#badgebook

Purpose: Once you complete this badge you will know more about animals and how to protect their homes

Requirement 1: Find out about wild animals

Choices:

Observe a pet or tame animal for at least 15 minutes.  Write three things about how it behaves.  Then watch a show about an animal related to the one you observed.  (If you watched a dog, you might watch a show about wolves.) Which behaviors do the wild and tame animal share? Which are different?

Make a skit or puppet show about the wild animals at a campground or on the trail. Include what to do if you encounter them so that both you and the animals stay safe!

List wild animals near your home meeting place, or school. Survey the area with an adult and your Junior friends. Then pick three animals you saw and learn more about each one. Why do they live here? Do they interact with humans?

Requirement 2: Investigate an animal habitat

Choices:

Visit a zoo or animal sanctuary. When there, choose a particular habitat, like a beach, jungle, or desert. With help from the staff answer these questions for each of five animals that live in that habitat.

In what country is the animal naturally found?

How does its fur or skin help the animal live in this habitat?

How does it stay clean?  

How does it get around in this habitat?

What kind of food can it find in this habitat?

Explore an animal habitat near where you live. It could be part of a park, forest, beach, or desert. Figure out what the animals you see have in common. First, make a list of each one’s features. Circle the things the animals share, then, trade ideas about why they have each feature with your friends. Some features you might list: type of fur or skin, paw, tail, coloring, kinds of legs, mouth, and ears.

Make a habitat collage. Scientists use habitats to group animals by things they all share. Cut out 15 – 20 pictures of wild animals from old magazines. Group the animal by habitat. Then group them by how they look, how they move, or how they bear their young. Did your groups change? Discuss the groupings with your Junior friends - and make up ways to groups animals.

Requirement 3: Create an animal home

Choices:

Check out baby-animal habitats. Find out how different animal parents care for their babies and make “homes” for them. You could read about how Emperor penguins hold a chick under a special flap in chilly Antarctic temperatures or how an orangutan mother builds new nests for her and her baby every day. Draw or paint a picture of your favorite animal pair 

Make your own animal house. Meerkats live in large underground burrows with several entrances. Beavers make dome-shaped homes called lodges with branches and mud – and they usually have an underwater entrance. Research these animal homes and try sketching your own meerkat burrow or building your own beaver lodge from sticks and mud. Share your “home” with others and explain how and why it works.

Insulate your own “nest.” Many animals use insulation to keep their homes cool in hot temperatures or warm in the cold. They may line a next with feathers or burrow into snow or mud to hold in body heat. Try this experiment: 

Mix a package of Jell-O. Before it sets, put part of the liquid into a small container with a lid or sealed top, like a baby food jar or resealable plastic bag. Pour the rest into a mixing bowl. 

 Insulate the small container the way an animal might insulate its nest. You could bury the container in leaves and sticks in the yard or use materials in your house, like socks, to burrow it. 

 Keep the container in its warm, insulated place while the mixing bowl with the rest of the Jell-O stays out in the air – in the same area as your “nest” container. 

 When the bowl of Jell-O has set (gotten firm), uncover and check your “nest.” If it’s still liquid, you’ll know your insulation would have kept the animals inside warm. If it set, try building your animal home again! 

 Share what happened with your Junior friends, and talk about the “warmest” nest designs. What made them work well? What materials didn’t work as well? 

Requirement 4: Explore endangered habitats

When the animals no longer have their habitat, they have to adapt to a new place to live. Some animals can’t change, and end up becoming endangered. Answer these questions about one of the endangered animal habitats below. 

Why is it in danger?

What is happening to the animals? 

What are people doing to help the habitat? 

Are the animals able to adapt? 

Choices: 

The Arctic Circle

The Gulf of Mexico

The Amazon Rainforest

Requirement 5: Help protect animal habitats

Choices:

Wildlife awareness party. Choose an endangered animal. Dress up like the animal for a party with your Junior friends and tell your story: where you live, why your home is endangered, and how others can help. If there’s an organization that protects your habitat, share its name and mission. It’s a party because it’s positive: The more you know about how to help, the more you can do! 

Create a background habitat. Get permission from your family to make a habitat in your yard, or ask a school, neighbor or someone who owns land nearby to allow you to create one. Research and then carry out a landscape plan that is best for wildlife in the area. Record the wildlife you attract and their behavior. (The Audubon Society has some good resources to get you started.) 

Purpose:  To know about public policy and how to influence legislation that matters to my community

Requirement 1: Find out how activist advocate for change

Choices

Interview an activist.  Find out how an activist for an issue about which you care influences public policy. Have their campaigns for change been successful?  What challenges did they encounter?  What advice e do they have for you?

Watch a documentary or movie.  Find one about an individual or group who pushed for a change in public policy, and screen it for friends and family.  Afterward, discuss which tactics used were most successful in gathering support for the cause.

Read about women who changed the course of U.S. history.  This could be a single biography or several articles about an activist like Rachel Carson, Eleanor Roosevelt, or Susan B. Anthony.  Or, it could be a book about female suffrage or other issue in which female advocates were instrumental. 

Requirement 2: Engage as a global citizen

Choices:

Compare laws.  Think about an issue facing policy-makers in America.  It might be pollution regulations, marriage laws, or teen texting and driving.  Now, find out how the issue is regulated in three other countries.  What are the biggest differences between public policy in the United States and abroad?

Track a public-policy issue being challenged in another country.  There are many laws currently being challenged in countries abroad.  For instance, groups are trying to enact whale-hunting laws in Japan.  Others are offering legal aid in places like Saudi Arabia where laws limit women’s rights in marriage choice, divorce, child custody, and inheritance.  Find one issue and follow its progress.  How are the organizations trying to influence change?  Are their methods successful?

Explore an international NGO (non-governmental organization).  This might be CARE, Heifer International, Doctors Without Borders, or the World Wildlife Federation.  Find out how the group tries to change policy and what challenges are involved in trying to influence one issue across national borders. Who does this NGO lobby to effect change?

Requirement 3:  Dig into national or state public policy

Choices:

Track your issue.  For two weeks, follow the issue – from both sides – in at least three sources, such as national news websites, and news magazines and newspapers.  Pay attention to the people and organizations involved, the changes being advocated, the events, progress, and public opinion.  At the end of the two weeks, write a list of the five most effective and least effective actions you noticed.  Keep the list for future reference (you can always add to it!).

Talk to an interest group that promotes your issue. For example, you could speak to the outreach staff at the American Medical Association, the Association of Women Engineers or the AAA about their experiences trying to influence policy.  Which campaigns have been effective?  Which haven’t?  Take notes on tips and advice.

Compare three different states’ positions on your issue.  For instance, driving age laws: In South Dakota, you can get a driver’s license 3 months after you turn 14; in New Jersey, you must be 17; in California, 16. Some states allow people to carry concealed weapons.  Use and possession of fireworks is regulated differently from state to state.  There are even laws for how long students must stay in school: 7 states mandate education until age 17, but 29 states allow students to drop out at age 16!  Write up a state-to-state comparison and note why the policy originated and whose efforts helped make it that way 

Requirement 4: Explore local or community policy

Choices:

Attend a meeting.  This might be a community organization, school board, or student council meeting. While you’re there, consider these questions: What methods of stating a position seem most effective?  Least effective?  If a policy decision is reached, you do agree or disagree with it? Talk about your experience with your friends or family.

Compare different local positions.  Profile two opposing public officials or committee leaders on one issue.  What level of influence does each leader have?  What is their history?  Share your thoughts on whose actions are most effective with friends or family 

Visit your local legislator’s office, or schedule a phone interview with them.  If your legislator is not available, schedule a meeting with a staff member.  Ask about how the public gives feedback, and what kind of feedback is most effective. What do they recommend as the best way for a citizen to get her voice heard?

Requirement 5: See public policy creation in action

Choices:

Shadow a policy-maker.  Follow a policy-maker for a day.  Questions to consider:

What is a typical day like?  Is this a career you’d like to have?

How do they hear from and get input from their constituents about and     issue?  How do they navigate the systems to make change?

What sources do they use?  What statistical data?  From where is it?  Who influences their fact-finding, and how?

Volunteer at an office.  Volunteer for a day (or more!) at a chamber of commerce, community organization, or branch of the local government.  Talk to staff members about key policy issues, policy influencing, how they increase awareness of issues, and how they get data to use in building support for their causes.

Purpose:  Be able to find your inner perform and speak up

Requirement 1: Get a feel for performing solo

Choices: 

Read aloud one monologue from three different plays.  A monologue is a long, uninterrupted speech by one actor.  Find three plays you like and choose a long part to read.

Read aloud two political speeches.  Perhaps they could be about the same issues but from different viewpoints, or great speeches from history. 

Read aloud three poems or one short story.

Requirement 2: Focus on body language

Choices:

Get a group together and play charades.  Take note of the clues you and others give that work and those that don’t.  During the game, be at least eight different things. 

Videotape yourself miming one animal, one famous person, and one action.  Watch it back to see if you were convincing in your role. 

Pretend an item is something else.  Do this in a group: pick up a simple prop, such as a wooden spoon, a cardboard box, or a cup, and act as if it’s something else.  Each time the item is passed to a new person, it becomes a new thing, and the rest of the group guesses what it is.  Use at least eight different props.

Requirement 3: Find your voice

Choices:

Repeat one word, one sentence, and one passage four times.  Try to communicate a different emotion each of the four times you say them- for instance, excited, embarressed, lonely, and surprised. 

Tell your own story, from birth until now, in 60 seconds.  First tell it as a simple story.  Then use your tone and inflection to make it into a drama.  Last, make it a comedy!

Practice impressions of three famous people.  Choose people you consider interesting.  Find movies, interviews, or other media to listen to.  Then observe each voice carefully.  When does it rise and fall?  Is it high and squeaky or low and deep?

Requirement 4: Choose or create a piece to perform

Choices:

Write a speech about something you believe in.  In this case, the character you’re playing is you.  The focus is your message.  Do you want to persuade your audience to support a cause or take action?  What kind of tone should you use?  How can you couple your voice and gestures to educate and inspire? 

Create a piece for a character.  Choose a character you’d like to play and write a monologue as if you were that character.  Maybe you’d like to be Queen Victoria, a TV news reporter, or a super confident star.  You can take on any role you like, so let your imagination go wild!

Pick an existing piece.  You can find monologues in many plays, or you could choose a passage from a story you love.  Although you haven’t written it, you’ll bring it to life, so you’ll have to think about pacing, voice, and gestures.  If you want to perform a published piece, be sure to ask a drama teacher if you need to pay royalties.

Requirement 5: Get onstage

Choices:

Create a theater in your own home.  Perform for Girl Scout friends or family

Perform at school.  Ask your teacher if you can perform in front of the class, perhaps for extra credit.  If you’re feeling brave and have prepared a speech you want the student body to hear, perhaps you can speak at an assembly.