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Cadettes

Cadettes (Grades 6-8)

Girl Scout Cadettes is the fourth level in Girl Scouts and is open to girls in grades 6-8.

Making forever friends, saving the planet, standing up against stereotypes, using their powers for the greater good—that’s what being a Girl Scout Cadette is all about.

The activities below have been adapted from existing Girl Scout programming and optimized for use at home during a period of social distancing.

STEM Activities

Cadette Cybersecurity Safeguards

Cadette Cybersecurity Safeguards Badge: Inventory Your Digital Presence

Explore some of the types of data collected by websites and apps. They learn about their digital footprint and how to control and protect their data.

Adapted from Step 5 of the Cadette Cybersecurity Safeguards badge.

Purpose: Explore some of the types of data collected by websites and apps. They learn about their digital footprint and how to control and protect their data.

Setup: The internet is a powerful tool! You can chat with friends, research school projects, play games, watch videos, or listen to music. The downside is that you leave information about yourself with every screen tap and click of the mouse. Some platforms, like social media, allow you to share personal information, but every program or app you use collects data and metadata about you. It’s a good idea to think carefully about the kind of information you are sharing every time you visit a website or use an app.

Time needed: 20 minutes

Materials needed:

  • Seven sheets of paper
  • One black marker
  • Two colored markers

Activity:

First, use a black marker to label the blank papers as follows (one on each sheet of paper): Email, Messages, and Chat; Social Media and Networking; Online Banking and Shopping; Media (Video, Photo, and Music); News and Information; Games; School-Related.

Then, think about the types of apps and online services you use most regularly across each of the categories listed on the papers and jot them down with a marker. For example, “Instagram” would be written under “Social Media and Networking” and “YouTube” under “Media.”

Now, think about the different kinds of data that you have stored on each app or website. For example, do you have an account? If yes, you might have a username and password stored on that site. Is your parents’ credit card stored there for any reason? What about your address? Have you created specialized playlists or listed your preferences in a profile somewhere?

Take five minutes to write down as many types of data as you can think of on the appropriate paper with the colored (non-black) marker. Go from paper to paper as you think of new ideas. Try to think of as many as possible.

Next, imagine that a hacker was going to get access to all the data that you have listed on these sheets. You can only protect six pieces of data. Using a different colored (non-black) marker, draw stars by the six pieces of data that you think are the most valuable and that you most want to protect.

Once you’ve decided, step back and look at where the stars are. Ask yourself:

  • Why do you think certain pieces of data are more valuable than others?
  • Were you surprised by how much data you’ve given to those apps and websites? Why or why not?
  •  Is there any data that you’ve given to some of these websites that they don’t really need?
  • Have you set up any accounts that you don’t really use? Why might that be an issue?
  • What could you do to protect yourself? How can you protect the data that you have stored in those places?

Finally, check out the Things to Know below to wrap up the activity.

THINGS TO KNOW:

  • One of the very best ways to protect your data is to use strong, unique passwords for every single account you have. 
  • You just created an inventory of your accounts and the data that is stored on them. That will help if you're ever hacked! 
  • For example, if a hacker breaks into a site that you know stores your parents' credit card information, then you need to tell your parents right away so they can cancel the card and get a new one.
Cadette Think Like An Engineer

Cadette Think Like an Engineer Journey: Corgi Vest Design Challenge

Find out how engineers solve problems with the Design Thinking Process. Then, take on a design challenge to engineer a life vest for a corgi!

Adapted from the Cadette Think Like an Engineer Journey - Meeting 3, Activity 3.

Purpose: Find out how engineers solve problems with the Design Thinking Process. Then, take on a design challenge to engineer a life vest for a corgi!

Set-Up:

You've been hired by a family who has a corgi named Champ. Corgis have a hard time swimming because of their short legs. To prepare for a trip, the family has asked you to design and engineer a life vest for Champ so he can float and play with the children in the lake.

For this design challenge, follow the steps of the Design Thinking Process to engineer a prototype of the life vest. A prototype is a quick way to show an idea to others or to try it out. The Design Thinking Process is the steps engineers go through to solve problems. They: identify the problem, brainstorm and plan, build, test, and improve.

Time needed: 60 minutes

Materials needed:

  • 1 unopened 12 ounce can
  • 2+ sheets of foam
  • 2 plastic bags (like strong sandwich bags)
  • 3 large rubber bands
  • 2 sheets of blank paper
  • Scissors
  • Duct tape
  • Stopwatch or timer
  • Pencil
  • Markers

Note: If you’re missing a material or have another idea for something that might be useful, free feel to try them out! For example, you might want to test things that float, like Styrofoam or other packing materials. Trying out different ideas to see what works is something engineers do!

Activity:

To prepare for the challenge, follow the instructions below to: 1) create a model dog and 2) build your testing station.

1.      Create a model dog for the challenge. Take a sheet of foam, sketch, and cut out four paws and a head. Then, attach them to the can with some tape. If you want to create an animal that isn't a dog, that's great! Feel free to use the foam sheet to create and cut out any type of animal.

2.      Create a testing station. Fill a tub or a large plastic container with water. If you use a separate container, place it in an area of the room that can get wet. Make sure to have a couple towels nearby for easy clean-up!

To get started, identify the problem you're trying to solve: engineer a life vest for Champ so he can swim in the water.

Then, spend a few minutes brainstorming the design of your life vest. Sketch your ideas on sheets of scratch paper to create a plan that keeps in mind the criteria and constraints.

  • Criteria are things the design needs to accomplish. They’re the goals for a prototype. The criteria for the challenge is that your life vest must 1) allow the dog to float with its head above the water for 10 seconds and 2) easily attach and detach from the dog.
  • Constraints are ways the design is limited. For example, there might only be a certain amount of time to build the prototype or a limited amount of materials to make it. The constraint for this challenge is that you can only use your challenge materials, including the plastic bags, foam sheets, and rubber bands. If you also gathered other materials to use, like Styrofoam, feel free to try them out!

Once you have some ideas, choose one to turn into a prototype.

Then, use your plan and materials to create a life vest for your model animal. As you build, feel free to try lots of different ideas to see what works and doesn't work. Remember, the goal is to practice thinking like an engineer, NOT to make a perfect life vest!

When you think you have a finished prototype, test it and see how well it works!

Before you start testing, what do you think will happen to your prototype? Will Champ be able to float? Will the model sink? Take a guess!

Then, find out if you were right! Test your prototype by attaching the life vest to the model dog as quickly as possible. Place the dog into the water and see whether or not the dog's head can stay afloat in the tub of water for at least 10 seconds.  

During the test, you may find things that work and others that don’t. So, after testing, make sure to ask yourself: How could you improve the prototype?

Then, improve your prototype using what you’ve learned. Once you have a new version, test it again to see if your changes worked!

Once you’ve created your life vest or any type of prototype, you can share it with others. They can help you to think of new ideas and look for ways to make your prototype even better.

And that’s it! You’ve completed a design challenge from the Cadette Think Like an Engineer Journey! You’ve learned about the Design Thinking Process and used the steps to engineer a prototype of a life vest.

If you had fun with this design challenge, check out the other activities in the Think Like an Engineer Journey. Or, explore more about engineering and computer science with the Robotics badges. 

Courtesy of the Museum of Science, Boston. Adapted from the Engineering is Elementary, Go Fish: Engineering Prosthetic Tails. ©2014, 2016 Museum of Science.

Cadette Think Like a Citizen Scientist

Cadette Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey: Jump Into the Scientific Method

Explore how scientists solve problems as you create a field guide about your environment. Then, find out how you can help real scientists with their research! 

Adapted from Meetings 1 & 2 of the Cadette Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey.

Purpose: Explore how scientists solve problems as you create a field guide about your environment. Then, find out how you can help real scientists with their research! 

Set-Up: Scientists study nature and conduct research to better understand how it works. They use what they learn to create solutions that help people, animals, and the environment. To learn new things and do research, scientists use a process called the scientific method.

Citizen science is when a scientist asks regular citizens to help with their research. It’s a way for everyday people to help scientists advance research.

Activity: To get started, gather a few sheets of blank paper, a pencil, and some markers or colored pencils. You’ll also need a set of “field tools” to help you to take field notes about your environment. You might want to include tools you have around the house, like a ruler, magnifying glass, camera, and thermometer. 

Part 1: Make observations about your environment.

Observation is watching and noticing something using all of your senses, especially sight. Observations are a type of data. Data simply means information. It can be notes, drawings, photos, recordings or videos of what you see and hear.

Start by taking a minute to make some observations about your environment (the world around you!).

If you can, go outside, but it’s alright if you’re indoors—there are still plenty of things to observe! Walk around and explore your surroundings. With your pencil and paper, collect data by writing or drawing what you observe. Make sure to add lots of detail to your data, like information about size, quantity , or color. If you have questions about what you’re observing, write them down, too!

Part 2: Form scientific questions and hypotheses.

As scientists collect data, they ask scientific questions about their observations. Once scientists have a scientific question, they make an educated guess, or form a hypothesis, about what they think the answer is. The hypothesis can be tested to see what parts (if any) can be confirmed. 

Once you have some observations, choose your 3 most interesting and form 2 scientific questions for each. If you’re wondering if your question is scientific, ask yourself: Is this testable? How could I find an answer? What experiment or test could I conduct? 

Then, choose one question that: 1) you’re interested in trying to answer through more observation, and 2) you could collect data and measurements about.

Finally, look back are your scientific question: what’s your hypothesis? Use what you already know or can reason to answer your scientific question.

Part 3: Add detail to your data.

Next, see if you can confirm your hypothesis by observing your subject once more. 

Use your set of “field tools” to add details about what your subject looks like, how big it is, what it sounds like, or how many you see. For example, you might use a ruler to measure the distance between two objects or a camera instead of sketching. 

Part 4: Create a field guide.

When scientists come back from the field, they review their notes to make sure they’re detailed and think their data means. Thinking about and understanding data is called data analysis. Scientists might compare what they saw with other data, find a way to present it (like a graph, chart, etc.), or look at their data and decide they need to collect more! 

So, use your data to create a field guide page about your subject! Include information like your subject’s name (if you know or can identify it), a picture or drawing, its defining characteristics, how you encountered the subject, and any other observations you think are important. 

Once you’re done with your first field page, you can create more to tell others the story of your environment.

Optional Part 5: Participate in a citizen science project.

Now you know about the scientific method, but what can you do next? Become a citizen scientist! 

To help you get started, Girl Scouts of the USA has partnered with SciStarter to offer Girl Scouts and volunteers a special portal to find and track citizen science projects.

SciStarter has almost 3,000 citizen science projects to choose from—and the dashboards include several citizen science projects that are well suited for Girl Scouts. There are projects that can be done in any season! 

You can participate in Globe Observer from NASA and collect data about clouds, identify plants in your background with iNaturalist, or play an online game called StallCatchers to help with Alzheimer’s research. Whatever part of nature you’re interested in, there’s a citizen project for you! 

Check out the “How to Use SciStarter Guide” for more information on citizen science projects and SciStarter.

And that’s it! You’ve completed part of the Cadette Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey! If you had fun doing this, you might want to participate in a citizen science project or Take Action with the rest of the Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey. 

Outdoor Activities

Virtual Destinations - Exploring Camp Indian Echo, 6/26

Join us for this virtual tour of our Camp Indian Echo, where you can meet a camp counselor, ask Ranger Deb questions and more!

This event is a part of a series of events one happening each month each with a different focus. Each event will take place the last Saturday of the month through September. All registrants will receive login information one week prior to the event.

Open to all Girl Scouts, and their  friends and families.

REGISTER NOW

Girl Scouts Love The Outdoors Challenge

Summer is the perfect time to get outdoors safely while social distancing! While you’re at it, join the Girl Scouts Love the Outdoors Challenge—complete the designated number of activities and earn yourself a cool new patch. Use #gsoutdoors to share your story and to see how other girls are completing this fun outdoor challenge.


Learn more.

Cadette Outdoor Art Apprentice

Cadette Outdoor Art Apprentice Badge: Explore Art Outdoors

Record how things change outdoors. Head outside and find a scene—it might be a lake, a tree, the ocean, a trail, or a plant in your backyard. You can even find a family photo or look online. Write about it or sketch it in color. Record everything you observe. 

    Download the official Badge Booklet

Adapted from Step 1 of the Cadette Outdoor Art Apprentice badge. Download for free the official Badge Booklet to complete all badge requirements and earn a Cadette Outdoor Art Apprentice badge.

Outdoor Art Apprentice-Explore art outdoors

Time Acivity will take: 15-20 minutes twice in the day

Materials needed: Notebook or paper - Pencil or pen OR  Sketch pad or paper - Colored pencils.

Activity: Record how things change outdoors. Head outside and find a scene—it might be a lake, a tree, the ocean, a trail, or a plant in your backyard. You can even find a family photo or look online. Write about it or sketch it in color. Record everything you observe. What season is it? What time of day? What colors do you see? What do you like about your scene? Then go out and record this same setting again at another time of day. You might see the same tree reflected in a pond in the morning and a different reflection later in the day. Why? Is the lighting different? Did weather make a difference in the scene? In what ways do your two impressions of the same scene differ?

It is worth noting that being an intentional, keen observer is critical to careers in the outdoors and STEM.

Cadette Eco Trekker

Cadette Eco Trekker Badge: Make a Difference after Your Eco Trek

Put together a short documentary of your trek and the environmental issue you explored. Share it with your troop, school, family, and friends. Get a discussion going after your presentation to talk about possible solutions.

    Purchase the official Badge Booklet.

Adapted from Step 5 of the Cadette Eco Trekker badge. Purchase the official Badge Booklet to complete all badge requirements and earn a Cadette Eco Trekker badge.

Time Acivity will take: 1-3 hours

Materials needed: Device with video capability and photos or videos of a completed eco trek. This time is a great opportunity to document your adventures and share them online with friends and family.  

Activity: Make a video of your eco trek. Put together a short documentary of your trek and the environmental issue you explored. Share it with your troop, school, family, and friends. Get a discussion going after your presentation to talk about possible solutions.

 Entrepreneurship Activities

Cadette Financing My Dreams

Cadette Financing My Dreams Badge: Explore Dream Jobs

Girls will discover some of their dream jobs by exploring their interests, talents, skills, and hobbies as they look to their bright futures. 

Adapted from Step 1 of the Cadette Financing My Dreams badge.

Time needed: 45-60 minutes

Materials needed:

  • Piece of cardboard, poster board or cover stock paper
  • Magazines and newspapers
  • Scissors
  • Glue or tape

Purpose: Girls will discover some of their dream jobs by exploring their interests, talents, skills, and hobbies as they look to their bright futures.

Setup: Have you ever wondered what your life will be like when you are 20 or 30? What will your job be? Where will you live? The Financing My Dreams badge lets you explore, practice thinking about your future, and learn how much that future might cost. In this activity, you will explore your hobbies, interests, skills, and talents; learn about jobs related to your interests; and discover what those jobs pay.

Activity: First you will create a vision board about your future. Cut out pictures and words from a magazine that represent you and your dreams. If you don’t have any magazines, you can draw your vision, search online for images, or your vision board could be a mixture of drawing, writing, and collage. As you create your vision board, make sure you include some of your current hobbies, interests, skills, and talents.

Now it’s time to dig into your dream jobs. Do you have any interests, hobbies, skills, or talents that you could turn into a career? Make a list of possible jobs—see if you can get at least 25 possibilities written down. You might need some help making your list. Look to books, TV, web sites, news, and other outlets for inspiration, or have your friends and family help you brainstorm a list of ideas. With the help of an adult, you can also connect with adults in your network learn about their job history.

Once you have your list, pick your top five choices. Finally, search the internet to find a rough estimate of the salary and take-home pay for each job. Salary refers to how much money you will bring home each year and take-home pay is your salary minus taxes and other benefits like health insurance that you may pay for before getting paid yourself.

Cadette Entrepreneur

Cadette Entrepreneur Badge: Brainstorm Business Ideas

Girls will begin to learn to think like an entrepreneur.

Adapted from Step 1 of the Entrepreneur badge.

Time needed:  45-60 minutes

Materials needed:

  • Paper for notes
  • Pen or pencil

Purpose: Girls will begin to learn to think like an entrepreneur.

Setup: Have you ever used a product or service and thought to yourself, “What a great idea!”? Well, a lot of you probably have good ideas all the time. The difference is that someone took that great idea and turned it into a business. That is the definition of an entrepreneur! Being an entrepreneur isn’t just about making money. It’s also about providing people with a product or service that helps improve their lives. Running a business can be a powerful way to make the world we live in a better place.

Activity: First, decide who your client might be. Clients are people or groups you’d like to target for a product. It’s easier to come up with an innovation if your client is very specific—a person doing a specific activity in a specific place. To come up with your client, make a list of people, activities, and place. Then mix and match to identify your client. So, say I choose families as my client, recycling as my activity, and at home as my place. 

Next, become a keen observer. Watch the people doing the activity in the place you’ve chosen. You could do this in one sitting, one day, or over the course of a few days. Keep a notebook close by to capture your ideas. You can even talk to your potential clients about your topic to learn from them. As you observe and talk, come up with 15–25 different ideas for products or services that might help solve issues and improve their lives.

Finally, once you have your list, narrow down your ideas to one area you would like to improve and explore.

Life Skills Activities

Girl Scout Silver Award

Girl Scout Silver Award: 
Take Action on Important Issues, Create Positive Change

Girl Scouts are the youth leaders their communities need to create solutions to the new and ever-changing obstacles that arise from this global pandemic. 

Working as a team or individually, 6th-8th grade Girl Scouts earn the Silver Award—the highest award for Cadette Girl Scouts—by identifying the root of a community issue they care about and then rolling up their sleeves and getting to work!

Interested in becoming a Silver Award Girl Scout?  Visit our Silver Award Webpage to learn how. 

When you’re ready to be a Silver Award Girl Scout, contact Alison Wernicke. 

Note: Girls, volunteers and families are encouraged to take the time and space they need to adjust to this period of rapid change and uncertainty. When they’re ready, we’re here to support Cadette Girl Scouts to safely take action in their communities—whether it’s helping ensure kids are still getting the nourishment and enrichment they need out of school, responding to the possible ramifications of isolation during social distancing, adapting an existing project to positively impact local communities today or something else entirely! 

Cadette Comic Artist

Make Sticky-Note Comics

Get the hang of comic stories by drawing one of these on a sticky note (rough, rough sketching, remember!)

Adapted from Step 1 of the Cadette Comic Artist badge.

Time needed: 30-45 minutes

Materials needed: 

  • Sticky notes
  • Drawing tools (called mediums) like colored pencils, regular pencils, or pens.

Activity: Make sticky-note comics. Get the hang of comic stories by drawing one of these on a sticky note (rough, rough sketching, remember!

  • a dog floating on a raft
  • a hawk diving
  • a girl at bat

Take another sticky note and add:

  • the cat that’s swimming past the dog
  • the prey the hawk is diving for
  • the ball the girl is trying to hit

Now, take a third sticky note and add another element to each panel:

  • another cat chasing the first cat that’s swimming past the dog
  • a larger hawk after the prey the hawk is diving for
  • the catcher waiting for the ball the girl is trying to hit

Now, imagine how your three sticky notes could be turned into a whole comic story. Then make up a story with friends or family and draw it out using regular paper or several sticky notes.

For More FUN: Draw all nine scenarios and make all of them tell one story!

Cadette Screenwriter

Decide What Makes a Good Script Good

Think about the movies or television shows you love most. Then examine them for clues as to what makes them work.

Adapted from Step 1 of the Cadette Screenwriter badge.

Time needed: 1–3 hours

Materials needed:

  • Television or computer
  • Notebook or paper and pen or pencil

Activity:

Decide what makes a good script good. In this step, think about the movies or television shows you love most. Then examine them for clues as to what makes them work. Look beyond the actors, and focus instead on the characters’ words, the scene changes, and the situations the screenwriter puts the characters through—and how all three elements work together.

CHOICES—DO ONE:

Watch one movie or three shows in your favorite genre. (A genre is a category, like adventure, comedy, or drama.) Take notes on how at least three elements, such as the actors’ scripts, the scene changes, or the plot changes, make things entertaining. Refer to them for inspiration while working on your own script.

For More FUN: Analyze one movie or three shows you don’t find entertaining. Looking at what doesn’t work can be as helpful as concentrating on what does. If you could remake a film or show to make it more entertaining, what would you do differently? Add a talking cat? Make

the main character obsessed with chocolate?

OR

Host a script-dissection party with friends online or over the phone. Agree to watch one movie or three shows in the same genre, then discuss and write down what everyone likes and doesn’t like about the script.

OR

Read two scripts. What better way to learn the craft of writing for the screen than by reading a real script? Look for the scripts of your favorite shows or movies, or scripts from shows you’ve never seen. Ask a librarian for help, check out your library online, or team up with an adult to look online. You can also find examples in books about screenwriting!

Cadette Science of Happiness

Science of Happiness Badge

Learn about then experiment with different techniques to increase your happiness.

Adapted from step 1 of the Cadette Science of Happiness badge.

Purpose: Learn about then experiment with different techniques to increase your happiness.

Set up: There is a proven science on how you can increase self-happiness. Become both a scientist and test subject while testing two different methods that can increase your happiness. You’ll need a journal, a writing utensil and 1-14 days to reflect on what you’re grateful for or what throughout the day makes you happy.  

Activity: Count three blessings; Get a journal and write down, record video or audio what three things that you are grateful for each day over a course of 1-14 days.  What did you identify? Did identifying what your thankful for make you happy?

Stop and smell the roses; take a moment each day (over 2-14 days) and write down 3-5 things throughout your day that made you happy.  Was it your dog? Talking to your friends? Playing outside in the backyard?  

If you had fun with this activity, check out the other activities in the Science of Happiness Badge.

  Service & Take Action Projects

Project Ideas

Giving back to the community is a longstanding Girl Scout tradition, and in current times of crisis that is no different. Here are some great ways to give back while practicing social distancing.

  Just For Fun

Boredom Busters

Troop Leaders: The instructions for all badge steps are available free of charge in your Girl Scout Volunteer Toolkit.


Let the adventure continue! Renew now!