Girl Scout Event

Last Saturday Viva and I attended the Women of Science & Technology Day that is put together by the Girl Scouts of Alaska. It is their signature (!!) event: "Women who have fascinating careers in science and technology lead fun, hands-on workshops." Hundreds of girls K-12 attended this annual event. The workshops were done in small groups. Viva and I attended three half hour workshops with groups of twelve to twenty Brownies. We did not get to choose our workshops. She was the only Daisy in our groups. Viva's troop didn't attend the event; she and I went on our own.

Our first workshop was about geology. It was presented by two young women who work at Pebble Mine as a geologists. They had lots of visual aids and for the last half of the workshop they did two hands-on demonstrations of plate tectonics. Viva got to eat the demo materials (graham crackers and icing). She enjoyed this workshop. 

Our second workshop was on the many different types of engineering jobs available. The presenter used a slide show to help explain what civil, mechanical, electrical, chemical and other types of engineers do on the job. The topic wasn't really comprehensible to a five year old and the hands-on demonstration wasn't until the last few minutes when the presenter pulled out an antique sextant and the girls got to look through its scope. Viva thought that was cool, but it wasn't enough to redeem 25 minutes of lecture. I'm disappointed that the Girl Scout office assigned a first year Daisy to this workshop. 

Our third workshop was with a bird biologist. Her job is to fly around in an airplane and count birds. I didn't know such a job existed, so I found the topic interesting. Three girls in the group got to put on helmets and sit in a mock cockpit, but the other 17 just sat on their chairs for 40 minutes (the workshop ran over 10 minutes). Viva remembered a few things from this workshop, but it was much too long for her age group.

I was impressed how well Viva behaved during the three workshops. The event was not what we had promised her (fun science experiments!), but she maintained a good attitude nonetheless. The highlight of the morning for her was when we were walking between the second and third workshops and she found the tip of a pine branch on the walkway. Viva loves to collect leaves, rocks, and branches. She played with the pine branch during the last workshop and then she took it home to meet her acorn (!?!) and to poke her brother Bentley.

I asked her if she wanted to go again next year and she said "Yes!" Her answer surprised me. It wasn't a fun event and she had to get up early to attend it. I'll take her again to Women of Science, but probably not next year.