The Girl Scouts have long been rewarded for doing things like cooking, dancing, and being their “best self” - but the Girl Scouts have introduced new badges that having me grinning from ear to ear.
I didn’t exactly know what to expect, but when I read that the Girl Scouts of America were including the following new badges, I clapped. Yes, clapped.
- product design
- digital filmmaking
- website design
Oh yes, there are techy badges now for girls! Imagine the things they will create! The tween video blogs! The awesomely designed Tumblr accounts! I think this is fantastic and goes hand-in-hand with the Girl Scouts using GoPayment for their cookie sales. It’s techtastic.
In the first major revamp of the badges since 1987, the Girl Scouts have also got rid of the Fashion, Fitness and Makeup badge, and have swapped it out for the Science of Style badge that encourages girls to explore use of nanotechnology in fabrics and the chemistry of sunscreens. Much better, eh?
In addition to the techy and Science of Style badges, they’ve also introduced a locavore (local food) awareness, customer loyalty, financial literacy, and public policy badge. Plus, there's also a new addition called the Science of Happiness badge, which was developed with Martin Seligman, a "positive psychology" researcher at University of Pennsylvania, which he says will help "teach girls how to find happiness in their own lives”.
All of these added to the "Make Your Own" badges that encourage girls to explore other interests sound like fantastic incentives for girls to discover, learn and get dirty in the world around them.
(Now if only there was a "Bring Cate some Cookies" badge...)