With National Science Week coming up, it’s hard not to notice how much science is happening in Guiding.
It’s there in the slime-covered tables. In the debates about why one experiment worked while another didn’t. In the girls comparing observations and trying to spot patterns. In the excitement that comes from discovering something unexpected and deciding to investigate it further.
Science starts with noticing things. Asking questions. Testing ideas. Making connections. Sometimes getting things wrong and trying again.
Across Victoria, girls are doing exactly that through Guiding.
Our Guides learn through interactive experiences that encourage them to explore, discover and figure things out for themselves. And often, they get a little messy in the process.
If an activity involves a bit of mess, a lot of curiosity and the chance to test an idea, there’s a good chance Guides will enjoy it.
Making slime and exploring everyday chemical reactions. Creating bath bombs and experimenting with scents and ingredients. Launching bicarbonate soda rockets and discovering how pressure creates movement. Building spaghetti towers and testing which designs are strongest, and which leave structural integrity to be desired. Creating simple circuits and working out how electricity flows.
It might look like fun, and it is. Lots of fun. But it’s also girls learning through doing – learning to observe, investigate, experiment and draw conclusions for themselves.
Sometimes the learning looks less like science, but the inquiry is still there.
Girls might explore the plants, flowers, insects and wildlife around their Guide Hall, learning how different species depend on one another and why biodiversity matters. They might grow vegetables, run composting projects, investigate water quality, or take part in projects that improve their local environment.
When Guides head outdoors, they’re learning about weather, navigation, conservation, bushfire safety and the natural world around them. They’re observing, comparing, investigating and drawing conclusions, often without thinking of it as science at all.
Our Guides are not just participating in activities. They are helping to shape them. A Guide might decide she wants to learn more about native bees. Another might be fascinated by space. Another might want to understand why some plants thrive while others struggle. Girls are encouraged to follow those interests and questions, explore ideas and take real ownership of their learning.
They’re not just asking the questions. They’re leading the enquiry and charting their own course of exploration and learning. None of this happens by accident. Across Guiding, we’re continually looking for new ways to support richer STEM experiences, helping Guides explore, experiment and discover where their interests might take them.
Whether they’re investigating water quality, mapping local wildlife, exploring astronomy, designing a sustainability project, building bird feeders, or testing a new idea they’ve come up with themselves, girls are helping decide what they want to investigate, how they’ll approach it, and what they learn along the way.
The approach is simple: get curious, experiment, look for patterns, test ideas, use evidence and connect what you’ve learned to the real world.
The ability to do that confidently isn’t just useful in science. It’s useful in life.
Too many girls still grow up believing science and technology are for someone else. Building confidence in STEM doesn’t start in Year 12. It starts much earlier, when girls learn that their ideas are worth exploring, that it’s okay not to have all the answers, and that they have the capability to investigate, experiment and solve problems for themselves.
Spend time with Guides and you’ll see it in action everywhere. You’ll see ideas being tested, observations being shared, and plenty of “what if?” moments. You’ll see Guides getting messy, trying things that don’t work the first time, and discovering that figuring something out is often more rewarding than getting the answer straight away.
National Science Week celebrates discovery and innovation. In Guiding, those things often start with a question nobody in the room knows the answer to yet. An unexpected result. A theory that turns out to be wrong. Or a new idea that deserves exploring.
And we think that’s a pretty good place to start.
