Volunteers from Service Unit 630 organized and hosted an Engineering Workshop Event on New Year’s Eve. Two hundred fifteen Girl Scouts and volunteers across northeast Tennessee attended the event held at Hands On! Discovery Center.

Daisies, Brownies, and Juniors earned three Engineering Design Challenge badges for each level. Daisies designed board games, roller coasters, and model cars. Brownies designed leap bots, fling flyers, and race cars. Juniors designed paddle boats, balloon cars, and cranes.

Cadette, Senior, and Ambassador Girl Scouts earned their Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey through three design challenges: by engineering an assistive device to help senior citizens, a kinetic sculpture, and a harmless holder as an alternative to plastic soda can rings. To complete their Journey in the day, they also donated Lego kits to Hands On! to be used for outreach programs in the future.

“We’ve heard from troops,” said troop volunteer Erica Jones, “that the Engineering Workshop was a challenging but very fun day! Our Girl Scouts persevered through challenges and enjoyed learning science together.”

“Our [Girl] Scouts have expressed interest in meeting more [Girl] Scouts,” she continued “and are interested in STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] badge work. The Hands On! Discovery Center museum’s manager and staff were enthusiastic about this idea and did a wonderful job hosting our adventure. All the Girl Scouts put their thinking caps on, worked together politely, encouraged each other, and enjoyed science.”