The Future is Community

Yesterday our girls presented their thoughts on our group challenge-Blightowne! The girls needed to assess problems and solutions based on a visual cue of a mythical (or not so mythical) town with lots of environmental issues that translate into social and ecomonic problems as well. It was great to see. All 9 groups did an excellent job in the allotted time to assess and propose solutions based on technology. They all understand the importance of preserving their environment and thinking big about how to do that with innovation and creativity.

What's more interesting is how they are learning to partner with each other. They are being asked to: be roomates; work on projects; be buddies on field trips etc...all with people they haven't met before. What I realize is that the Girl Scout experience is truly a great platform for girls to start understanding the complex navigation of the world - Interpersonal communications, understanding that each individual is unique, being able to step outside yourself and see another perspective, learning to communicate your thoughts effectively.

Our girls have had a chance to test these skills in a safe and supportive environment and did a good job going beyond thier normal boundaries to see what they are made of.

Girl Scouts gives me faith that Girls can and do rule the world.

-Kymberly

Counting Down

Oh boy. We're working like nuts to get our PowerPoint done. My group has a little under an hour to get it done, so I'm taking a fast break before getting back to work. I need it. The break.

Miss my family!

Excitement and Craziness

Hello!

YIKES! Here I am, thinking that I'm going to have until Thursday to do my Challenge work. Turns out, I have until TOMORROW. That is NOT enough time. So my group is working 'round the clock to make sure our PowerPoint is done in time. Thankfully, it's almost finished. Just a couple of finishing touches and we're good.

Today was a boring day. We just TRIED to program our robot to count the wheel revolutions. All we succeeded in doing was learning that robots can, in fact, climb up an gentle incline. Yeah. Fun.

We were the only group in the building. The Astronomy and the Environment groups were on field trips. Tomorrow my group is going to NASA and a robotic surgery place. Fun Fact: NASA Ames Research Facility has the largest wind tunnel in the world. I saw it; it's ENORMOUS. I took plenty of pictures.

I miss my family and am enjoying myself!

~*LATER*~

YESSSSS! We made an IPod charger that ACTUALLY WORKS! My other charger was storebought, and it was AWFUL! When you plugged it into the wall, it would charge for four seconds flat and quit. The new one? I made it using a kit, and we actually got to solder stuff. I didn't burn myself. (Luckily.)

Anyways, I can recharge the batteries. (After all, this IS the Future is GREEN.) I miss my family! Love to you all!

Day 4

Day 4: Today we did another fun workshop that took up most of the day today. After receiving a really cool packet about green design, we played a game called “What Green Material Am I?” Familiar materials were placed in number plastic bags. They included sunflower seeds, wood scraps, bamboo, and more. We then had to match the raw materials to the finished product, and the outcome was often very surprising. For example, sunflower seed hulls can be turned into BIOFIBER used to build cabinets and other furniture. We also learned about how the stuff we take for granted can be maximized for usage. Old tires can be made into rubber flooring, making it 100% recyclable. In addition, old jeans can be used as insulation, reducing the common wasting of old denim. The really cool thing about this exercise was being able to see and touch both the raw materials and finished products instead of simply looking at a generic Google image. Next, we matched up “What” and “Why” cards based on pictures and descriptions. For example, a why card would describe a thorough paragraph about an item that can save on both heating and cooling costs, and it was our job to match that to a card containing the picture of a ceiling fan. Our packet also contained mini-exercise such as “I Spy Something Green”. We identified green elements on pictures of homes such as fluorescent lighting, bamboo flooring, and low-flow showerheads. After learning so much we were finally ready to begin our green dollhouses. Each group of four was assigned a group and a room. My card read “House B, family room.” We then flipped through books of floorplans and eventually sketched our own after identifying which green aspects we would attempt to incorporate. My group came up with a contemporary three-floor design for our house including plenty of windows, skylights, a spiral staircase, and multiple green features. After sketching out where I wanted furniture and lighting, I used the provided supplies to put down a “bamboo floor”, “organic curtains”, and “LCD lighting.” The goal of our group was to obtain the coveted Platinum sticker for a “Techbridge Award in Green Design”, to simulate a LEED certification in green construction. I found this project to be particularly interesting because I have been interested in architecture for a while. Tonight we have been hearing from another group to learn about the challenging world of robotics.

-Alyssa

Digital Storytelling

Yesterday, the girls in the environment track had the opportunity to learn about digital storytelling. They scoured through the numerous photographs they had taken the day before at the beach to put together the story they wanted to tell. From there they wrote a script and recorded audio that was then overlayed on their video. Below, you will find each of the girls videos, geolocated on a Google map:

http://tinyurl.com/gstfigmap

Weather

It's me again!

The weather around here is CRAZY! It's so COLD in the morning, then it warms up to where I'm practically panting cause I'm so HOT!

Rachelle, Kathryn, and I all played Ping Pong today. It was the game of the century! Because of all of the different poles and walls, the ball would bounce off one pole, back to the table, Rachelle or I would get it, and it bounced BACK UP to another pole! I have a bet with Rachelle and Kathryn that they can't get it into my (empty) camera pouch. If they do, I owe them twenty five dollars.

I miss and love my family at home!

The Beach - Ellie

Soft light infiltrates through a grey canopy of misty darkness.

The endless soft rushing noises fill my ears.

The dull green of grasses is a lulling constant reminder of the outdoors.

In my head, I know everything is at peace.

In the great outdoors, however, the chaos is ensuing.

That’s what bringing thirty-six girls to the beach will do. 




I love the beach. It’s always the same to me. No matter where you are in the world, what time of day it is, or who you’re with. The sand, the sky, the surf, the sun. Perfection, wrapped up in the simple package of harmony and happiness. It’s also bittersweet for me, though. I love the place, and the people, and the peacefulness. But the thought that it’s disappearing from us is partially why working to help the environment is so important. We all need to do everything we possibly can, no matter how small, to help this planet. And we need to do it fast. Because the longer we wait, the more that can get away from us. I love this place, and I’m sure that the billions of other inhabitants do too.

Day 2 (Part 1) and Day 3 (Part 1)

Day 2 (Part 2): The entire day really gave us a feel for what this destination will be like. Our schedule was packed from beginning to end with a full day of fun and learning. First, we had our first soft skills session with Andy. The focus was on manners and etiquette. Soon after the Alliance for Climate Education team member arrived with a truly inspirational presentation that was impressively automated. As the incoming president of the environmental club at my school, I definitely plan on requesting them for an assembly around Earth Day. Finally, we took a field trip to Pescadero Beach, the way there was just as beautiful as the beach itself. It was kind of at the bottom of a cliff and the waves were huge, plus I’ve never seen a tide come in so fast. We got home late, equivalent to 1:00 AM where I am from on the East Coast.
Day 3 (Part 1): Today the environmental group got to reflect on our individual experiences at Pescadero Beach through a multimedia project of digital storytelling. Although at first I found the seemingly endless amount of steps frustrating; I was eventually able to re-acquaint myself with the mysterious ways of the PC operating system. What made the day really cool was that each girl had their own individual laptop to use for the duration of the workshop. In the morning we uploaded our pictures, and spent some time writing a script to correspond with our photographs. We had to get even more creative with ordering the images. Each of us had the opportunity to record a voiceover to go along with it, the true “storytelling” aspect of the project. After uploading pictures to flickr, and our videos to youtube, we worked on geo locating using Google Maps. Luckily I had a very technology-savvy US history teacher last year who assigned homework using both Blogger and Google Maps. Each of us selected an icon that we felt represented our personal experience at Pescadero Beach and embedded the URL of our youtube videos into a box on the map that can be accessed by that icon. With that final step I managed to remember the password for my long-abandoned google account, create flickr, yahoo, and google accounts, and uploaded pictures and video onto public forums on the internet. The completion of the project was a relief and very rewarding. However, our day is far from over. We still had to break off into our challenge groups and begin an exciting project called “Blightowne”. Our objectives today were to get to know our other group members and get to work. I’m on the ‘Blue’ team with three other girls. We were handed a pretty big poster, a picture of Blightowne. Today we identified a number of problems with the town and worked on how to maximize our budget of $500. We also made appointment with the experts, our counselors. My team worked about thirty minutes over time to really get everything down, figuring out how to make the most efficient use out of our time and most importantly-money. This challenge is something we will be working on throughout the Destination and then presenting our proposals for about five minutes each to a ten-member panel. With my competitive nature I’m excited to have something to throw all my energy into. Tonight I’m excited to hear from the astronomy girls about what they’ve learned regarding constellations.

-Alyssa

Hey Ya'll!

Hey Again!

It's Riley! Again. I'm having a blast. Yesterday we went to the beach. It was FREEZING! We had Quiznos. It wasn't even warm, which didn't help a bit...

We did a couple activities. The first one my group did was the walk. We wandered along this path and stared at the same old repeating plants. There was hemlock, which I didn't even get close to.

Then, we went and did a scavenger hunt. We had to link arms and walk around. My group found this DISGUSTING dead bird. It was NASTY beyond belief. We got out of there fast. Luckily we hadn't had lunch. ;)

Finally, we made a fort and talked about things that made us unique. Mine was that whereas most people don't talk in the morning, I won't be quiet. I will ramble, and ramble, and ramble... Like I am right now. So I'll be quiet.

Love to my family back at home!

Day 1

So yesterday I arrived four hours late ‘cause of those darn airline prices, and when I got here I was met by a very nice volunteer. We chatted while we waited in the traffic, but that was fine, because we arrived at the camp all right. They set up my stuff in my room for me and I didn’t miss too much. I am in the astronomy track and I got there just in time for a name game and our talk about how astronomy fits in with the environment and green tech. After our talk, we had some free time where I made friends with my roommate and alerted the family and my bf that I made it safely and I was set to go. Soon the break was over and everyone went to the conference room to start doing some problem solving type games. First we played telephone and it went from alphabetically organize the books and tie two tennis balls and a golf ball in a paper bag with a ribbon, to tie two tennis balls to the sides of a brown paper bag. Always fun to do. Next you got to pack a backpack with 25 pounds of stuff for 5 people for 4 days. Each group got five things which they had to bring and these weighed a total of three pounds. My group fails at reading directions so we thought each item weighed three pounds, so we ended up with twelve extra pounds we could have packed; we laughed so hard at all our terrible reading skills. After that we played a little taboo which was actually a lot of fun but not too hard. The last thing we did was a teamwork exercise which we rocked even though we had to guess a little on the letters we were supposed to decode. Then we had get ready for bed time and went to sleep. Said good night to all my new friends and texted good night to others.


Next morning we played zip zap zup and it is pretty hard. We had some time to check out a program called stellarium in my group while robotics built some robots in the other room. The program is awesome and I can't wait to explore it some more. Later we’ll go to the beach, but I’m not sure what we’re doing there.


Any way I miss my family but I am having a lot of fun.


That’s it for now.


Signing off is KNH, type to you later.

Day 1 - Ellie

A Mexican heritage-type building overlooks golden hills covered in lush trees. Nearby is the opposite, a very new building with eco-friendly and green design. There are many people here, including the silent monk-like group joining us soon, and a group of older citizens visiting for a conference. The thirty-six girls, however, are much more noticeable than either of these groups.

I am one of them. Joined here by thirty-five if my peers, I represent a group of leaders moving for a greener future. After all, that’s what the program is called. We all chose a track: environment, robotics, or astronomy. The most important thing is that they’re all interconnected. Here we get the chance to work with professionals from Stanford, the amazing non-profit ACE, and even NASA. They’re all very inspiring people, who are doing great things for this world. We all love to be here, and are making new friends along the way.


The next few days are going to be a whirlwind of new learning experiences and places. Today we’re heading to the great wonder known as the California beach. Lots of pictures will hopefully be coming soon. I love that we’ll be able to tell everything about what we do. More to come soon, Ellie.

adventures in robotics—tying shoes with manipulators

Or would that be pliers?

We’ve been enjoying ourselves in a fantasy world of nuts, bolts, and shapely robot girls. okay, maybe we aren’t advanced enough to build sentient androids, but we’ve built some little square remote-controlled robots.

I enjoyed myself immensely wrenching/spannering all the fiddly bits of metal together working out all the kinks, and being distracted by the awesome instructors. My team’s robot, Lister, had quite a bit of difficulty with his left-side motor driveshaft.

There were a few mishaps involving installing motors upside down and missing antenna cases, but I had the idea of substituting plastic coffee stirrers and everything turned out okay. later today we’ll be perfecting our robot base designs and then moving on to challenges. I have no idea what they are, but I’m sure they’ll be pretty fun.

rachel b.

First Day Fun!

Hey ya’ll! Just so you know me, my name’s Riley and I live in Texas – no particulars. I’m thirteen years old and I live with my parents and my three dogs. I’m super excited to be at this camp.
The little place where we’re staying is super amazing. There are all sorts of hidey holes and corridors where you can wander around and play Ping Pong or Foosball. Last night a bat somehow got in and flew around for a while. At least half the girls were hiding under the covers, scared to death of a little flying mammal – the only flying mammal!
The cool weather has most of the girls in jackets. Me? Hey, I live in Texas. I can deal.
Looks like my time’s up! I’ll add more tomorrow. To all at home, I miss you!

TFIG Day 1 and Day 2 (Part 1)

Day 1: Arriving at the airport after a five-hour flight from Washington, D.C. was a great relief. After recent events in the news about flights to California, my anxiety about flying alone for the first time had increased a bit. However, the flight was average and I immediately felt warmly welcomed to California by two women in bright pink Girl Scout tee shirts. They eagerly chatted with me asking about my flight and my hometown. All of us who flew into San Francisco took a charter bus with our counselor to our final destination. Upon arriving I immediately began snapping dozens of pictures to contribute to my “summer ‘10” scrapbook. The backdrop of our temporary home is scenic with tall, strong trees and a vast open sky, a postcard-worthy image. We began with an orientation and a few games, eventually getting the chance to unpack. As we slowly got to know one another, I realized that people had traveled from every corner of the country to take advantage of this opportunity. We took part in some activities primarily led by an engineer who works on satellites and focused on communication and teamwork.

Day 2 (Part 1): This morning we had our first session of soft skills with one of the counselors. The focus was on manners and etiquette in our own communities and elsewhere. We wrote in our journals about how important word-choice is, and how people may perceive us by how we choose to exploit our vocabulary. A team member from the Alliance for Climate Education also came in to share a very animated presentation about the science behind climate change and what we high school students can do about it. I picked up a variety of interesting statistics, for example: An American teenager takes up twenty-one football fields of space per year! In addition, if every country consumed as much as the United States, we would need a grand total of five Earths to sustain us. Those are just a couple of the truly interesting pieces of information that I obtained while viewing the presentation. Later the entire group will be taking a really fun yet cold field trip to the beach. I look forward to taking tons of pictures of what I’m sure will be a picturesque view.

- Alyssa

GSNC: The Future is Green Destination

Almost 12 months ago the idea of The Future is Green Destination was born. The goal was to bring girls from around the country to San Francisco Bay Area to learn about green technology. Through a collaboration of the Girls Go Tech and Green by Nature initiatives at Girl Scouts of Northern California the idea has become reality.Yesterday, 36 girls from around the country arrived to learn about astronomy, environment, and robotics and how the topics are interwoven with each other and the topic of green technology. Throughout the next 10 days girls will be visiting Pescadero State Beach, Monterey Bay Aquarium (and research institute), NASA Ames Research Center, California Academy of Sciences, and much, much more. 

Check back later to hear from some girls on how the first couple of days are going.