, using a flash outdoors, or a light source you create. (outdoor grounds exploration)