New Girl Scout badges go where Girl Scouts have never been before: Space

The Girl Scouts of the USA has been turning out smart future leaders of America for the past century. Those girls and young women have collected countless badges for activities related to art, science, the outdoors, leadership and more. But, surprisingly, the 105-year-old organization has never offered a "space science" badge — not even in the late 1960s when America first went to the moon.

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Space nerds can now rejoice because the Girl Scouts, in partnership with NASA and the SETI Institute, plans to introduce six new space science badges for participants of every age between kindergarten and 12th grade. 

The badges, which are currently being developed and tested with focus groups across the country, will be available in 2019 and focus on the themes of NASA's space sciences: astrophysics, planetary science, and heliophysics (a fancy word for studying the sun and its effects on space). 

Girl Scouts can currently explore astronomy as part of their badge "journey" and local council's programming. Next week, those opportunities will include events and educational experiences related to the total solar eclipse. The new badges, however, will go deep into space science. 

As Edna DeVore, director of education and SETI Institute Fellow, put it in an email, the badges will cover "[e]verything beyond the Earth." 

Sylvia Acevedo, CEO of the Girl Scouts, sees the badges as a way for girls to develop or enhance their interest in science, technology, engineering, and math. She's also the perfect spokesperson for  the new program: Acevedo is a rocket scientist who once worked for NASA's famed Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

As a Girl Scout who grew up near Las Cruces, New Mexico, Acevedo earned her science badge by building a functioning model rocket and launching it into the sky. 

"It gave me a lifelong fascination with breaking gravity's grip," she says. 

Acevedo wants other Girl Scouts to have a similar transformational experience that introduces them not only to the wonders of the night sky, but scientific concepts like magnetic fields, solar wind, and radiation. Ideally, such experiences will help build girls' confidence, teach them how to take risks and experiment, problem-solve challenges, and ask for help and advice from an adult. 

In order to earn the badges, girls will participate in outdoor activities that require developing their own ideas about the natural world and then observing and testing those concepts. They'll connect both with the community of amateur astronomers through the Night Sky Network and with women at NASA to explore STEM careers. (Fun fact: Many female NASA astronauts were once Girl Scouts.)

Like Acevedo, DeVore has her own childhood experience falling in love with space. Raised on a cattle ranch in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, she spent nights looking at the Milky Way in the "amazingly dark" sky. 

"I hope that sharing the love of the night sky through these badges with young girls everywhere —rural, suburban, and urban girls — will open them up to always looking up and sharing our place in the universe, whether through STEM careers or simply as someone who appreciates the natural world," DeVore, a lifetime member of the Girl Scouts, said. 

The five-year program is funded by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and has additional partners in the Girl Scouts of Northern California, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the University of Arizona, and ARIES Scientific. 

"It’s just so exciting and thrilling to understand the cosmos and what’s happening with space and the stars," says Acevedo. "I think we’re unleashing a lot of girls to have the confidence, skills, know-how, and drive to help solve some of our biggest challenges." 

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