Exemplifying Girl Scout Leadership, founders and leaders of the GS Astronomy Clubs, launched by the SETI Institute’s Reaching For The Stars grant, hosted Space Exploration: Mars to the Stars and Space Mission Experience, with a total viewership of over 6,800.
Katelyn, from Girl Scouts of NYPenn Pathways, interviewed former astronaut Captain Wendy Lawrence for the grade K-5 audience and Erin, from Girl Scouts of Oregon and Southwest Washington, interviewed former astronaut Dr. Sandra Magnus for the grade 6-12 audience.
Madison, from Girl Scouts of Northeast Kansas and Northwest Missouri, and Adalgisa, from Girl Scouts of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho, hosted the Mars to the Stars virtual event for girls in grades K-5, which featured Dr. Lori Fenton of the SETI Institute. Kate, a Girl Scout Lifetime Member and now alumni from Girl Scouts Spirit of Nebraska and Gold Award recipient, and Ali, from Girl Scouts of Northern California, hosted the Mars to the Stars virtual event for girls in grades 6-12, which featured Dr. Lauren Abbott of NASA Ames Research Center. All of the webcasts are archived and available for viewing via https://www.girlscouts.org/en/girl-scouts-at-home/event-calendar.html.
Additionally, Erin produced Girl Scout badge and Journey activity videos for Girl Scouts at Home, including the Senior Space Science Expert badge activity. She also serves on the G-Team, GSUSA’s planning board, and her council’s Board of Directors. Ali is completing her Gold Award project, Stellar Adventures, to provide more access to the education of astronomy and supporting space science to find answers to Earth’s current and future challenges, using several science disciplines with our sky above as an outdoor classroom. She produced a Let’s Learn How to Assemble a Telescope video and materials in both English and Spanish as part of the project.
Girl Scouts across the country and around the world have not been able to gather in person since March. In response to shelter in place orders, the SETI Institute’s Reaching For The Stars team developed Making Space Science Stellar for Camps at Home, Space Exploration: Mars to the Stars, and the Great Space Challenge. Co-Investigators at GSUSA created Girl Scouts at Home, a never-been-done-before platform that delivers Girl Scout badge and Journey activities for girls to do from their home. Activities from the Girl Scout Space Science badges were made available on Girl Scouts at Home and were among the most engaged badge content from March 27 – September 30, 2020.
The Space Science Badges have consistently been among the top 10 activity pages viewed across all of Girl Scouts at Home content. Daisy and Junior Space Science Badge activity pages were the most viewed of all STEM badge activity pages. Daisy, Brownie, and Junior Space Science Badge booklets were the most downloaded of all STEM badge booklets on Girl Scouts at Home. Brownie Space Science Adventurer video was the 2nd highest viewed of STEM badge videos. Daisy Space Science Explorer video was the 4th highest viewed of all STEM badge videos.
GSUSA’s social media platforms drove engagement for the Mars to the Stars events and Great Space Challenge:
- 11 Twitter posts produced 224,332 impressions
- 2 Instagram posts resulted in 67,685 impressions
- 2 Facebook posts led to 155,580 impressions
- Viral blog resulted in 19,517 unique reads (2,000 is average)
Reaching For The Stars looks forward to building upon the virtual success with more events and resources for Girl Scouts, volunteers, and Astronomy Clubs.
