What did you do for your Gold Award project?
For my Gold Award Project, I addressed the noticeable lack of easy to use, inexpensive, and well-written STEM materials really made available to upper-elementary homeschool educators and students. To positively and meaningfully address this issue, I wrote, tested with homeschool students and parents, and distributed an almost 80-page booklet that includes ten, original chemistry experiments for students along with a parent manual for homeschool educators.
How did you measure the impact your Gold Award project made on your target audience?
In order to measure project impact, I can review the SurveyMonkey survey link I set up for this project and incorporated in the final pages of the parent booklet. Additionally, I can measure my impact from looking at the number of booklets I have distributed over Amazon using Kindle Direct Publishing’s “Reports” feature.
How is your project sustainable? How will your project continue to impact after your involvement?
By partnering with Colorado’s Academy School District 20, posting my booklet on Amazon using their Kindle Direct Publishing service, and sending a digital copy to the Assistant Director of Youth Education at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, I ensured local and national availability of the project materials. As a result, the project will be sustained beyond my involvement through these three outlets.
What is your project’s global and/or national connection?
Two national project connections came in the form of self-publishing the booklet in two parts on Amazon, as eBooks. Additionally, the Houston Museum of Natural Science received a copy of the books and a flash drive for use in their education department. As a result, my project is available on a national eBook distribution website, Amazon, and for use at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, located in Houston, TX, with robust educational outreach to homeschool students as well as private and public school students in one of the five largest cities in our nation.
What did you learn about yourself?
This project reinforced my passions for learning, teaching, and STEM subjects. Moreover, I discovered I am capable of developing clearly written, engaging, hands on, pertinent, and practical curriculum. This was my first curriculum design experience and completing this project allowed me to round out my communication skills, leadership capabilities, and interpersonal skills, before I went to college.
How will earning your Gold Award impact you in the future?
This project gave me new confidence in my leadership abilities. Confidence provided by positive project experiences, I feel, is a vital step on the path towards becoming a capable leader. Through the practice my Gold Award project gave me, I now have developed leadership capabilities I will use my entire life. Skills such as seeking meaningful opportunities to make a positive difference, goal setting, project planning and development, listening to others, seeking partnership and feedback, creativity, commitment, and communication skills. As I go through college and eventually enter the workplace, I will have the chance to apply those capabilities, honing and refining them more completely.
Why do you feel the Gold Award was an important part of your Girl Scout experience?
As a fourth-generation Girl Scout who has participated in Girl Scouts since I was a Daisy, earning my Gold Award represents my ultimate scouting capstone experience. My Gold Award project grew into so much more than an eighty-hour leadership and service project; rather, this Gold Award capped over a decade of scouting and became a poignant reflection of just how much Girl Scouts has taught me over the years. From leading groups of students to embracing my unique capabilities, from newfound self-confidence in my abilities to make the world a better place to the self-actualization of a personal dream, my Gold Award completed my understanding of what it means to be a Girl Scout and allowed me to thrive as one.
**IMPORTANT NOTE: This blog represents only a small fraction of the hard work, dedication and requirements that go into earning a Girl Scout Gold Award. It is simply a brief summary, which is meant to inspire Girl Scouts to Go Gold in the future. For more information on earning your Gold Award, please email highestawards@gscolorado.org
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